Gray's Papaya and Dominique Ansel Bakery!

Sooooo finally! I got to visit the hot dog place that I've heard so much about. Seriously, it's been so many shows and movies (I can only recall The Backup Plan at the moment). And then Dominique Ansel Bakery, a bakery I've been dying to visit was nearby so we went there too. So, at Gray's Papaya the cool thing is that they have something called The Recession Special. Basically, it's two hot dogs with a drink for about $5. I think it was cheaper before but hey, we're in a recession! I still think it's a good deal. After confirming that they use cheese sauce, we ordered cheese fries for $2!!! So cheap.

                  

 
The hot dogs were great, SO SNAPPY!!! I love that. and the drink I got was called coconut something or other but it was essentially coconut juice. It was good, very strong coconut flavor, sweet and had a bit of coconut chunks too! The cheese fries were delicious too. I mean, come on, it's cheese fries. We even got to have some extra cheese sauce on a plate!Mmmmmm. Cheap and delicious. After walking quite a bit, we finally reached Dominique Ansel Bakery. They had a cute back outdoor area but we stood inside because it was cold. We got the DKA, mini me cake, and apple tarte tartin.

 
The apple tarte tartin was basically an apple tart. It had I think a puff pastry bottom and then on top there seemed to be like maybe caramelized apples that were soaked in some sort of syrup or something. The apples were very tender and sweet, and pastry was well, pastry. Kinda tasted like a weird version of apple pie. It was ok, but I think it made my stomach hurt.

After, we had the mini me cake which was a rich chocolate cake topped with miniature meringues. I felt like the cake was a bit too chocoalety. It was layers and layers of chocolate and usually I don't mind but I think some layers had dark chocolate which is too bitter for me. The meringues on top were the best though! They were like cunchy and then you break through with each bite and then it just crumbles into like a light whipped cream on the inside. Such a nice surprise. Too chocolatey for me.

Then we had the DKA (Dominique Kouign Amann) which is tender, flaky, croissant-like dough with a caramelized crunchy crust. This was the best of the bunch. It was like a sweet croissant. Flaky, crunchy outside with a ridiculously fluffy inside. It really reminded me of baklava. Awesome. I think I would visit Gray's Papaya again because it's such great food for cheap! Dominique Ansel Bakery didn't wow me like I thought it would and isn't worth the trek.