Coconut with a Side of Play-Dough

Coconut & Chocolate Crunch Gelato

Teeth are stupid, we get baby teeth and those last us like, 12 years (or whatever), only to be replaced with something that needs to last us another 70+ and even then they might not grow in "right." It made sense when life expectancy was like, 35, but this is 2022. George Jetson was (supposedly) born this year, shouldn't we GATTACA this stuff up by now to genetically ensure our collective dental future? Or is there a big dental conspiracy so they charge us a fortune? 

Long story short, I went in for my normal cleaning and ended up getting dental surgery. It was expensive, and it sucked. On a positive note, I get to eat a bunch of soft, cool, foods. Like ice cream, or gelato while I heal, so I grabbed a bunch of stuff to try. Including this gelato. 

Pistachio Gelato - Aldi

Pistachio Gelato - Aldi $3.99

Sorry I missed yesterday's post. I'm currently in shortsale-home-buyers-hell. (Which is a misnomer, since it's anything but short.) It's a process I started in early October, and we're nearing the (possible) end next month, so things are getting REALLY intense. I'll try to keep up with blog posts as best I can but, In the meantime, I could really use some ice cream. (And super comfy sweatpants.)

I'm fresh out of ice cream, and there's no way I'm putting real-people-pants back on to go out and buy some, so gelato will have to do.

Caramel Cookie Crunch Gelato - Aldi

Caramel Cookie Crunch Gelato - Aldi

Thank the merciful foodie gods, it's finally Friday! It's been an especially hard week but now I can put that all behind me! I can come home, change into my lazy pants, cuddle with my dog in bed and watch Bob's Burgers on Netflix (For the millionth time) while eating gelato right out of the container with a spoon. Life goals. Am I right?

Specially Selected Sicilian Pistachio Gelato - Aldi

Specially Selected Sicilian Pistachio Gelato - Aldi

Look at me getting all fancy with condensation in these photos! Sorry for the sporadic posting schedule, as of today things finally calmed down at my day job so we should be back on track.

A few days ago I was walking around Aldi grabbing my usual groceries when I noticed that there were three new fancy flavors of gelato in the freezer section. Each one is contained in a cute little plastic tub with a resealable lid. Is it just me, or do these tubs look familiar? Kind of Talenti-like, right? But with a silver lid. The flavor variety at Aldi was really reminiscent of Talenti too. I wanted to check this stuff out, so I grabbed one of each flavor and tossed them into my cart for further analysis. (Which is a fancy way of saying it's been a rough week and I needed an excuse to buy three tubs of ice cream.) 

Talenti Banana Chocolate Swirl - Target : Cherry Hill, NJ

Talenti Banana Chocolate Swirl - Target : Cherry Hill,  NJ 

Here is the other flavor of Talenti Gelato I picked up at Target.

This gelato brand has been featured on food blogs, youtube, and tumblr. Since the reviews have all been favorable, I grabbed 2 flavors to try.

• Mediterranean Mint (Review Here.)
• Banana Chocolate Swirl

The plastic containers for this brand are all the same, so check out my last Talenti post for a packaging review.

I liked the Mediterranean Mint, but it tasted a bit generic for the hefty price tag. ($5.00 for a pint is too rich for my blood.)

Talenti Mediterranean Mint - Target : Cherry Hill, NJ

Talenti Mediterranean Mint - Target : Cherry Hill,  NJ 

My sister and I needed a gift bag, so we went to Target with our friend Jared. Big mistake. We went in seeking gift wrapping items, and left with two pints of ice cream. (We have no will power or self control, although Jared did try to stop us.)

This brand has been featured on food blogs, youtube, and tumblr. Since the reviews have all been favorable, we grabbed 2 flavors to try.

• Mediterranean Mint
• Banana Chocolate Swirl

The container is pretty unique. Instead of the waxy cardboard tub most ice creams use, this is a hard, clear, plastic container with a brown twist-off cap. If you wanted, you could use this canister again. (Always handy for my art class. Plus this container is recyclable.)

As far a design, there isn’t very much going on. The label features some classic typography, and that’s it. From the container to the ingredients, everything about this gelato is minimal, and I love it.

Akira - Restaurant Week : Collingswood, NJ

Akira - Restaurant Week : Collingswood, NJ 

It’s restaurant week in Collingswood! If any of you are New Jersey locals, you must know about Collingswood and it’s restaurants. For restaurant week, participating locations make a special menu for the event (usually 3-4 courses) and list it at a reasonable price.

Today my boyfriend and I stopped at Akira for a late lunch. I have actually eaten here before, but the restaurant week menu had a few things I wanted to check out. 

I ordered:

• Avocado Salad -Avocado on mixed green salad served with healthy ginger
• Sexy Jalapeño - Tempura Jalapeño stuffed with Spicy Tuna, Seaweed Salad & cream cheese served with spicy mango sauce
• Sushi Dinner - Tuna, Salmon, Fluke, Striped Bass,Yellowtail, Shrimp, White Tuna with a Spicy Tuna Roll
• Gelato Hearts

Although I am not a huge fan of avocado, I really enjoyed this salad. It’s a basic green salad,  typical of most sushi or hibachi restaurants, topped with avocado, ginger dressing and mango sauce. The only thing I would have changed would be a little less mango sauce. It was incredibly sweet and really overpowered everything else. I would rather have a touch of mango and more ginger dressing.