A Melody turns 20

A good friend of mine, Melody, turned 20 just a while ago. To celebrate no longer being a teen, she decided to have a birthday dinner at Formosa. I was more than ecstatic because in Iowa City, Formosa is one of my favorite restaurants because of their tasty signature rolls and discounted price on Sunday nights (Purchase 2 signature rolls, receive one free). Each signature roll is around $12, so if you go with 2 other people on a Sunday night and everybody orders a single speciality roll, you will find yourself only paying $8 total. Although this is still fairly expensive, I feel it's worth it for a signature roll. Some of my favorite signature rolls at Formosa are the Formosa roll, Tropical Rainforest, Las Vegas Roll and Tiger Shrimp Roll.

Tropical Rainforest:

Smoked salmon, tangy mango, rich cream cheese, sliced yellow onion and chopped green onion rolled and topped with avocado, sun flower seeds. Drizzled with both sweet eel and mango sauces.

Tropical Rainforest was the first uncooked sushi dish I have ever tried and I've been in love with it ever since. The combination of the cream cheese and smoked salmon with the sweet eel sauce is simply divine.

Las Vegas Roll:

Crab meat and rich cream cheese are rolled in rice and seaweed, lightly tempura fried and stacked with spicy tuna, crab meat mix and sliced lotus root crisps. Finished with sweet eel sauce and spinach tempura flakes.

The Las Vegas roll is a piece of art. It is the most requested roll at Formosa and it is easy to understand why - the combination of so many different ingredients and sauces mesh amazingly well together resulting in a full flavor explosion in your mouth.

I will review the Formosa Roll and Tiger Shrimp roll at another time, I don't think this post can handle two more speciality rolls......

You can't have a birthday without a birthday cake. For Melody's 20th, Rajiv had the excellent idea of bringing a Coldstone Strawberry Passion cakes. It's one of my favorite Coldstone signature cakes and it served to be the perfect dessert.

Moist red velvet cake, strawberry ice cream & graham cracker crust with strawberry puree wrapped in a fluffy strawberry frosting. (Price: ~$20 for a cake that serves 8-10 people)

I love Ice Cream cakes. Coldstone's signature collection is impressive and very, very good but I am a big fan of Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cakes. I think I like Dairy Queen more than Coldstone simply because of:

1) Their frosting: to me, it feels like a mixture between whipped cream and traditional frosting and it is just.... PERFECT. My favorite type of frosting, no doubt.

2) Dairy Queen secret chocolate crunch = ahhhhhhhaaamazing. Fudge mixed with chocolate crunch is incredibly good.

3) Perfect combination of everything - vanilla ice cream, crunch, fudge, frosting - it's simply delicious. If you haven't had a Dairy Queen cake yet, I would find an occasion to celebrate and purchase a cake ASAP.

Mmmmmm........

-------------------------------

Formosa Asian Cuisine

221 E College St
Iowa City, IA 52240
(319) 338-8880

Coldstone Creamery

39 S Dubuque St,

Iowa City - (319) 341-6155

Dairy Queen

212 E Market St,

Iowa City - (319) 354-1992