Restaurant Review: Haru Aki Café

As a food nerd, it's tough going to college in farmville (literally) and not a city. UConn doesn't exactly boast a diverse culinary scene like NYC or Boston.

The lack of food culture at UConn especially makes itself known when I want to try new things. For example, I read about Bubble Tea in a blog and immediately wanted to try it. (Bubble tea can come in many forms, but it's usually found as a tea-based iced drink mixed with fruit syrup, milk, and tapioca pearl boba.) I searched on Yelp, and I saw a Chinese place just off the UConn campus offered bubble tea. But when I ordered my tea there, I watched in horror as they boiled some water, added some really artificial-looking powder to it, then shook it with ice. Even worse– it tasted more artificial than it looked. No thanks!

Luckily, less than a year later, the Haru Aki Café opened right next to my apartment building. "Haru" and "aki" mean spring and fall in Japanese, which speaks to the café's ethos concerning seasonal cuisine. But more importantly, they offer an amazing bubble tea menu.

Images from the Haru Aki Facebook page

Unlike other Asian-fusion restaurants in the area, the Haru Aki Café utilizes actual tea in their bubble tea (and not that synthetic powder). So far, I've tried the green tea with honeydew, peach, and lychee, and they've all been delicious. I could drink their bubble tea all day if my wallet allowed it.

In addition to the great bubble tea selection, they have delicious savory offerings as well– sushi, donburi (rice bowls), scallion pancakes, salads, and croquettes. 

Scallion Pancake

One day as I was buying a Honeydew bubble tea, I was lucky enough to run into Ron Liu, who is co-owner of the café. I asked him a bit about his background, and it turns out that he was a business student at UConn who had always dreamed of opening a restaurant. A few years after his graduation, he found himself in a financial position where he had the means to open Haru Aki.

Ron told me that while he is one of the main sushi chefs at the café, his girlfriend (who is also a co-owner and a fellow UConn alum) is the main force behind the menu. I told him how glad I was to have such a great restaurant nearby, and assured him that I would be back.

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This post really exemplifies why I love discovering new eateries and writing about them– because every small, locally owned restaurant has a unique story to tell. Food isn't just food... it's humanity. It's history. It's memories of your mom teaching you how to cook, or your grandmother sharing her secret recipe. And above all, it provides the medium through which people of different cultures can connect and learn from each other. 

Club W

One of the hardest things about food blogging is figuring out what to write about next, especially where wine is concerned. It's fine to go to the liquor store and pick up a new bottle at random, but I like a more systematic way of picking out wines.

Enter Club W. I first saw them in an ad on Facebook (of all things) but decided to check out the website.








To start your Club W membership, the site asks you to take a Palate Profile quiz.

The quiz includes questions about your preferences for different types of flavors, like citrus fruits and earthy flavors (like truffles or mushrooms). Then, based on your answers to the questionnaire, the site gives you personalized recommendations from their curated selection of wines.

You can choose how many recommendations you receive (i.e. two reds and one white, etc.) in addition to browsing the other wines that weren't matched to your palate.

Club W's information about the wine is concise without being snobby. For each wine, they post a quick fact sheet that gives you the "vitals" of the wine, and a video where a sommelier describes the tasting notes.

I received my first Club W package in the mail a little while ago... more to come on my reaction to the wines!

Book Review: Extra Virginity

I recently just finished Extra Virginity by Tom Mueller; a book that dives into the "sublime and scandalous world of olive oil."

Before I read the book, I was aware that supermarkets were selling low-quality olive oils marketed at "extra virgin" quality. However, I was not aware how rampant the fraud was in Europe (where I thought quality really mattered to people), even in the Mediterranean, the home of the olive tree. 

In a book that reads like a novel, Mueller tells the story of Italian farmers continuing an art that goes back for generations; the story of honest Californian producers trying to stay competitive with the huge, fraudulent olive oil conglomerates; and the story of American entrepreneurs trying to reform USDA and International Olive Oil standards against all odds.

What's more, Extra Virginity reveals (or rather implies) the Mafia's involvement in the olive oil trade, in addition to incidences where critics or farmers were blackmailed into silence. Who knew that the production of such a commonplace commodity, one often taken for granted, was so fraught with danger!

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is concerned about the food they consume. I would even go as far as to say all consumers of olive oil should be made aware of the contents of this book. If American consumers knew that companies like Filippo Berio and Bertolli were defrauding them, they could force dishonest olive oil manufacturers out of business (or at least force them to change their ways), and give room to honest, smaller-scale farmers trying to make a living. 

You can buy Extra Virginity here at The Gourmettes Store!

Swirl It!

I recently read a blog post about Swirl It!, an app that recommends wines based on ones you've already tried. Naturally, I had to download it.

This is how it works: When you're drinking a bottle or glass of wine, you search for the wine on the app (whether you're at a restaurant or at home), or you add it if it's not already in the database. 

Then, once you've found your wine, you either "swirl" it (if you liked it) or "spit" it (if you didn't).

After you've swirled and spat a few wines, the app starts recommending wines it thinks you'll like based on your palate. 

Seeing as I haven't yet bought any of my recommended wines, I don't know how accurate the app is... but it's certainly a fun way to keep track of the wines you've tried!

Movie Review: Bottle Shock

Tonight I watched Bottle Shock, which tells the true (albeit dramatized) story of an underdog Californian Chardonnay that won the 1976 "Judgement of Paris" blind tasting.

Steven Spurrier, a British wine enthusiast living in Paris, decided to host a "blind tasting" of Californian and French wines. Traveling to California to select the American wines, he came across Chateau Montelena, a struggling vineyard in Napa Valley. 

A shot of the Chateau Montelena Vineyard from the movie

He chose their 1973 Chardonnay for the tasting, which was held in Paris with French tasters. Against all odds, Chateau Montelena's wine won the competition, beating some of the "best" French wines by the most well-known producers. 

While the movie apparently took many creative liberties with the characters and chain of events, the Judgment of Paris was considered the pivotal moment that put American (specifically Californian) wines on the international map. 

A bottle of the famous 1973 Chardonnay is now held in the Smithsonian Museum, as a testament to the American wine industry's ability to compete with one of the world's oldest wine producing countries.

Movie Review: Somm

Last night I watched Somm, a documentary following four experts as they prepared to take the world's most difficult wine knowledge test, and earn their Master Sommelier degree.

There are only 214 Master Sommeliers (or Somms as they are known colloquially) in the world. The test contains three parts: one part on service in restaurants and hotels, one part on theory, and one part in the form of a blind tasting test. Candidates must taste six wines and describe them accurately in less than 25 minutes, including the year it was produced and the region from which it came.

Watching the four men prepare for the test was incredible. From just a sip of the wine, they could tell whether it had traces of oak in it, what possible grapes it could have been made from, and the level of alcohol it contained. It's amazing that they could glean all that information just from one taste.

The four main candidates practicing the tasting portion of the test, supervised by a Master Sommelier

For those of us who are still learning about the various aspects of wine tasting (including myself), this tasting grid from Epicurious is a great way to get started. It's also great for parties!

Restaurant Review: La Petite France Café

After reading Mastering the Art of French Eating (that I mentioned in my last post), I had a serious craving for French food. Upon consulting Yelp, I found a French café in West Hartford that looked like the perfect spot. So I grabbed my best gal pal, and we made our way to La Petite France Café.

Immediately accosted with the scent of freshly-baked croissants, I felt as if I'd stepped back to a certain café I liked in Toulouse, with its mismatched chairs and authentic feel. Upon examining the menu, I decided on crêpe complète (a crêpe made with buckwheat flour, Swiss cheese, and ham; topped with a fried egg). My friend got quiche lorraine (a quiche made with Swiss cheese and bacon).

My instagram of our meal

The owner of the café, I found, is from France. It was amazing to be able to eat authentic French food in West Hartford, Connecticut. In fact, I was so delighted with the café's fare that I took home a handful of croissants and two types of macaron– pistache and vanille. 

If you like French food, or simply want to have a delicious breakfast or lunch, I would highly recommend checking out La Petite France. Happy Eating!

Book Review: Mastering the Art of French Eating

The late Julia Child is, without a doubt, the figurehead of American francophiles who also love food. Her book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, has inspired thousands of cooks worldwide to try their hand at French cuisine. 

One such cook (and fellow American expat in Paris) inspired by Julia's enthusiasm for all things French was Ann Mah, the author of Mastering the Art of French Eating. She found herself stationed in Paris with her Diplomat husband; another striking similarity to Julia Child's circumstances. However, when Ann's husband was unexpectedly relocated to Iraq, she was left to navigate the myriad of culinary wonders in France alone. 

The fruit borne from Ann's solitary sojourn in Paris is her novel, Mastering the Art of French Eating. I flew through this book– absorbing page after page of sumptuous food writing. Included at the end of every chapter are recipes from various regions in France. Two of my favorites (that I can't wait to try cooking) are:

Salade Lyonnaise

Soupe Pistou

I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who's interested in France, food, or travel. Happy reading!