another one of my microwave hacks that you can do anywhere there’s a microwave. For me, that’s work.
Price: $
Stars (out of 5): 5 for convenience
Take a sweet potato, wash it for cleanliness, and wrap in a paper towel. Go to the microwave, hit the setting for “Potato.” One potato should be 4-8 minutes, depending on the power of your microwave. After your sweet potato is cooked, half it with a butter knife immediately down the middle. Add a slice, or 2, or 3 🙂 of brie. Close the two halves like you are making a blanket for your brie. Indeed you are trying to make the brie all warm and gooey. Open up the 2 halves and lightly sprinkle cinnamon on top!
the microwave is great for cooking sweet potatoes. Look at how easily the skin comes off
There you go. Easy snack, or breakfast, or dessert, or whatever you deem a sweet potato to be.
Price: $$$ (mostly because drinks are so expensive, but also a pretty posh area/neighborhood)
Stars (out of 5): 3.5
A neighborhood attraction that’s part jam-packed bookstore and part trendy cafe. Many people go in and out or gather between the rows of stacked shelves and the busy dining area. My friend and I had brunch on the second floor with a nice, laid-back ambience, and I was super excited because 1) brunch is my favorite meal of all time and 2) this cafe had a pretty famous rep since they’ve been around for a long time. I mean, they have 1,200 reviews on Yelp.
Let’s see, their breakfast/brunch food is popular. Omelettes, egg scrambles, eclectic range of sandwiches. Their drinks menu looks delicious, with lots of exciting flavor combos and drinks from different regions of the world, but what’s up with the almost $6 smoothies and pretty expensive teas for a neighborhood cafe? I guess it’s very high quality yerba mate… I decided to splurge and order a Mango Cherry Bomb for $5.75 (featured).
They should’ve just named it the Cherry Bomb… Couldn’t really taste the mango iced tea. And the drink was a little bit too frothy because of the vanilla ice cream added, and a little too warm. I would’ve preferred a more chilled drink. Tapioca boba was cooked perfectly though and I liked how the drink was not sugar overload but quite “simple and sweet.”
Now deciding on what to order was quite a feat for me since I wanted to try a bit of everything. The menu has SO many options, and none of them quite fit in the same box. How do you choose between lemon ricotta french toast and Momos? (Didn’t know what momos is either but apparently it’s a Tibetan dumpling dish?) How many different cuisines they are trying to fit into one menu is beyond me. There’s everything from falafel to mac’n’cheese to fish’n’chips to quesadillas to burgers to dumplings. Ok then. I finally settled on the prosciutto brie sandwich and my friend ordered the apple brie omelette. A brie day is a happy day.
menu
My sandwich was a-ok. The prosciutto was nicely cured and had a good fat to lean meat ratio. But the brie and fig jam combination against the prosciutto was not working for me, which is abnormal because typically I love brie with sweet jams and fruits. I don’t know what it was but the brie was kind of tasteless so the fig really overpowered the sandwich. In addition, the sourdough baguette sounded good on the menu but it was very hard to chew. I mean yeah, sourdough… But this was a workout for my jaw muscles, which I really didn’t want as I was eating. My friend enjoyed her apple brie omelette quite a lot though. “Hint of apple crunch, creamy cheesiness enveloped by omelette. Solid combo.”
the sourdough baguette is mehthat looks gooey and melty and yummy
Overall, I was a little underwhelmed by Trident, especially since I paid around $25 for lunch. However, I really appreciate their extensive menu and adventurous food and drinks. Good brunch with some good bites, that’s all you can ask for.
(Eats) By the Esplanade 