Who You Calling a Muffin?

Chocolate-banana cuppin

Do not listen when the barista running Alison Eighteen's morning coffee bar tells you this is a muffin. Sure, it has a crisp top and tight-ish crumb, but it also bleeds cocoa and is the color of mud. "Cupcake" would more accurately describe this single serving of rich dark chocolate cake saturated with ripe banana flavor.  Don't misunderstand, it's outrageously good. Do as I did and take it to a quiet corner of Trader Joe's (two blocks away) to munch alongside a free, sample cup of coffee.

Still, I wonder why bakeries habitually misuse the muffin moniker. Is it because "muffin" conveys a breakfast appropriateness that "cupcake" does not? Poser flavors like black bottom and coffee cake have long misled consumers, but even mundane blueberry and apple-cinnamon (my two other options at Alison Eighteen) often cross the bridge that's paved in sucrose from muffin to cake. It's time we give these impostors a more honest designator. Enter, the Cuppin. A cuppin  (combination of "cupcake" and "muffin") refers to a cupcake without frosting that retains enough muffin-like characteristics to categorize it as a breakfast food. In other words, a cuppin makes it okay to eat cake for breakfast.

Other than its obvious deliciousness, the best part of a cuppin is its versatility. The first third of my chocolate-banana cuppin paired perfectly with that sample cup of TJ's French Roast; the second complemented an afternoon cappuccino; and the last third needed just a scoop of coffee gelato to become a homey dessert.

Alison Eighteen
15 West 18th Street (between 5th and 6th)
2123661818

Gingerbread by any Other Name

The best gingerbread that's not called "gingerbread." Photo: Leckerlee

Every year around November, bakeries start rolling out the gingerbread, and I reinstate the annual ritual of decapitating innumerable cookie people. This year, I’m taking a gentler approach and sticking to the lebkuchen from Leckerlee, which I recently tasted at the IACP Book and Blog Festival.

Baked in the German-style, these nearly-flourless cookies are punchy with candied citron, orange peel, and a mix of 9 spices.  They’re sturdy, yet soft, and available plain or coated with dark chocolate. You should really treat your taste buds to both.

There’s only one teeny problem: You (and I) can’t get them for several months. Leckerlee operates as a fall/winter pop-up shop in the Lower East Side and Brooklyn Flea.

In the meantime, try one this Tuesday, April 17^th at the 92^nd Street Y’s CSA Marketplace.

Address:

92nd St. Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, ground floor
4:30pm-7:00pm

For more, visit Leckerlee’s website

Very Happy Macaron Day

Only the La Maison macaron was crushed in my journey

Macaron, macaron on the wall,

Which is tastiest of them all?

French pastry chef-extraordinaire Francois Payard organized the third annual macaron day on March 21. It gave those with nothing better to do (although what is better to do than nibble dainty, prismatic sandwich cookies?) a chance to dash around the city collecting free macarons. Anyone who managed to hit 12 out of the 24 participating shops won a surprise gift from Francois Payard Bakery. Many of the participating bakeries also donated a portion of that day’s macaron proceeds to the hunger-fighting charity City Harvest.

I zipped through downtown and uptown, maxing out at a respectable 9 macarons, which included visits to two different Payard and Bouchon locations. 

So who was tastiest of them all?

Tied for Fabulousness:

 Bosie Tea Parlor: Lavender and apricot

With a steel blue exterior dusted in gold, this macaron was as lovely to look at as it was to eat.   Lavender was the prominent, but not overpowering, flavor, and this floral filling concealed a candied apricot.

Bouchon Bakery: Vanilla

Every person in front of me went for the pistachio, but I listed to the employee’s recommendation for vanilla.  Anything but boring, this baby macaroon heady with vanilla was so richly flavored that I appreciated its small size.

The chocolate from La Maison du Chocolat and the chocolate from Francois Payard Bakery were both sinful, but Maison's was a bit richer with a more decadent ganche filling.

Still Quite Delicious:

Dominique Ansel Bakery: Peanut butter and jelly 

This peanut macaron with jelly filling was spot-on in flavor and managed to avoid sugariness, but the macaron crumbled apart at first bite. Could it have been stale?

Mad-Mac “The AuthenticFrench Macarons:” Pistachio

This one had strong pistachio flavor, but it lacked the intensity that elevated Bouchon’s vanilla from ordinary to irresistible.

FC Chocolate Bar atThe Plaza Hotel: Cassis

If you like cassis, a sweet liquor made with black currents and rum, or you like the flavor of grape musk, you’ll like this gorgeous purple macron as well as the two dried currents hiding in its filling.

Skip:

Macaron Café: Crème brûlée

While it was delightful crunching into the burnt sugar layer atop the silken crème brûlée filling, the taste was painfully sweet.

Mille Feuille Bakery and Café: Rose

This pale pink treat barely tasted of rose…or anything else.

Now That's a Biscuit

Eat this today, because it will lose its flakiness by tomorrow

There's a new biscuit in town.

Nine-month-old Donna Bell's Bake Shop on the border of Hell's Kitchen and the Theater District serves a sweet mess of Southern treats where size matters, and bigger really is better.  A slice of jalapeno cornbread is 1/3 of a loaf. A candied peach muffin dwarfs Costco's version. And the snack I took home -- the biscuit with bacon, blue cheese, and parsley --  is a golden, craggy monster that looks like it devoured two smaller biscuits for breakfast.

The BB&P is a salty number, thanks to the blue cheese and bacon strips that poke out in all directions. I don't actually taste any blue, but I'll take owners Darren Greenblatt and Matthew Sandusky's word that it's there.  This biscuit's not really about the bacon or the blue or the green bits of parsley, anyway. It's about the butter and flake and the salty tinge. It needs no side of eggs, no slather of jam, no sprinkle of seasoning. It's outstanding.

On deck for my next visit: Veggie Muffaletta with provolone, roasted red peppers, artichokes and olive tapenade,  one slice of Lemon Chiffon cake, and because I clearly can't resist the charms of buttermilk, one Pimento Cheddar and Chive biscuit.

Donna Bell's Bake Shop
301 West 49th (between 8th and 9th)
2125828463

Ice Cream Scoop Prevents Winter Droop

A lick of summer to brighten winter gloom.  Photo: Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

There are those who refuse to eat ice cream during the winter. I'm not one of them.

Swaddled in puffy down and cashmere, my eyes barely visible between the beak of my downcast cap and a scarf that covers my nose, I worm down Mott Street to Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. It's a matchbox shop known for its Asian flavors.  I taste the pandan, red bean, and taro -- all bland. It's too late to turn back now, so I blindly order a cup of black sesame. I think I remember reading it's a customer favorite.

I was right.

A generous scoop looks just like cookies and cream, but the thousands of black specks are sesame seeds.  Some have been pulverized, others left whole. It's a textural melee of crunch and creaminess.    

Huddled in the back corner of the shop, I spoon through the most pleasurable part of my day. It's a shame that some must wait until springtime for this.

$2.50 for a single scoop.

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
65 Bayard Street (between Mott and Elizabeth)
2126084170

Middle East in the Upper East

I begrudgingly stopped eating to snap a photo

On 1st Avenue in the Upper East Side, an expansive window display taunts passersby with pastries that span the Middle East. There are lamb pies and spindly Greek katayifi, snowy Turkish delight, and baklava of multiple nut varieties (walnut, pistachio, hazelnut).  Walking by Melange Food Fair without peeking inside is difficult. Walking inside without making a purchase...impossible.

Swollen with spinach, feta, and onions, a triangle of spinach pie ($4.50) easily feeds two.  It's crisp,  despite sitting in a cold case. Beware, though, of the owner's offer to warm it.  He'll heat it in a microwave and zap that phyllo to flaccidity. 

A large square of baklava ($3.50) crunches and flakes even though the underside is shellacked in syrup.  The ground hazelnut filling is thick and barely sweetened, making this treat more nutty than sugary.

Hazelnut baklava that won't give you a sugar rush

As I pay for my snacks and help myself to a fat shard of eggplant poking out of a sample container of babaghanoush (house-made), a shrunken woman in owl glasses wanders inside. As she ogles the chocolate halva, she begins talking (or confessing, really) to the owner that had she not just eaten dinner, she would surely purchase something. Five minutes later, I'm walking out the door, and she's still inside, drooling over a tray of mamoul cookies and loudly debating whether to buy one or two dozen.

Melange Food Fair
1277 1st Avenue (at 69th)
2125357773

The Best Brownie in NYC?

Show me a chocolate rubbed in sea salt, and I'll yawn. Salty desserts were a revelation eleven years ago when restaurants like Gramercy Tavern and Patria started serving them, but now every bakery, chocolate boutique, and commercial candy maker manufactures the stuff.  Tried pretzel M&Ms yet? So, it was with boredom that I took a bite of the OMG brownie from Salt of the Earth Bakery...and then I took a second, and a third.  A ripple of caramel almost as thick as the brownie itself runs through the middle, and it's tinged with fleur de sel de l’Ile de Re, decadent but necessary. The brownie is the fudgy variety with a crackly top layer, and it gets a dose of sel gris. The result is something dense and rich but sophisticated   

I also tasted the chocolate chip cookie.  It doesn't look like much -- flat and pale -- but inside it's melty and messy with deep chocolate flavor and wild textural contrasts due to large flakes of Maldon sea salt. Thank goodness looks can be deceiving. 

Find Salt of the Earth's sweets at select retail shops in New York.

Ask Dumb Question, Eat Delicious Treat

Wrapper makes for easy grab-and-go

The roasted green tea sponge cake at Cafe Zaiya looks so much like a dark chocolate muffin that I thought the label was wrong and asked the girl at the counter if it was chocolate.  She glared at me with the disdain of someone who must be asked this question twenty-six times a day and pointed to the sign that said "roasted green tea." I shut up and bought it for $1.95.

Roasting the tea produces an intense brown color and subtle green tea flavor. Buried at the bottom of this soft, steamed cake are dark blotches that look like chocolate but are actually pockets of red bean paste, that sweet, sticky staple of so many Asian treats.  

Light, moist and barely sweetened, the cake only needs a cup of accompanying green tea and ten minutes of restorative silence for perfect enjoyment.


Cafe Zaiya locations:
18 East 41st Street (5th and Madison)

212779 0600

69 Cooper Square
2122539700

at Kinokuniya (41st)
1073 Avenue of the Americas
2nd Floor
212764 6785
       

Free Sample Saturday

SAMPLES

For today's food purchases, I spent exactly $1.60 on broccoli salad from the Whole Foods deli case.  And yet, between 3:00 p.m. when I left my apartment and 5:30 p.m. when I returned, I feasted like a queen.

3:00: I start toward Chelsea Market out of habit.  In front of Chelsea Market Baskets, I try some sweet jalapeno pickles from Doin’ the Pickleña.  Available mild and hot, the "hot" version of this combination of Kirbys, sliced jalapeno, red pepper, and onions isn't spicy, just flavorful and pleasantly non-salty.  It'd be superb on a pulled pork sandwich.
3:50: I backtrack to Joe's in Greenwich Village for a free slice thanks to Scoutmob.  Light on the cheese, light on the sauce, the place is an institution, but it's not my favorite.
4:00:  In need of something sweet, I pop into Victory Garden for a lick of pumpkin goat's milk frozen yogurt.  It's like soft-serve pumpkin pie with half the sugar.  I'll be back for a proper serving and one of the shop's new buckwheat muffins.
4:30: It's Whole Foods time, and I've apparently arrived on sample day.  There's a Thanksgiving booth where someone is dishing Brussels sprouts, chicken with gravy, and stuffing.  None of it's great, but it's not terrible either. A bite of cold brie en croute has potential.  Some mild, tightly crumbed cornbread, cranberry cake, and decent pumpkin pie round out the snack. I'm en route to the produce aisles when I stop by the ChocAlive! table for its delicious raw chocolates truffles and then onto Sweet Scoops for frozen yogurt.  This time, she's promoting the ginger flavor.  It's not very punchy, but the yogurt's smooth texture makes me almost -- almost -- buy a carton for $4.99. I continue toward the fruits section and while contemplating an avocado,  I try some oober crunchy Fuji apple.  During my usual survey of the prepared food area, I find trays of cut-up California rolls at the sushi counter and saucy BBQ chicken on sourdough with crunchy slaw by the hot case.  And while there, I just can't resist asking for a plastic cupful of the macaroni and cheese.  I finally buy my bit of broccoli salad but not before asking to taste the Sicilian cauliflower with Parmesan.

 A successful day for the Glamorous Snacker. 

Chelsea Market Baskets
Inside Chelsea Market
75 9th Ave (at 15th)
212 243 6005

Victory Garden
31 Carmine Street  New York, 10014
212 206 7273

Whole Foods Bowery
95 East Houston Street (at Bowery)
212 420 1320

Tofu Soup you Know you Want

You know when you go out to eat and you always wish you ordered what the person at the table next to you did?  Today, I was the person at the table next to you, and you were envying me.

The banchan -- free food really does taste better

Things started well with the six complimentary side dishes called "banchan" that are requisite with every Korean meal. At BCD Tofu House in Koreatown, the waitress sets out the banchan almost immediately after we sit down. If I were concerned about traditional manners, I would wait to eat my banchan until the entrees arrived, but I can't stare at a crispy yellow croacker without cracking into him.  Once I've defiled him, might as well poke into the fermented squid and then the salty kimchi. BCD's is a mix of cabbage and daikon. By the time I get around to the elfish asparagus pieces and scoop of potato salad (a bland and weirdly typical accompaniment), the rice has appeared, and I can feel more proper about nibbling them. 

A witch's cauldron flowing with a potion to cure a cold.  To the left is the potato salad. 

I order the combination pork bulgogi and seafood soup. My meat arrives tender with crisped edges and only greasy when I get down to the meat closest to the sizzling plate.  The famous soondubu (silken tofu stew) comes boiling, but I've already burned my tongue on the corn and barley tea (free), so I don't hesitate jumping in. The custardy tofu bobs everywhere, so warming that I don't mind that my marine life consists of one prawn -- head left on -- and two curled squids. A boiled egg floats around, the white breaking off from the yolk and blending in with the tofu.

I leave the oily bottom layer of bulgogi on the plate and a half-cup of broth in my soup bowl. I'm full, content, and just a little bit smug.   

BCD Tofu House
17 W 32nd St. (between 5th Ave. and Broadway)
2129671900