The Wandering Eater

I barely survived two and a half days of indulgence consisting mostly of the baked goods I’ve made and I feel like I’m in a food coma. Eh, it’s not a great feeling for me. Yesterday, I’ve mentioned that I’m making mantou and cookies. My mom requested that she wanted the darn things by 5 AM. Do you know why? It’s because my mom is one of those crazy maniacs who would go for the Early Bird shopping for Black Friday and I’m the victim of her madness to be dragged along. Jeez. There goes my sleep.

Thankfully I took care of most of the preparation yesterday afternoon during the time my dad was roasting the turkey around 3 PM. I mixed the ingredients of the Oatmeal Coconut Raisin cookies by hand. (The recipe is based on Martha Stewart’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookie but I added 1 cup of coconut since my mom loves that stuff.) I have the hand mixer but I don’t like using it for cookie dough batters because they’re not durable enough to cream the butter and the fact that they fling the batter all over the place even at a low setting. I don’t own those stand mixers even though I keep campaigning and persuading my mom to get one for me for the past two years but to no avail. *Sighs* maybe next year.

Anywho, after squishing, stirring and mixing my arms out for the cookies. I went onto prepping the mantou. I just used some of my leftover sourdough starter that I’ve saved and just mixed in some flour, water, a tablespoon of sugar and salt. Let it proof for a few hours and then knead for 5 minutes or so until it passes the windowpane test. (The windowpane test is basically taking a small piece of dough and try to stretch it as thin as possible without breaking or tearing a hole that you can see light through it). Shape and proof it again.

The good thing is that my mom tends to wake up the wee hours of the morning, as in 4 AM! She started banging pans around the kitchen, making a racket in the entire house waking up most of the family. I got fed up with the noise and it’s a very clear indication that she wants food. So, she started steaming the mantou and I started to preheat the oven and brew really strong coffee. After 15 to 20 minutes, my dad woke up from the aroma of baked cookies and the coffee, and mumbled, “Morning” and go straight for the coffee. I don’t blame him at all, I really needed the coffee, too. So here how it looked like:

Thinking of Homer Simpson’s voice: “Coookieeess…”
The mantou; photo taken around 9 AM

All’s fine in the house; my younger brother is miraculously still asleep. We ate good food, still some other leftover baked goods like the pies you can barely see in the mantou pic. The mantou is basically a plain (in my opinion, quite bland but my parents love it anyways), airy, slightly chewy bun. My parents approve the bun’s flavor but my taste buds detest it so I smeared it with some peanut butter to have some flavor going on. I probably think it’s so tasteless is because my taste buds are too Americanized…?

The cookies were really yummy. It’s golden brown on the exterior with a slight crispness from a slightly darker, almost mahogany bottom. The interior is soft and chewy filled with tons of oats, coconut and the sweet, chewy raisins. The cinnamon, nutty aroma is intoxicating, especially when it just came out from the oven.

After all that has been eaten, my parents and I got out of the house around 5:30 AM and start our shopping craze.

Just to finish off the food porn, here’s my oatmeal coconut raisin cookie:
Now, I need a nap.

Zzzzz…

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in America, as well as everyone in the world! Even though, you might not celebrate the holiday, at least I’ll spread some cheer across the world. :)

No, I haven’t really eat out the past week because I’m trying to purge my body from excess food that I’ll be consuming over this holiday weekend. Sorry, but I’ll make it up next week.

I’ve already started baking since yesterday; even though it’s not Thanksgiving yet. It sometimes scares me how much food I’ll end up ingesting over the five days that I’m at home.

So far, I baked sourdough bread and orange cranberry muffins for my family for yesterday morning’s breakfast. (If you want to jump to the muffins, click here.) Hence, the idea that it’s round one of baking because the day after Thanksgiving, I’m baking cookies and mantou (a Chinese plain, white bun). Oy. I’m already imagining the weight I’ll be gaining.

Anyways, the sourdough bread was an initiative that I’ve taken because of the fact that I finally persuaded my mom to buy lots of King Arthur flour because: (1) It’s on sale and (2) I like the fact that after reading numerous cook/baking books that King Arthur flour has a higher gluten content compared to other brands of all-purpose flour; which makes a crusty bread a bit more chewier. Well, actually I have some King Arthur bread flour from a few months ago that I haven’t finished up, so that went into most of my sourdough starter.

The recipe I’ve used it actually a hybrid of a lot of three different sourdough recipes, so I can’t really credit the person or company that created the recipe. The starter is from King Arthur Flour, the walnut raisin half of the sourdough is slightly adapted from King Arthur, and the plain sourdough was from a fellow blogger, the Foppish Baker.

For those of you who don’t really know or how sourdough bread is made, it’s basically two major parts to it but it’s a bit tedious, especially on the first part the starter.

My starter is basically two cups of unbleached bread flour (I used King Arthur but you may use another brand and I like unbleached flour more because there are less chemicals and human intervention with a good ingredient), a package of yeast, and two cups of warm water with a tablespoon of sugar. Mix all the ingredients and let it sit out in room temperature, covered with a clean dish towel. Every morning I feed the starter (I call it the “mom”) with half a cup of flour, same amount of water, and a teaspoon of granulated sugar for the next 3 days.

I was actually worried or paranoid that it won’t turn out well but seeing that on Tuesday night; I’m happy. The mom (starter) had a beer, yeasty aroma, and the thickness of pancake batter. Not fruity because of the fact that there’s no fruit to aid in the fermentation, though you may use grapes to start the starter.

I scooped out a cup of the proof and mixed the flour, water and yeast again, and let it proof overnight to really get the bread making started.
After sitting out overnight with a clean kitchen towel, it bubbled and expanded and it eventually looked like this:
From here, I took from the Foppish Baker’s recipe to split the dough into two. One of the halves will be the plain sourdough and the other will be the raisin walnut sourdough. The plain half was placed into a large greased bowl and covered to let it go to its first proof. The other half was mixed with toasted walnuts and pre-soaked raisins and then placed into another large, greased bowl for proofing as well.

After mixing in the ingredients

After 1st proof

After 1st proof

The shaping phase; I thought of sticking with the boule shape because I know that making it into a baguette would be a bit tedious because I know I don’t have the baguette pan to help keep its shape. I don’t have the bannetons (a basket that shapes the bread) because I’m not willing to shell out $30 for something that I don’t use often. So, it’ll be a free-form boule.

After shaping

I let them proof for the second time and then stick it in the fridge overnight since I’m planning to bake and eat these in the morning.

After 2nd proofing

I was actually surprised how huge they were! After taking these photos, I got some sleep and got up 5 AM. Unfortunately, I have to, my mother is one of those people who must eat early in the morning or she’ll throw a tantrum if you don’t feed her. Anyways, I took out the pans of bread and let it sit out while I’m preheating my oven at 500 degrees with a heavy pan sitting on the bottom of my oven and two other sheet pans to act as a baking stone of the oven. This idea came from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s book, The Bread Bible.

Once I preheated the oven for half an hour or so, I placed both loaves into its own sheet pan and throw in a cup of ice to the heavy metal sheet pan that is sitting on the bottom of the oven. The results were actually good, as you can see down below.

Plain Sourdough bread; the middle picture is just a closeup to show the texture of the crust

Raisin Walnut Sourdough

I’m really happy with the blistered crust on both loaves but the plain sourdough held its shape better than the walnut raisin. I guess because the raisins were soaked in water, therefore more moisture to the dough. So, my mental note for next time is to knead in more flour for that bread. The crumb texture of both breads had irregular holes! So, I’m very content with that.
Both loaves had the thin, crisp, almost mahogany in color and the crumb texture is light and moist like those sliced packaged bread one can purchase at a grocery store. The difference between the two is that the plain sourdough had a slightly tangy, yeasty aroma that is almost like a sourdough bread I had in San Francisco, but it wasn’t fermented or proof out long enough for my starter, so it lacked that “sour” taste. The raisin walnut bread is slightly different because of the sweetness that imparted from the raisins and the crunchy nuttiness from the walnuts that gave it an interesting texture to the crisp bread. Overall, I’m pleased with the results for baking sourdough bread for the first time.

Orange Cranberry Muffins
Briefly, so I won’t kill you from reading so much, I’ll talk about my orange cranberry muffins. It sounds very “fallish” doesn’t it? Cranberries are so ubiquitous during the fall and my mom bought it a few weeks ago, all we did was wash the berries, dried it and freeze it.

This recipe is based on Martha Stewart’s blueberry muffins the changes I made was obviously replacing the blueberries with cranberries, added the zest of a medium orange, a teaspoon of orange extract, a 1/4 cup more granulated sugar because of the tartness of the cranberry.

Interior shot to show texture

Well, now you got a glimpse of my holiday baking craze. I hope you all will be having a good time spending time with your family, if not well, what can I say? I’m just thankful that even though I have some tiffs with my mom, I love my family and I’m grateful that I have what I have. You know what I mean? Once again, Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I’ll try to eat out next week. ‘Til then, happy eating!

It’s nearing the holidays and I want to hone my baking skills again just because I have no school on Friday and I have no important tests to take care of this week, and damn it, I want chocolate! So, it’s my excuse to bake for a short period of time (an hour including the vanilla creme anglaise sauce).

The first thing I made was the creme anglaise just because it needs to be cooled for at least an hour or two so that it’s thick enough to be creamy and silky to the palate.

After pouring the creme anglaise, then into the fridge. Sorry for that fragment…
Now onto the chocolate souffle!

Modified 11/26/06: Photo-technical difficulty therefore the change to this post, if you have read this earlier. Fotki dropped off my trial account; so now I’m switching back to Flickr Pro account (it’s cheaper too). You may still see the photos for this particular post by clicking on the link that I’ve indicated about the slideshow.

Both tasted very good comfort dessert food that isn’t so fussy (at least to me) the baking time took 10 minutes. So, the wait wasn’t so bad and one must consume immediately. As for the leftover creme anglaise, I drank it up. What? It’s not like you lick, eat or drink up something straight up (for example, spooning peanut butter or Nutella and lick it off)?

Well, at least I still got some of my cake baking skills. Hopefully my pies on Turkey Day are fine, amongst the other stuff I would be baking.

If you want to see the steps done on a slideshow (would be cool to look at), click here.

If you want the recipes, just write a comment and I’ll post it.

(Added 11/19/06)
Individual Chocolate Souffles (from Gourmet Magazine)
Recipe yield: 2

Unsalted butter and sugar for coating the souffle dishes

5 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon dark rum (or you may use vanilla extract if you don’t want booze)
1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 egg whites
Pinch of cream of tartar
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter 2 1-cup souffle dishes and sprinkle with sugar.

In a metal bowl over a pot of hot, but not simmering, water melt the chocolate, stirring until smooth. Remove bowl from heat and whisk in the egg yolks, one at a time. Whisk in the rum and butter.

In a bowl with an electric mixer beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar and a pinch of salt until they hold stiff peaks.

Stir one fourth of the whites into the chocolate mixture and then fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly.

Spoon the mixture into 2 1-cup souffle dishes that have been buttered and sprinkled with sugar.

Bake the souffles on a baking sheet in the middle of the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they are puffed. (My additional note: Must consume immediately! Or the souffle would deflate. Not like we have a problem with that… ^^ ).

I woke up this morning and thought to myself, “I want some Chinese food.” Obviously being in New York, that means Chinatown. So, before I left my house I just grab a cup of coffee and a banana, in hopes of stuffing myself with good Chinese food.

The problem with the morning commute is that I haven’t been to Chinatown in a loong time, as in the last time I’ve written about Chinatown was about 2 months ago, long. So, I’ve lost my way there wandering around the streets trying to figure out where the heck are the three spots I want to go to: Dumpling House, Dragon Boat Cafe, and Double Crispy.

Eventually, I found Double Crispy and ordered for some egg custard tarts. This particular bakery is known for their multiple variations of the traditional egg custard tart. Those of you know like to know a few “pronunciations” or the name of the tart in Cantonese, it’s called dan tat. They only had two flavors available at the time: the standard, plain egg custard and the one that looks like a take on creme brulée. Here’s the photos:

Vanilla/Creme brulee variation of the egg custard tart

Regular Egg Custard Tart

The regular egg tart is 50 cents and the vanilla/creme brulee type is 80 cents; in other words, it cost me $1.30. It was limited in their flavor varieties because it’s 7:30 AM. It’s fine with me, I have more room to eat more food.

Both tarts were slightly warm to the touch: it’s a good thing because it’s fresh. The regular tart is tasty. It’s just the way it should be; the crust or tart shell is both flaky and crumbly that it has a good balance of both qualities that is desired in any pie or tart crust. Not greasy (I’ve eaten several tarts that are pretty darn oily: not a good thing) and the custard itself has a smooth, rich, and creamy mouthfeel, just enough sweetness that it doesn’t kill your palate.

The vanilla/creme brulee tart has the same characteristics as the regular. The differences are that it has the dark spots on the custard that looks like a creme brulee of sorts; it’s more sweeter (but not killer sweet) and has a stronger vanilla flavor. It’s a nice variation. I’ve tried those - what I call weird flavors - green tea and black sesame from Tai Pan Bakery in Flushing and I don’t really like it. It just tastes strange to me (I think the flavors were off?) but that was years ago but I’m willing to try Crispy’s variations since their tarts are better than Tai Pan’s, in my opinion.

The next stop is Dragon Boat Cafe. It’s a buzzing place where it seems like many Chinese locals come here for their breakfast and it’s my first time here. I walked in and thought to myself, “What am I in the mood for?” Even one of the girls who worked there was waiting for my order as I stared at the dizzying array of buns, tarts, cakes, etc. Finally I came up with the decision of getting a fried sesame ball (called jien duy, in Cantonese; cost 80 cents) and a pineapple bun (bo lo bau; cost 60 cents), totaling $1.30. I know, the whole $1.30 thing is somehow repeating but it was really unplanned.

The fried sesame ball:
To tell you honestly, it’s been probably 5 years since I’ve eaten a fried sesame ball. Usually, I have issues with establishments and their deep fryer: they don’t tend to change their oil often enough. So, this is the only time I really let my conscience go because I just want to eat it. Ain’t it pretty? It has a beautiful golden brown exterior coated with sesame seeds, almost hot to the touch (happiness, because it’s practically felt like it’s been out of the fryer about 5 minutes ago so I know it’s fresh at least. Well somewhat, because my oil issue just kicked into my mind now). Anyways, the exterior crust was really crisp that I really have to sink my teeth into that thing and once I did, out came a somewhat loud crunch. To me, it’s a good indicator that it isn’t a mushy grease bomb that is covered in seeds, which I’ve eaten many of these sesame balls in my earlier years that are awful. This is a very good one. After that hard exterior, then came a soft, chewy rice dough (don’t worry, it’s cooked), after that layer is my personal favorite part, the smooth, sweet, lotus seed paste. Ahh…this is delicious. I reveled in this fried ball for a moment. This is how it looks like after two bites:
The pineapple bun was fine. Nothing special about it in comparison to the ones I’ve eaten in Flushing, Queens. To those of you who never had a pineapple bun, it looks like this:
It’s slightly smushed because the woman who packed my stuff, squished my bun. I always see this flaw of squeezing the life out of any baked bun that I order from a Chinese bakery and it always annoys me. *sighs* Anyways, it’s called a pineapple bun because of the sweet, crumbly, yellow-golden brown crust looks somewhat like a pineapple but not taste like a pineapple. The bun itself should be light and airy, as you see here:
It’s somewhat compressed since I have to tear the darn thing to have a texture shot, sorry, but you get the point. It’s slightly sweet and it smells yeasty after I tore the bread into two.

There are some variations that looks very similar to a pineapple bun that could be filled with red beans (think adzuki beans or if you don’t know what that is, think sweet red bean paste that can be a little chunky for texture), black bean (once again, sweet), coconut flakes, etc.

After eating those and walking around Chinatown for a while, all of a sudden I had a hankering for dumplings. My mind clicked to the Dumpling House. I never went there before except the fact that many people from Chowhound directs others to eat there for cheap dumplings, so I kept that in mind and now I’m there. I didn’t really realize that the location of this place is actually bordering the Lower East Side and Chinatown, so it took me a good deal of time to find this place.

It’s actually a small hole-in-the-wall establishment that has a tiny counter with practically no seating, maybe some standing room in the back. A Chinese woman was working there and when I asked for dumplings in Cantonese, she replied back to me in Mandarin. So, with that whole loss of communication there, I went off with English and thankfully she understood me. I bought the standard deal, 5 pan-fried pork and chive dumplings for $1. Probably one of the best deals in town, in my opinion.

After paying the dumplings, I whisked off to the nearest park to eat my dumplings, which was about a block away. When I opened the Styrofoam container, it was steaming hot, releasing its meaty, pan-fried grease smell. But that was the biggest issue I have it - the greae. I know I can’t ask for much for paying $1, but it’s my own little thing with food that I’m always critiquing. Besides that, the dumplings were meaty, juicy (probably the fat ratio from the pork is higher, maybe 20% fat?)
The dumplings are delicious though, despite my nagging annoyance with grease. It’s perfectly seasoned, oniony flavored from the chives, and a very nice crunch from the bottom crust; which is a good contrast of the soft, juiciness of the dumpling from a crisp crust from sticking on the wok (the large, round pan that is usually used for pan frying dumplings).

I went off with the rest of the morning shopping for calligraphy supplies in Pearl Paint and search for Christmas cards because Christmas is coming and classes are about to be over; I have to start cranking out the cards to friends and family with calligraphy.

I had another pang for a snack around 12:30 and I was in Chelsea. I thought of going to Rickshaw’s Dumpling Bar for their chocolate dumplings, since I remembered reading about them last winter in a NY Magazine article. I walked over to that dumpling bar, as they called themselves, and waited on line for a few minutes. It’s lunch hour and the local business crowd are going for their dumplings (the savory ones) for lunch. As I looked around, it basically a clean, well lit place that is slightly Industrial/modern decor - it’s very streamlined and somewhat minimalist with lots of seating.

They had a bunch of different options of dumplings from the traditional pork to the low carb and if you want it in soup or fried and then the one that I’m looking for: the chocolate dumplings ($3). Also, I was thirsty and since it’s kind of what I’m considering it as my dessert course of the day, I added the Thai iced coffee ($2.95). It cost me $6.45 with tax. I know, it’s not cheap. They gave me a number and as I waited, it’s photo op time.

The cook on the right saw me taking pics of the kitchen area and tried to get my attention to take of him, so he grabbed a colleague of his and posed.

It’s a takeout box containing my 3 chocolate dumplings and my Thai iced coffee. I haven’t tried Thai coffee before but I’ve always heard that it’s a sweet coffee, which was my original forethought of this as my dessert course.

It is a sweet, not cloyingly sweet, strong coffee. Not espresso strong but more like a strong brewed coffee flavor that has an initial smoky, bold flavor with a nice caramel finish. Probably it came from the evaporated milk. I’m not too sure but it tasted good.

The highlight of the day: the chocolate dumplings.

These dumplings that you see above, is taken out of the box and was placed in a pyramid. I don’t like how it looks in that box. It’s more playful now.

Anywhoo, the chocolate dumplings are basically deep fried mochi balls filled with melted chocolate with Plugra butter (ooh…those of you who aren’t keen on the butter business, Plugra butter is basically an American made butter from Keller’s Creamery with a much higher butterfat content that of the typical American brand, 82.5% compared to 80%; so less water content equals richer flavor and texture to your food, pastry, etc.). I took a bite from one of these dumplings and it oozed chocolate with the synchronization of the slightly crisp exterior. It tasted nutty from the black sesame seeds, dark chocolate was good (about 60% cocoa) and it wasn’t very sweet. I would dub this my little chocolate dumpling of love. hahaha… It’s really good and it goes well with the coffee.

Bitten chocolate dumpling with its siblings. That sounds wrong, doesn’t it?

That’s my Chinese/Asian food craving day, even though it’s more Asian fusion for dessert but you know what I mean.

The addresses of these spots:
Double Crispy
230 Grand Street
New York, NY

Golden Dragon Boat Cafe
111 Bowery
New York, NY

Dumpling House
118 Eldridge Street
New York, NY

Rickshaw’s Dumpling Bar
61 W 23rd Street
New York, NY

If you want to see the all of the photos of this post with the some shots of the establishments, click here.

For a map of where I went, click here.

Yesterday afternoon, Friday, November 10^th, I went to the 9^th Annual NYC Chocolate Show. I arrived there about 12 PM and I already bought the ticket online for $25.05 (regular admission is $25 at the door), including the discount code from Frommer’s; it’s just the shipping and fees TicketMaster kicks in to inflate the charges further instead of $15. But I’m not complaining I avoided the long line waiting to get a ticket in person. When I got into the Chocolate Show, they stamped my hand so I could come back in later on today, if I want, and I checked my coat, which was $2.

It was already a crowded place, buzzing with activity: vendors vying to get the attendees’ attention to try and especially purchase their chocolates, book signings with various pastry and candy cookbook authors, cooking demonstrations from pastry chefs and tastings in the Chocolate Lounge. There is no problem getting people to get samples, it’s a given to this show and there are a good amount of people buying chocolate anyway.

The hoards of people make me feel claustrophobic.

The predominant sales would go to Payard; Kopper’s is actually popular toward the younger crowd as I looked around. As some of you know, I’m a picky chocolate connoisseur and I’m not too fond of Payard because it’s not extraordinary chocolate. I mean, it’s good but not great. I don’t like Kopper’s at all because it’s just chocolate covered nuts and whatnot, so obviously I’m not bought.

Those of you who do love Payard’s chocolates, the little purses that have 2 pieces of chocolate bonbons are $3.50, same as the small cube which also contain 2 pieces. I don’t know about Kopper’s because they don’t appeal to me.

I bought three items; all are small gift boxes: Cosmic Chocolate’s Cosmic Bombs (4 pieces for $8), Recchiuti’s 4 piece chocolate box ($10) and Marquise de Sevigne’s box of chocolates ($18). The one that is out of the ordinary from what I would usually buy (something elegant in taste and looks, dark bittersweet chocolate and not sweet) is Cosmic Chocolate because of its cocktail inspired flavors. I’m regretting not going to Mary’s chocolates first because I didn’t know where the heck it was until I bought everything and I didn’t bring enough money with me and they don’t take credit cards. So, right now I’m banging my head against my desk for not buying their absolutely exquisite chocolates both in design and in flavor and texture.

Mad Mac NYC Booth

One company called Mad Mac NYC, sells MACARONS! The ones that Robyn have talked and consumed on copious amounts in Paris and inspired me to search for some in NYC. I was tempted to buy a large macaron (it’s $2.50) but somehow I didn’t act on the impulse of buying one. I don’t know why. Probably because I’m surrounded by 99% chocolate companies, that I’m turned off by macarons? Oh, how my mind works… Anyways, at your disposal, you may see their display.

Mary’s is a Japanese chocolate company that has many beautiful chocolates that may be exotic to some people, especially Americans. The two samples they have given out throughout the entire show were their green tea truffle (a white chocolate based truffle covered with green tea powder; it had subtle notes of citrus flavor and the green tea powder is definitely not matcha tea (which is usually bitter and bold), this tea is very muted and soft) and the black sesame truffle (a white chocolate truffle flavored with brandy and it’s a new flavor, as been told during the tasting, and rolled in black sesame seeds; it’s very nutty in flavor because of the sesame seeds). I like both but prefer the green tea more because of the subtlety and smooth, creamy mouthfeel (I know, it’s wine speak but it makes sense to what I’m talking about now). They brought a few of their chocolatiers to actually have them make their chocolates in the booth. It was actually interesting to watch how meticulous it is to make such wonderful chocolate. As you can see:

Step 1:Step 2:Step 3:I also love their kimono display. Look below:

Chocolate Butterfly #1

Chocolate Butterfly #2

There’s more kimono detail pics in my album (see link at the end of the post).

Unfortunately, during their chocolate and green tea tasting in the Chocolate Lounge, someone in the audience asked if they have any retail locations in New York City and the speaker/Japanese translator said, “No, we don’t.” So once again, I’m mentally kicking myself not buying their chocolates. At least there’s always next year to do buy it.

I attended 3 different demonstrations at the Chocolate Lounge. The lounge is basically a partitioned room that is covered in dark brown velvet, chocolate bonbon shape and designed couches, and a heavy cloth toward the back of the room of the countryside, finished off with dimmed lighting of soft yellow-orange. It’s kind of lounge, laid back kind of feeling. As you can kind of see here:
I attended the Hershey’s tasting, which they’re trying to introduce their new line of regional chocolates called Cacao Reserve, and try to teach the audience how to taste chocolate (i.e. the smell, the snap, the bite and let the chocolate melt on your tongue). Usually I don’t eat Hershey’s bars because they’re too sweet and it’s milk chocolate but the ones they’re giving out for sampling is not bad. At the end of the show, they gave out goody bags of their new line of chocolate. As you can see laid out on my table at home:
The other demonstrations besides the aforementioned, Mary’s Chocolate and Green Tea tastings and the Hershey’s was a bartender who created an alcoholic chocolate drink (they checked I.D.s, by the way), named Arbor’s Delight.
It’s a scotch based drink (single malt): liquid chocolate, Grand Marnier, and flamed or burned the orange peel to release the orange flavor and aroma. It’s very smoky, potent; it took over all of the chocolate and orange flavor that left me with a thought of, “Where’s the chocolate?” I could only smell it but not taste it. Only the men seem to like this drink but not the women in the audience.

The one vendor that is absent from this Chocolate Show was Jacques Torres. This is a surprise to me since I’ve always read for the past few years that Mr. Torres is usually the front man of this show and for some reason, he chose not to be a part of the show this year. Hmmm…too bad.

Another vendor that I would like to highlight in the show is Marquis de Sevignes from France. Besides the fact that they have elegant chocolates (that is quite pricey but I still bought anyway), is that they have a survey out to whoever is interested in trying four chocolate bonbons (chocolate enrobed pieces with a filling): crème brûlée, a dark chocolate ganache (I think it said 80-90% cocoa?), citron, and a praline. You try each piece, give it a rating from 1 (the worst) – 10 (the best) and any comment you would like to add for each piece of chocolate. I liked all of them but my favorite out of the group was the dark chocolate ganache because it was dark chocolate, smooth, silky, great chocolate scent and it had a good, delicate snap from the outer chocolate shell. The least favorite was the crème brûlée because it was too darn sweet. These chocolates were inspired by their chocolate bar flavors that they are selling now for $5; it’s about the size of what you would get from a Lindt bar, about 3 - 4 ounces.
The other vendor that I don’t know too much but really loved their chocolate truffles were from Romanicos Chocolate. I’ve tasted their coconut truffle and a berry truffle…it is sublime! It’s a soft dark chocolate ganache type of truffles and it’s melts in your mouth. Oh…I’m reminiscing that truffle. I also managed to get a couple of samples for another chocoholic friend of mine, Kim, and when she tried it, she had a chocolate-gasm and blocked out from reality for a good minute or so. It really blew her mind how good it was. I was tempted to take a photo of her reaction but I think she would kill me doing so. I’m just reading the Chocolate Show’s program and it said this company is based in Florida. Double damn. Problem is that if I did buy this chocolate, I know I would eat it practically the day of or the latest, today.

Speaking of samples, I probably ate half a pound of chocolate yesterday and managed to get almost a pound of chocolate for Kim. Why not? The vendors don’t really care and I want to make my ticket admission worthwhile. All I could say is after spending four hours at the Chocolate Show, I know I’ve eaten probably two to three times the maximum intake of saturated and unsaturated fats and 1,000 calories at least. But it’s the day after my birthday and it’s my own treat of sorts. I might come back next year to get a box of Mary’s and Romanico’s chocolate.

If you want to see more photos of the Chocolate Show, click here.

Well as promised, I would continue my trek for some great croissants that could match Mr. Claude’s. Actually there is a potential rival. I have visited another ten bakeries. So here’s the list…(and I’m still using the same rating system)

Balthazar Bakery located in 80 Spring Street (near Crosby St.) in SoHo. It’s a popular place for all things French since it created a huge buzz back five to ten years ago. I never ate in their restaurant but I went to their bakery a few times before.

I tried their Almond Croissant ($2.50) a few hours after I bought it. I know, moisture and humidity might’ve killed the texture of the croissant a bit but I found the croissant in general, quite bread-like in texture. It’s not crispy, it lacked the shatter effect but it had a little bit of flakiness. It tasted good though; a sweet (a bit too sweet) almond paste filling in the center and it’s not greasy. Rating: 2.7 out of 4. It would’ve been a close 3, if it was crisper.

Joyce Bakeshop at 646 Vanderbilt Ave., in Park Slope, Brooklyn. If you’ve read from my previous post about this bakery’s macarons, I had a slightly negative review on those macarons. When it came to their plain croissant ($2) it didn’t really do any better. The positive part: the croissant was a bit flaky and I heard the crisp shatter from biting it. The negative: it was quite greasy and the flavor was bordering bland - the butter flavor of the pastry is not shining through here. It’s ok, not the greatest and not the worst. Rating: 2.5 out of 4.

Tisserie at 857 Broadway (at 17th St) was the next destination for a plain croissant ($2). I didn’t really have high expectations for this place on croissants because it’s not a French bakery. It’s actually Venezuelan with a French influence.
Their croissant looks decent but a bit too narrow than a typical croissant.

The croissant was really crisp but there’s no shatter effect that didn’t result much flakiness when I tore it apart. It doesn’t have a real buttery flavor, it’s not bland per se, but it’s not flavorful either. Rating: 2 out of 4.

I have recently visited Patisserie Claude again but this time I tried his pan au chocolate, a.k.a. chocolate croissant ($1.85) at 7:30 AM. It was filled with a lot of loyal, local patrons who already occupied the tables which was unexpected to me (kind of). But anyways, it was fresh out of the oven and Mr. Claude was actually doing the transactions (he was actually nice). I walked over to Joe’s coffee on Waverly Place (a few blocks away) and ate it with their house coffee.
The croissant was still warm. As you can see in the photos, the dark chocolate is still gooey (about 70% cocoa content). The croissant does not have much the shatter effect compared to the plain, probably it’s too warm? It was particularly greasy - as you can see at the photo, which was the biggest pitfall; at least it was still delicious. Rating: 3 out of 4.

Panya Bakery located at 10 Stuyvesant St. (3rd Ave. & E 9th St) in the East Village; I’ve been to this Japanese bakery before a year ago and I remembered some of their stuff was pretty good but I haven’t tried their croissants before. So, my curiosity came over and I went down there to try their croissants, well at least two of their nine varieties of both sweet and savory.

The first one I tried was their mini whole wheat croissant (60 cents). Isn’t it adorable? It’s about snack size, 2 to 3 inches in length. It has good color, it smelled wholesome yet it had a sinfully buttery scent, too. It was really crisp and had great shatter effect. There’s just a slight hint of grease on the fingertips but really unnoticeable until you really look at it. The flavor of the whole wheat gives it a slight nutty essence and the butter flavor really permeates throughout the crumb. It’s actually one of the better whole wheat croissants I’ve eaten in a long time. Panya Bakery located at 10 Stuyvesant St. (3rd Ave. & E 9th St) in the East Village; I’ve been to this Japanese bakery before a year ago and I remembered some of their stuff was pretty good but I haven’t tried their croissants before. So, my curiosity came over and I went down there to try their croissants, well at least two of their nine varieties of both sweet and savory.

The first one I tried was their mini whole wheat croissant (60 cents). Isn’t it adorable? It’s about snack size, 2 to 3 inches in length. It has good color, it smelled wholesome yet it had a sinfully buttery scent, too. It was really crisp and had great shatter effect. There’s just a slight hint of grease on the fingertips but really unnoticeable until you really look at it. The flavor of the whole wheat gives it a slight nutty essence and the butter flavor really permeates throughout the crumb. It’s actually one of the better whole wheat croissants I’ve eaten in a long time. Rating: 3.2 out of 4.

The other croissant I had from Panya was their ham & cheese croissant ($2). It had a gorgeous lacquered, golden brown exterior and it smelled of butter. It was very crisp and it had good shatter effect. I forgot to use a knife to cut the darn thing so that explains why the ham and cheese is dangling out of one of the halves. Anyways, the ham was the regular ham you would get from a deli and the cheese was American cheese from a deli as well. I wouldn’t expect fresh baked ham and Keen’s cheddar (an English cheddar - very good by the way) in it since it’s $2. But it’s yummy and not particularly greasy. It’s good breakfast food for those who don’t have sweet tooths; not everyday of course unless you want to raise your cholesterol. Rating: 3 out of 4.

One of the commenters from my previous post on croissants claimed that Zabar’s located at 2245 Broadway (80th Street) in the Upper West Side, was good. I ventured there for breakfast before my morning class, since John Jay is actually not too far from there, and gave their plain croissant a whirl (cost $1.65). The croissant looked good: the shape was fine, it had a decent, light golden brown color and a slight sheen from the glaze. However, it was was not crisp and it does not have any shatter when I teared it in half. Disappointment…the interior looked ok, a lot of irregular holes which kind of reminds me of bread - not really a good thing to look for in a croissant. This means that the croissant’s texture is going to be more soft and bread-like than crisp, flaky lightness that I seek in a great croissant. When it comes to taste, it has a very vague hint of butter flavor not much of going on. To sum it up, it’s soft, light and slightly moist in the center. The egg glaze probably is the reason why it’s soft on the exterior (as you can see on the bottom of the croissant); it gives a nice golden brown color but no crispness to any baked good as I have done this for many years on my homemade baked soft white bread loaves. Not the best croissant I’ve ever eaten. But at least their coffee was not bad; they just added a little too much milk in my coffee. Rating: 2.5 out of 4.

Almondine Bakery located at 85 Water St. in Dumbo, Brooklyn. I have been to this bakery when it first opened - yeah, it was a loong time ago and I remembered it was one of the superb bakeries in the city. So I thought I should repay a visit and try some of their baked goods. It was around 8 AM when I arrived there and they had a couple of baked goods out like the croissants, a couple of danishes, creme brulee, cupcakes and their highly rated baguettes from the NY Magazine article that was out recently. I tried their plain butter croissant ($1.95), amongst the other goods. It was slightly warm and very crisp - the slightest touch to the croissant, you can hear it’s brittle song. When I tore it in half, it shattered and flaked. Not at all greasy and it had a wonderful buttery scent. Mm…I was sensing delirium’s coming to me once I take a bite out this croissant. The taste was very ethereal - it’s buttery good and it has a great mouthfeel to it - it’s light and delicate. I love this croissant. It’s the closest to perfection for a croissant in my book! Rating: 3.75 out of 4.

So, as you can see I love Almondine’s croissant. So go out to Dumbo, Brooklyn and get some of their croissants (and pastries)!

I finally went back to La Bergamote after a long absence from this place for half a year and I tried their chocolate croissant ($2.45? I don’t recall exactly how much I paid for it but it’s around that price). It’s very crisp, flaky, buttery, and has the shatter effect from biting it. The croissant has good dark bittersweet chocolate, about 70% cocoa. It’s very good. Rating: 3.3 out of 4.

Silver Moon Bakery’s plain croissant. I have sung much praise for this bakery and their croissant; if you have read my previous two posts. Here’s what I wrote, in case you haven’t read it:
“Isn’t it a thing of beauty? Perfectly golden brown exterior, buttery aroma, it has the crisp shatter effect from the slightest pressure. Oh, I’m getting excited! (Hey, I love food. If you don’t have any feelings for food, you don’t love food; you’re just eating for the sake of eating. One must appreciate the effort those bakers/chefs/cooks put into their product and if it’s good and exquisite, then it’s worth loving the product, the baker/chef/cook, and possibly the institution of where you bought that product).
Sorry about the sidetrack, I just need to get that out of my chest since some people think I’m strange (in person) the way I react to food. Back to the croissant. When I tear this beautiful, buttery pastry, it sang it’s brittle shatter song along with the sounds of thick broken glass, with the fall of thin, delicate shards of it’s flaky exterior. The moment I bite into the croissant, it had the shatter at the bite and it was actually very light in texture. I’m delightfully surprised because the woman I spoke to said it was dense. Hmm…anyways, it was (as I said) light, delicate and it had the faint creamy hint of butter flavor. I have to say this is one of the best croissants I’ve ever eaten in my entire life! J’adore! C’est magnifique!“ Rating: 3.75 out of 4.

The last and final croissant (not their coronetti) was from Taralucci i Vino; cost $1.50 with tax comes out to $1.65. It’s very crisp and flaky to the touch with a tiny bit of shatter effect. I should consider the fact that I bought and ate this croissant at 11:45 AM, I’m not expecting perfection but it’s not bad really. It tasted buttery - good butter flavor, not stale at all. Rating: 3 out of 4.

If you want to see the album of all the croissants I’ve consumed for the previous and current post, click here. Just click on the Slideshow on the top right corner.

For this list (not overall), my ranking of the best croissants:
1. Silver Moon Bakery
2740 Broadway
New York, NY

2. Almondine
85 Water Street
Brooklyn, NY

3. La Bergamote
169 9th Avenue
New York, NY

4. Taralucci i Vino
15 E 18th Street
New York, NY

5. Panya Bakery
10 Stuyvesant Street
New York, NY

6. Balthazar Bakery
80 Spring Street
New York, NY

7. Patissierie Claude (I know, a huge upset - but that chocolate croissant was too dense and greasy)
187 W 4th Street
New York, NY

8 & 9 (tied). Zabar’s
2245 Broadway
New York, NY

Joyce Bakeshop
646 Vanderbilt Avenue
Brooklyn, NY

10. Tisserie
857 Broadway
New York, NY

If you would like to see a map of all these places, click here.
If you want to read the first part of this search for great croissants, click here.

I went uptown this morning to have breakfast at Silver Moon Bakery. All I did was have a cup of coffee and a banana before I get out of my house at 6 AM. Those of you reading this, might be thinking, “What! You get out of your house at 6 AM!” Yeah, partly because it’s about 1 1/4 hours for me to get there from my house and my mom’s up, bugging me. So, I’m trying to evade her by leaving home early. I know, it’s kind of mean to do that to my mom. I love her and all, but if you live with her, you know what I’m living with.

So, I got off the 1 train to Broadway & 103th St., out of the 104th street exit and walked over to my beloved Silver Moon Bakery. Well, as I took photos of the place (see below) I noticed that most of their lights were off. I mean, the bakers and employees are all working but I realized that I’m there too darn early! I looked at my watch and it’s 7 AM.
Great. I thought to myself, “What the heck am I going to do?” I just decided to walk uptown. As I just walk pass the locals who are in their business suits, the joggers and dog owners. I’ve realized that Riverside Park was nearby so, I just walked westward and took some nature pics.
After taking in some nature and I’ve had it with the numerous dogs coming into the park, I walked back to Silver Moon. By the time I’ve reached there, my watch says it’s 7:30 but there were four other people, besides me waiting outside their door. While I was waiting and being the only possibly strange person out of the group to take a photo of their menu of the day.
When I saw on the list “Apricot Hazelnut Parisienne,” I just remembered about the whole list of stuff I should eat from the local woman I talked to last week. I automatically thought to myself, “It’s mine! All mine!” plus the croissant and pumpkin chocolate chip muffin I want to eat for breakfast.

As I (and the other locals) saw an employee unlock and open the door, we all scrambled in to get first dibs on their freshly baked goods. As I said earlier, I ordered the Apricot Hazelnut Parisienne ($4), Plain Croissant ($1.85), and the Pumpkin Chocolate Muffin ($2.40); total $8.25. Yeah, it’s pretty darn pricey but it’s totally worth it! Partly because it’s my breakfast and lunch and the quality is superb, as you will read on.

But first, the one of the many photos of the bakery’s baked goods’:
If you want to see more photos of the bakery, click here. Just go to the upper right hand corner to see a slideshow.

The first thing I ate was the plain croissant.

Isn’t it a thing of beauty? Perfectly golden brown exterior, buttery aroma, it has the crisp shatter effect from the slightest pressure. Oh, I’m getting excited! (Hey, I love food. If you don’t have any feelings for food, you don’t love food; you’re just eating for the sake of eating. One must appreciate the effort those bakers/chefs/cooks put into their product and if it’s good and exquisite, then it’s worth loving the product, the baker/chef/cook, and possibly the institution of where you bought that product).

Sorry about the sidetrack, I just need to get that out of my chest since some people think I’m strange (in person) the way I react to food. Back to the croissant. When I tear this beautiful, buttery pastry, it sang it’s brittle shatter song along with the sounds of thick broken glass, with the fall of thin, delicate shards of it’s flaky exterior. The moment I bite into the croissant, it had the shatter at the bite and it was actually very light in texture. I’m delightfully surprised because the woman I spoke to said it was dense. Hmm…anyways, it was (as I said) light, delicate and it had the faint creamy hint of butter flavor. I have to say this is one of the best croissants I’ve ever eaten in my entire life! J’adore! C’est magnifique!

Next up, the pumpkin chocolate chip muffin.
When I took it out of the bag it was still warm, as in just baked 10 minutes ago warm! I’m very happy about this because of the copious amounts of muffins that I have eaten outside of my home, I rarely encounter a warm muffin. Given to this unexpected factor, my initial thoughts about this muffin was going to be something extraordinary or close to greatness. The dark golden brown, orange-hued exterior with the gooey chocolate chips looks very appetizing. When I grabbed a plastic knife and start cutting it in half, I heard the crisp, crunchy exterior sound. I haven’t hear that sound in any muffin that I have tried that isn’t homemade…my anticipation is building. There’s even distribution of chocolate chips to muffin; very good. Moist interior, getting better. After I quartered the muffin (so I could hold and eat it) I took a bite; the crisp, crunchy exterior meshes with the soft, moist crumb (interior) makes it texturally pleasing to my mouth. It tastes like pumpkin, but not the hearty, spice laden pumpkin. It’s more light and floral in flavor, delicately balanced with a hint of cloves and the lightest touch of cinnamon; it’s almost undetectable, which I think is a good thing. My mind is giggling in delight eating this great (not good, great) muffin.

The last but certainly not least, the apricot hazelnut parisienne bread.

After I took a bite

It’s a beautiful batard shaped loaf of bread. It has a very crisp exterior that it also has it’s own song, in reference to a recently published NY Magazine article about baguettes. It smells wonderful; predominantly a sour-yeasty scent with a faint hint of nuts. The interior crumb is moist and it has the irregular holes (a good sign of artisanal bread). The flavor is yeasty, slightly sweet and chewy from the apricots, and the earthy, nutty, crunchiness from the hazelnuts brings an the contrasting flavors and textures to the bread. I love it! As I eat this bread, I’m thinking of pairing it cheese. Mmm…cheese; probably something creamy and light in flavor. A young cheese like brie or a fronage d’affinois (don’t know that cheese? Click here.) would go very well with this bread.

Coming back to Earth (mentally) after spacing out into my own sphere of bread and pastries, I realized people are start packing in this bakery.

Well, that’s pretty much what happened in Silver Moon. I will definitely come back here to try more of their stuff. I wonder how good are their cakes. Hmm…maybe next time. I still have my loaf of bread unfinished.

Being a huge sugar/pastry/chocolate addict of sorts I think I have found the bakery of my dreams. The place I’m talking about is Silver Moon Bakery located at 2740 Broadway. Yeah, it’s waay up there in the Upper West Side. I went there once a few years ago before I reached my epiphany with food and underestimated the quality and goodness this establishment has. All I remembered that it was good but I didn’t remembered how good it was.

Since I was doing research for fabulously great muffins from a suggestion from one of the commenters, I wracked my brains and remembered I went to Silver Moon and try out their stuff again. I got there pretty much at opening time at 7:40 AM on Thursday morning. It took me a good 3-5 minutes to make up my mind what the heck I wanna eat! There’s so many good looking pastries, bread, etc. that I was undecisive! Eventually, I settled for a blueberry scone ($2.40), a chocolate chip brioche ($2.45) and a small coffee (forgot how much) with tax comes out $6.55.

The bakery itself is large but the seating area is very small, only two tables with chairs and a high table next to the bread racks that has no chairs whatsoever. Only during the sunny, warm days they have tables outside but that Thursday morning, it was raining. So, I parked myself and my food on the high table. So, here’s the food porn:

Blueberry Scone

Chocolate Chip Brioche (cross-section)

Blueberry Scone (Cross-section)

That’s for my breakfast and lunch, ok? So it’s arguably calorically reasonable. Just forget the fat content thing so my conscience won’t get the best of me.

The blueberry scone was still warm when I actually start breaking it apart for photos. It had a crisp exterior and a soft, flaky crumb interior. It bordered between moist and dry for the interior and the flavor of the scone had a small amount of blueberry and there’s actually visible specks of orange zest in them, which was a nice surprise. It’s not bad but it’s not the best scone. Eh, I’m still searching for the best scone.

The coffee was good and strong. But it’s more like a bright, acidic flavor than dark, bold and robust.

The chocolate chip brioche is very soft and buttery from the feel of it, when I broke it apart. It’s sandwiched a good bittersweet (70%) chocolate. It’s not very sweet. The only sweetness it has is lended from the sugar crystals on the top, as well as the crunch. It’s pretty damn good.

Ooh, I should mention this. After I took pics of the food and started to nibble my scone and scribble down my notes about this scone, an older local woman (possibly in her 40s) wanted to take a small share of my table and I let her do so. She had a fruit yogurt and coffee. I felt kind of guilty from eating all that is buttery and sweet, while she has something modestly healthy.

Anyways, she saw my snapping photos and she asked me, “Are you a tourist?”
I replied to her softly, “Not really.” (I’m a tourist to the Upper West Side but not a tourist to NYC) “I just write a food blog.”
She said, “You write a what?”
I said, “A food blog.”
She said, “Oh.”
A few silent moments passed while we’re both eating our breakfast items when she started to talk to me again. This time she commented about my scone. She said the apricot scone is a lot more moist than the blueberry, which she finds it dry. Then she started to suggest me things that she claims that are fabulously delicious and good.
She recommended the:

• Parisian bread that has apricots in them. She raved about this bread a lot that when she can’t recall the name, she tried searching for them on the bread racks and then start asking one of the employees what’s the name of that bread. (They didn’t have it during the time I was there, darn! They said it won’t be out until later.)
• Seeded ficelle that is out only on Fridays; it’s one of their specialties.
• She also praised their foccacia. She’s Italian and she said that once she ate it, “it feels like your transported to Rome.”

When I asked her what would she recommend on the muffins (I’m doing research on that item), she said, “They have a great pumpkin chocolate chip muffin. And it’s seasonal.”
I replied to her, “I love seasonal foods.” I tend to eat seasonal anyways.
Also when I asked about their croissants since I saw there were trays on display of them, she replied that “they’re (the croissants) are very dense and buttery, very Parisian type of croissants; not very flaky. I’ve tried almost everything in this bakery and they’re really good.”

So, with that in mind (and in my book) I will try their stuff whenever I’m in their neighborhood or whenever I’m having a huge carbohydrate, baked good craving. I truly think I have found my new favorite bakery, I think it would be almost the same passion as the woman I spoke to has. The major problem is that I have to trek uptown to get some of their bread and pastries. Well I can’t always have everything, and I can’t afford to live uptown so I’ll journey up there if I have to. Probably the staff of Silver Moon will recognize me as the weeks goes on…