Laduree!

So, I finally made it to the famous Laduree!!! After hearing so many good things about it (being the best macaron shop in new york) I had to go. Plus, theyre from Paris!!! I haven't had many macarons in life so I'm not the best judge of what is good or not. But, I can say what I thought about these macarons. I had the coconut, raspberry, and salted caramel macarons.

And there they are. I think I'd have to say my favorite was the coconut. It just had a very strong coconut flavor because of the cream inside. I found that the raspberry (which had jam instead of cream) was nice too but a bit too sweet where it left the back of my throat a little irritated. The salted caramel was good too but I felt like I was eating straight up caramel which was just way too much for me. I don't know, maybe it's me, but I'm not going back to get more macarons cuz those babies cost $8.40 for 3!!! Maybe I'm just not a macaron person.

Four and Twenty Blackbirds!

So, I finally made it to this little shop in Park Slope. I don't usually go to that neighborhood but when I heard there was a little old shop cranking out delicious pies, I decided to make a visit. Plus, it wasn't too much of a trek from the train. When I walked in, there were lots of empty tables and I was glad because I wanted to just sit down and have some good pie. Plus, they don't serve whipped cream if you take it to go and what's pie without a little whipped cream!

This is exactly what my slice of pie looked like. See how it's like so thick, it's cuz theres lots of apple slices under there. Anyhow, on to teh taste. The apples were very soft and the crust was flaky and buttery. I didnt like that at the end there was a huge piece of crust without apples so I had to ration out my apple slices at the end. The whipped cream added a nice smooth airy touch to the pie. However, I was a little disappointed because it's a salted caramel apple pie and I didn't really get the salt or caramel and I love the salty/sweet combo. Wish it was there. But it was a good apple pie.

Two Little Red Hens!

So before going to the Dialog in the Dark exhibit, Mona went and picked up some desserts to eat before the show. She got the brooklyn blackout chocolate cupcake and cheesecake (supposedly the best in nyc).

It was a chocolate cake with a milk chocolate ganache on the inside and chocolate crumbs on top of chocolate frosting. Yes, I just said chocolate four times in that sentence. This is for the chocolate lovers. It was a nice, moist chocolate cake and that added smooth ganache made it even more moist! I'm a sucker for ganache. With chocolate frosting and crumbs its a chocolate overload! However, despite having so much chocolate it wasn't TOO much. Odd, but a good cupcake.

 First off, look at that thing! It's HUGE!!!! The cheesecake was ncice and soft with a somewhat crunchy top and a graham cracker? crust. I really liked the crust, it was a nice, sweet crunchy contrast to the soft cheesecake. i don't know if it's the best in the city, it just tasted like cheesecake.

Ino!

So I was around the W4 area and was in the mood for some good breakfast so I traveled on down to ino cafe and wine bar. A small little place that does paninis, salads, bruschetta, soups, etc. I only wanted to try the truffled egg toast as that's what theyre famous for and I was going to spend more money later.

Check out this bad boy. Looks good huh? IT WAS. Sooo im thinking that it has egg (obviously) a slice of toast covered in fontina cheese, with sprinkled chopped asparagus, with TRUFFLE OIL!!! I LOVE TRUFFLE OIL!!! So I knew this would get messy so I chopped it up into little pieces. The yolk just leaked out, got everywhere which was ok cuz I could soak it all up with the toast! Surprisingly, the outside of the toast remained crunchy despite being surrounded by the soft egg. When you take a bite, you get the crunch of toast, followed by the soft bread, melty cheese, the yummy yolk, and ohhh the truffle oil! It tasted sooo good. Add some chopped asparagus for some crunch and you are set! It was DELICIOUS! Perhaps I will visit again to try the bruschetta!

Karam!

So, I've been hearing about this arabic place for a long time now. I was actually there with a friend a few months back but didn't have the money or probably time to buy anything but, from what I could tell, there seemed to be a lot of authentic arabic food. Shawarma, falafel, hummus, tabouleh, mashi, etc. So I heard their chicken shawarma sandwich was #28 of the 101 best sandwiches in New York by New York Magazine along with several other awards. So I got the chicken shawarama sandwich.

So basically it was spit roasted chicken (no clue what that means) with vegetables like something green, tomatoes, and some other thing that tasted a bit sour that im thiking was another vegetable. It also had a lemon-garlic sauce too. I gotta say, I kinda could not se how this was one of the 101 best sandwiches in New York. I thought that the sour vegetable was really powerful and kinda turning me off from the sandwich. I also thought that the lemon- garlic sauce was too overpowering. I didn't really think there was a balance of flavors. Sorry, Karam. I just straight up did not really like this sandwich.

No 7 sub and Little Pie Co.

Sooo I was hungry and near 34 street. I had heard great things about No.7 sub and its sandwiches. I could go for a sandwich so I decided to go there. Luckily, there was no line.

I got the zucchini parm. It had breaded and fried zucchini, jalapeno peppers, fontina cheese, and barbeque chips. That's right. Barbeque chips. It sounds odd but it was pretty great for a vegetarian sandwich. The zucchini was very soft, almost mushy. The jalapeno peppers were too much for me so I took them out. The cheese I couldn't really taste. However, the BBQ chips provided a nice crunch and smoky flavor. Not a bad sandwich for having such odd ingredients.












Next up, Little Pie Co! There was a groupon for $6 for $10 so I figured why not? So I ended up getting their signature sour cream apple walnut pie and their mississippi mud pie. The sour cream apple walnut pie was pretty good, although it was kinda too sweet for me. The apples were soft and there seemed to be stacked like flaky layers which was different. The apples were sweet but they were balanced out by the sour cream that was in there. There seemed to be some caramelized walnut crumble thingies on top. Those were pretty good too, crunchy but a bit too sweet. It was so sweet that it made my tongue hurt a bit. I think that it was a pretty good slice, but needs to have a bit more balance for the sweetness.  Next up, Mississippi Mud pie.This triple chocolate treat is made with imported chocolate, brownie streusel and a chocolate glaze in a chocolate cookie crust. Best served with whipped cream. The perfect chocolate treat, so much chocolate in every bite! Take with a glass of milk or ice cream to balance out the chocolate.

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.