snackin' around: may edition

a round up of all the best bites (and bevs) I had this month

Jun 01, 2025

hey hey helloooo,

It’s been a minutes since I did a monthly round-up. But, I’ve been bopping back and forth between LA & San Diego and eating good along the way. So here’s everything I ate— that’s worth mentioning! Oh! It wouldn’t be a monthly round up with out a May playlist for ya!

San Diego:

Everything from pastry picnic- honestly, I mean what do you expect when you hang out with a bunch of talented bakers & pastry people? It’s honestly my super selfish excuse to eat all my favorite sweet treats in one place.

But, the I think the stand out star from the bunch was Holly’s palo santo pretzel buns. She’s on her “will it pretzel” bs and milk buns? YEAH, they 100% pretzel. She stuffed ‘em full of a palo santo rosemary whipped cream and topped with a sungold tomato… PLEASE. The combo of the sungold with the cream was enough, then you add the slightly savory pretzel bun? I’m in heaven.

holly's cream bun

La Tiendita happened again this month at The Friendly Tavern. I thought that you know- 12pm on a Monday… I’ll be fine not showing up right when it starts WRONG. 90% of what I wanted had sold out before I got there. Even the strawberry sundae Arely promised she would save for me, just a little salty about that. But, thankfully we were able to get our hands on Helena’s elote empanada. Smothered in a spicy sauce and served warm, phewwwww. I need her to bring them to the next picnic.

We were also able to snag Kate’s mango croissant at La Tiendita. Which, she told me she worried It was “too basic” okay and? Sometimes the simplest things are the best! The silky vanilla pastry cream coupled with the fresh, super ripe mango- it didn’t need anything else.

Sul & Beans Banana Milk Bingsoo (which, I think they also have an LA location) has my friend group in a bit of a choke hold right now. We’ve been back thrice- and we will get 2 to share and a second flavor just to try something new. Mind you, there’s four of us and the bingsoo are massive. The shaved iced with topped with a dusting of banana milk powder. and malted whipped cream + fresh banana slices. If you know me, I am a sucker for anything artifical banana flavored. So, this seasonal bingsoo will be on rotation till they take it off the menu.

Los Angeles:

Go to Quarter Sheets for the pizza (and beans, always get the beans. Oh, and the salad too) stay for the dessert, but pop a couple lactaids to get ya through. What I love most about Hannah’s desserts is that they’re all 80% heavy cream held together with cake, or a graham cracker crust. Because once again, if you know me, you know my favorite texture is creamy. Like, the sudachi lime tart at QS. The tart (and creamy) lime custard topped with light (and creamy!!!<33333!!) whipped cream & glazed strawberries. The perfect dessert to start pulling us into summer.

Rocky knows how to show a girl a good time because she took me to the Korea Town Plaza for a bit of a bang bang in the food court. btw, bang bang is where you eat one full meal and follow that baddie up with another full meal, nothing nasty ya freaks! We got the fried dumplings from Pao Jao. They’re stuffed full of glass noodles, mushrooms, and a couple other greens. The dipping sauce they came with was perfect salted and spicy. I’m also, like not a mushroom girl. At all, but I housed these bad boys no problem.

The second bang in KTP was the chicken and pork tonkastu from Tonkatsu house. Which had I known how much food was gonna come on this platter. We would have done a single bang, damn. Crispy fried cutlets smothered in super flavorful and savory gravy. I mean there’s really no going wrong there.

Since I spent two weeks in LA working with OTA I was able to indulge in what used to be my weekly Wednesday ritual. A visit to the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market followed by a trip to Layla bagels for the scarlett + the cherry matcha. Layla is tied for first with Belle’s for my favorite bagel in LA. Once again, simplicity in the choice is always best (crazy coming from me, the most complicated b this side of the mississippi) so I always go with the scarlett. Bagel (of choice) a schmear of cream cheese and slices of tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and a hit of s&p. Especially now that we’re creeping into tomato season and they’re starting to get really good. Perfect bite.

Y’all know I’m on my journey to loving matcha. Most of the journey takes place at home with me making all my bevs to make sure they’re made how i like them. I’m easing my way into being an all time matcha girl, and like it when made by other people. But, letting go of control is hard. Not with the Banana Cream matcha from Couplet though. It tastes like banana bread, and yes, not tooooo matcha forward, but I kinda like it like that. Once again, still learning to love matcha, so for me, sometimes the less I can taste it the better :)

I asked you guys for your LA happy hour reccs and someone suggested Lolo- which spoiler alert, doesn’t have a happy hour. LOL. All good. But, just like now you know. Super cute spot, with a really good ceasar salad. But, the strawberry shortcake on their dessert menu rn? Bitchhhhh. Served warm and so flakey. The whipped cream is slightly tangy- maybe from creme fraiche? sour cream? yogurt? A light and delicate post pasta bite.

Other Misc Faves:

Bakery snack chocolate croissant bread- Picked these up at Hmart on a whim, mostly because I was working on a croissant project so snacking on these felt apt. Girl- quickly obsessed with these. They’re airy, crunchy and have a mildly chocolatey espresso flavor to them. Addictive as all hell. I immediately went back and cleared the shelf of it’s entire stock.

Choc Bonet (recipe coming next month ♡)- This is an Italian dessert I’ve been tinkering around with. Think flan, but with cocoa powder and crushed amaretti cookies added in. Soooo creamy, but the amaretti give a textural contrast that is not necessarily crunchy but like close. The chocolate with the almond flavor works incredibly well together.

used dark cocoa in this version and she’s like the void that lives in my chest (not a cry for help)

Strawberry Passion fruit punch with just a hint of bergamot- I made this on one of the last days I was in LA to use up any odds and ends of produce I had collected during my time. I macerated a pound of strawberries in sugar with some bergamot zest. Added the pulp of some passion fruits, the juice from the bergamot, as well as some lemons and the juice from a rogue peach. Topped it all off with filtered water to taste. Chuggable and the perfect addition to Casey’s day in the vineyard spread <333

MHB toffee cookie dupe- I mean, it’d been so long without it, so I wan’t against the idea of having to cross test it a handful of times throughout the month. You know, just to make sure I had the recipe just right. Eating this cookie makes me feel young again.

Getting my brows done at dolce aesthetics- okay this one, pretty out of left field and not food related but, I had to talk about it. I got my brows waxed for the first time since high school. I’ve been a staunch threading baddie for at least 15 years. When I got to LA for work though- I hadn’t had the time to get ‘em done before getting here. So, I took to Google, and Dolce Aesthetics popped up. Okay, great. I’m booking the brows but also looking to see what else they’ve got going on. Facials, brown lamination, lashes and and and shoulder + neck massage and scalp massages. Which, I know are “typically” add-ons for a facial service. But, who said I can make a brow waxing relaxing? I added them on to the brow service and I fear… a) I can never go to anyone else for my brows and b) getting your brows done should also always come with a neck, scalp and shoulder massage. My brows have barely grown back and I’m itchiiiin’ to go back in because I loved the experience so much.