Sugar Coma Festival {Better-Late-Than-Never Ed.}

First of all, hooray, my blog is featured as this week's Featured Blogs by Foodie Blogroll.

Second, I know this is totally lame that I am just now posting this, but in the heat of lavish! event this past weekend in Atlanta (which I wasn't able to attend because I thought I was going to be somewhere at that time but I apparently I didn't have to be -- and of course, by the time I realize that, it's all too late, the tickets are sold out. Oh life.), this was another swanky soiree held by The Broke Socialite (she's such a nice and funny lady by the way) called Sugar Coma festival and I was lucky enough to snag a ticket at the time.

Third, I'd have to admit, this quick post is my way of cutting corners. It has something to do with the very fact that everything in my life is such a whirlwind right now. I haven't been eating at cool places and have taken zilch pictures lately. Plus, it's the week before Christmas and I am far from being done with Christmas shopping. That's how bad it is.

Anyways, hope this would make a feast for your eyes.

These cupcakes are from Cami Cakes. I got to meet little Camille herself, such a cutie! Also, as a self-proclaimed connoisseur of red velvet cakes, I actually adore these babies. Moist, velvety, and topped with rich frosting.

Caramel-filled. Chocolate-drizzled. Cheerful taste buds.

Margarita cupcakes. Need I say more? FYI, the margarita did not get baked off. Let me repeat once again that it did not get baked off. Ahemm, I had mine straight up. These sassy treats were provided by Pink Cupcake Dreams and Peachy Treats.

Caryn's Cakes' strawberry cupcakes are one of the best strawberry cupcakes I've ever had. It's such a simple goodness and the frosting is just right: a tad sweet, not too rich, and still maintains that classic strawberry flavor. I actually bought a few to take home with me.

Sip the Experience is what would happen if Barnes & Noble got married to Starbucks and had an affair with your full- of- homemade- goodness neighborhood bakery. I wouldn't mind sitting there all day getting some work done. It'd be kinda hard to focus with all those luscious desserts calling out my name every five minutes though.

We had to take a break to prevent our glucose levels from going through the roof: by showing our savory spot taste buds that we still care about them. Chicken skewers by Bradford on Bishop on the menu.

See these gorgeous vanilla custards topped with fresh blackberries? Yum. Chris Arpante's mad dessert skills are responsible for them. It's ok to judge the book by its cover this time - because it fully represents the quality of the content.

Nah, these are not jello shots. They're even better.

I didn't actually get a chance to try these, but I'm guessing they're molten lava chocolate cakes?

This Cuban espresso flan is a work of art by private chef Bren Herrera. If you're a coffee lover like I am, you'd appreciate it very much. It's very fragrant and ahh, the texture - it sort of just glides in your mouth.

In the name of (sugary) festivity we trust.

"No Shirt- No Shoes- No Problem"

Sounds very So- Cal- ish to me, yes?



Ahh, summer will be over soon. At this point I am still in San Diego, California, with every cell of my body persistently making its own case of telling me not to withdraw myself from the Sunshine State. These days I've pretty much been pampered by the friendly sun and the refreshing ocean breeze that almost emulate a rejuvenating sanctuary - I mean, it helps me clear my head and refrains myself from fulfilling my every-5 second urge to tweet from my Blackberry. But really, what's been doing wonders to me is the constant company of a great girlfriend. Yes, you know who you are E (*wink).



Today E took me to Ocean Beach to try out one of the most popular burger joint in town which boasts more than a thousand reviews on Yelp. We met up with another friend of ours on the spot, who previously warned us about how the waiting line could be quite intolerable. Turned out it wasn't that bad. We waited for 15-20 mins and got seated right away. As you can see, it's got a very laid back, surfer shack kind of ambiance with all the surfboards hanging from the ceilings and the license plate-covered walls.



"No Shirt- No Shoes- No Problem" is their motto.

This is Hodad's that first opened on the beach at the end of Santa Monica Avenue in the very laid back neighborhood of Ocean Beach (or as San Diegans call it, OB) in 1969. Rumor has it they serve the perfect American trifecta: burgers, fries, and shakes. A very generous portion of them. This place is definitely not for the faint-hearted, at least portion-wise. It even got the thumbs up from Guy Fieri on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on Food Network, agreeing that their bacon cheeseburger is quite a show stopper.



A basket of huge and crunchy deep fried battered onion rings arrived first on our table. A bountiful of them. But really, how many pieces of onion rings can you actually eat? There were four of us but we ended up finishing only half of it. They're not bad, but they're not the best. Especially with the breading looks a little bit darker than it should be, then you know how many times they've reused the oil for frying.



I got the smallest option on the menu called mini cheeseburger, which in my honest opinion, was far from being minuscule. It's almost the same size of an In-n-Out burger, only slighttttly smaller and a lot messier. Perhaps the fact that it's not the biggest burger on the menu has something to do with my patty being just an ok patty. Not juicy enough, not rare enough, not thick enough for me. Things might've been different had I gotten a bigger one, I can't say for sure. But they give you a lot of pickles to go with the burger. I normally like to have everything on my burger and end up eating all of it. But I actually had to get rid of some of them because it was just a little too much. I'm pretty sure this doesn't apply to most of my guy friends.

I didn't get their shakes - I'm not a milkshake person in general. I heard people are raving about it, though. I also heard that they have a pretty good beer selection. I happened to find a recipe of their famous bacon cheeseburger here on the internet. I don't know how close it is to the real thing, since I haven't had the real thing anyways. I'd love to come back for it though. But whatever, the recipe makes me salivate already.

Special thanks to E and A for taking me to Hodad's!