NYC Tastes

I really use this day as an excuse to drink beer and eat cookies...so kind of like any other day in my life I guess:)  This Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip cookie is a brand new offering from Magnolia Bakery in the West Village . From the top it looks kind of boring.  Just a smattering of caramel in the middle and a few sprinkles of salt... ...but inside it was amazing.  Thick squares of chocolate layered side by side in the dough, ensuring a delicious mouthful of melted chocolate in each crisp buttery bite.  Happy St. Patty's Day to me! Magnolia Bakery

Last week I was invited to a special press event hosted by Bread and Butter PR and The Kitchen Table. When Mr. T and I escaped from the horrible rain and wind outside to the calm, serene downstairs space we were greeted warmly and handed a glass of wine. We walked into the main room with the food and our first stop was at Early Bird Food & Co. This little shop in Brooklyn Specializes in small batch organic granola and here it was showcased on top an open-faced peanut butter sandwich. What is it about a peanut butter sandwiches that makes you feel so good? Every time I have one I question why I don't eat them more often. The granola was delicious on top with nice clean pieces of nuts and oats. Next it was over to another Brooklyn specialty- some delicious cured meats and pate from Brooklyn Larder. Then onto more Brooklyn delights with Whole Cow's Milk Ricotta cheese from Salvatore Bklyn. I've been eating a lot of ricotta from Eataly lately but this st...

I happened to be on a Metro North train back into the city last week and it let me out downstairs. Walking out I noticed that Magnolia bakery was smack dab in front of me. Not being a person with any sort of “sweets” will power I walked right over and got in line. I’ve had Magnolia a bunch of times before and as you probably already know I think the best things here aren’t truly the cupcakes. They make an amazing banana pudding, fantastic peanut butter pie and luscious red velvet cake. However I was in a cupcake mood and noticed some new choices I hadn’t seen before so I ordered the Grand Central special and the red velvet cupcake. The Grand Central is marble cake on the bottom, topped with green vanilla butter cream and a dark chocolate disk on top. I had a few issues with this cupcake. First of all the cake was really cold. Keeping the cake so cold made it tough and nowhere near the airy moist dessert I usually enjoy. Second the icing was super sugary. Now I’ll be honest- Magno...

I was walking around midtown Sunday and just happened to walk by their branch of Magnolia Bakery. Never passing up an opportunity to indulge in some sweets I went inside and tried out something new. This is Magnolia's Whoopie Cookie. Two brown sugar cookies are held together by a thick, rich layer of maple butter cream icing. If you are a fan of super sweet this is just for you. The cookies were extremely fresh with a slight chew in the middle and the frosting was ridiculously sweet. Although I really enjoyed the whoopie the maple buttercream was a little bit too much for me. I think I would have enjoyed a simple vanilla instead. The brown sugar and maple were almost a flavor overload. Luckily I also purchased a cupcake as well so all of my sweet needs were meet!

OMG it’s the New York City Food and Wine Festival this weekend! I’m going to Meatpacking Uncorked tonight and then I’ll hit up the Grand Tasting tomorrow. I had a great time at both events last year so I’m very excited! Some SWEET updates for your weekend. I thought I would start with a picture of one of my favorite desserts in the city- the Gramercy Tavern German Chocolate cake. I was lucky enough to have this cake two nights in a row while my parents were visiting last month. Their pastry chef was just on the Martha Stewert show yesterday making a corn blueberry sundae. I may need to stop in for one of those. Bespoke has a new item out just for the fall season a Pumpkin Bourbon Chocolate. This is probably my favorite take ever on Pumpkin and Chocolate together. Bespoke only uses the purest ingredients and it shows in the quality of their product. I truly felt like I was biting into a wonderful pumpkin pie. This is even better than their Salted Pretzel Chocolate. Yo...