Payard

Payard's is a chain of bakery's belonging to Francois Payard, a french pastry chef. They have classic French pastries are well as savory snacks. All of the employees there speak French, and have somewhat of a French attitude. It was a very casual style bakery, and the pastries looked amazing. Since there were three of us there, we each ordered 2 things and share. I ordered Opera Cake and a big chocolate macaroon, Jessica ordered a lemon roulade cake, and a strange pie-like thing with an unknown filling. Ming ordered a chocolate almond croissant and a Sacher torte. Everything was about $4 dollars each.

Everything was very rich, but good. The only thing I was sort of iffy on was the pie-like thing and the lemon roulade cake; the lemon roulade had good flavor but had sort of a strange texture to it. It was stiff and tacky, like there was a lot of gelatin in it. The pie-like thing just confused me and wasn't anything I was used to eating. My favorites were there opera cake and the chocolate almond croissant. The opera cake is  layered sponge cake soaked in coffee syrup with chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream. Their opera cake was very chocolate-y, the coffee and chocolate flavor worked together to bring each other out. The croissant was amazingly buttery and flaky. I was told that the croissants weren't very good there, but I disagree. They were great! The chocolate macaroon was okay, a little too sweet, I should have tried pistachio. The Sacher torte was also pretty good. A Sacher torte (usually pronounced soccer) is a cake layered with chocolate cake, apricot jam and topped with chocolate icing. The original recipe has never been shared so the sacher tortes we eat or make are usually close replicas. The one at payard used a raspberry jam. After eating all of these, we went for ice cream... and after that, I felt sick. I give this place a 7.5 out of 10, the pastries were great, the service was okay, it was pretty expensive for the servings we got.

Sprinkles

Sprinkles is said to be the original cupcake bakery, with their first location in Beverly Hills. but I had heard that they were opening in New York, I was hoping they would open when I was here, luckily they did! The owner of Sprinkles is the judge, Candace Nelson, from cupcake wars, and apparently she knows the cupcake... very well. I have to say these were the best cupcakes I've had in New York City. They opened on May 13th, which I was going to avoid because I thought the line would be insane. I already close to the street, on the West Side, and decided I should just cross over to the East Side of Manhattan to check out the line. I saw the line before the building, but surprisingly it was not that long. It was strange to see how many people were interested in the line, even though they had no idea what it was for. Many people hopped in the line after hearing. It took about 10-15 minutes; some of the staff is outside getting people ready to go in. They were handing out flavor cards, which was basically their weekly menu, printed on a really cute card in a very cute way, little dots would represent different flavors on different days of the week. There were so many to chose from, they have about 25 flavors and they run about 10 of those a day, from chocolate, vanilla, coconut, cinnamon sugar and so many more. They also run a cupcake special, which was salted caramel. Oh. Yes.

I made it inside, which was adorable, they had a rainbow wall and a zebra wall. I was excited. I made it up to the counter and the very friendly staff was hard at work and took my order, which they wrote down and took my name because they were so busy. I ordered a red velvet, to try they're cream cheese icing, dark chocolate, and the salted caramel. They are 3.50 each, super expensive, but we're paying for the name at this point. It was $11 total, for 3 cupcakes. They packaged them up for me and put them in a cute paper bag and I brought them home.  On this trip I decided I would stop at Bloomingdale's for the first time and get myself a 'Little Brown Bag" Which I am proud of, and spent $29 on a pair of running shorts, just to get the bag. The shorts were probably the cheapest thing in the store.

When I got back to the apartment I dove into the red velvet cupcake, and split it with Neil. It was moist, flavorful and the cream cheese icing wasn't too heavy. It had the perfect icing to cake ratio! I saved the other two for the next day. The chocolate was very rich and slightly bitter also moist and flavorful. My favorite was the salted caramel. The whole cupcake tasted like caramel, but it wasn't overpowering. The cake itself was like a brown sugar cake, and the icing was mixed with caramel and sprinkled with bits of sea salt to make it that much better. It was the happiest cupcake eating experience... I didn't share that one. None of the cupcakes tasted like box mix, I would be very surprised if I found out that it was. The icing was also American, which surprised me because I don't normally like American buttercream, but it wasn't too sweet. It was very well balanced. 10 out of 10, great cupcakes, great service, kind of pricey, but totally worth it. I will be going back this week.

Wooden Utensils!

Billy's Bakery

Billy's Bakery is pretty much the same thing as Magnolia's, I was told that this is because the Billy's owner left Magnolia's to start his own business. It is a lot smaller inside, and has less to offer, but the style is very cute, sort of 1940's meets modern day. The day that we went they were serving regular cupcakes like chocolate and vanilla combination and some with different color icings and sprinkles for $2.75, as well as specialty cupcakes like red velvet, banana, and carrot for $3. They also had pies and little pastries and cookies in another window. I must say that the pictures on the website are more appealing than the products in the actual store. My friend, Jessica, wanted a vanilla cupcake with vanilla icing, but they didn't have it in the window so she asked if it would be possible to get one, or at least scrape the chocolate icing off and have them put vanilla icing on it. They said that it wasn't possible. I also noticed while we were ordering that one of the employees came upstairs with a sheet tray filled with frozen cupcakes. It doesn't bother me that the cupcakes are frozen because most places freeze cakes and cupcakes, but I found it strange that he walked up with it while there were customers. He could have waited until we left, since the shop was empty. And since they had extra cupcakes and containers full of buttercream in the back, they probably could have easily gotten her a vanilla vanilla cupcake. She chose a vanilla cupcake with chocolate icing, I chose banana with cream cheese icing, and we both got a piece of the peanut butter pie for 4.25.

We decided to split the cupcakes so we could get a taste of each. The first bite of my banana cupcake scared me because it tasted rotten. It was so moist and banana filled that it just had a spoiled flavor to it. It wasn't rotten or spoiled it was just super banana-y. The vanilla one had a strange flavor and crumbly texture to it which led us to believe that it was a mix....it could have also been the combination of being over baked and frozen. The chocolate icing wasn't bad. So the cupcakes were sort of a disappointment, but the pie was delicious! I brought it home and shared it with Neil; it was a pretty big slice of pie and it was peanut butter cream cheese! One of my most favorite combination's! It was sort of mousse like and fluffy and soft and heavenly.  The crust was very crumbly, but the texture and flavor went so well with the mousse. It was also topped with pieces of peanut butter cups and peanuts. I loved it, but that combination is hard to miss.  I'd have to give Billy's Bakery a 5 out of 10, the place was cute, the pie was good, everything looked pretty, the service is okay, but the place is known for cupcakes, and they were not very good cupcakes.

Shake Shack

Shake Shack is a delicious burger restaurant that was featured on Food Network for being so good. They are known for they're Shack Burger that is topped with their special Shacksauce. I was very curious about the sauce, and since it was on Food Network, I decided I had to go. They have Shake Shacks in Connecticut, Florida, Washington D.C., other parts of New York and the Middle East. There are 5 of them in Manhattan, we visited the original one in Madison Square Park. Normally the line is outrageous; they have cameras set up to check out when the line dies down so you can hurry in. Luckily when we went the line only took about 5-10 minutes, and you could see me on the camera!

I went for the Shack Burger and a chocolate milkshake. I probably should have ordered 2, because they were so amazing. The service was great too! They were all happy to be serving you, and since there is always a line they are always cooking. I only had to wait 4 minutes or so. They give you the little buzzers that light up when its ready, and they call your name. The burger was $4.50 and the milkshake was $5, not too bad of prices, and so worth it. "Whats the sauce?"... you may be asking. What I am thinking it that it is a simple mayo ketchup thing with a little garlic in it. Very easy, but everything about buying it seemed so much better than it would ever be if it were homemade. The milkshake was great as well, it tasted real, no syrups or fake flavors. It was a great experience 10 out of 10! They even serve wine and beer in their little closed in area, and they have TVs around that area.. . . . waterproof? Must be!

Dog Snacks!

Baked By Melissa

Baked by Melissa is a small window cupcake shop with a couple of locations around New York. A couple of interns and myself were walking around Soho looking for a bread shop and we came across it. There was a short line out front and it seemed like a cute and popular place. The cupcakes are about the size of a half dollar and crazy enough cost 1.50 or so each. What made them even better was that they were stuffed cupcakes, like stuffed with cookie dough, peanut butter and more. I bought 12 of them and paid 15 dollars. I wanted to try them all! There was only one repeat flavor in the box of 12. They were really tiny, bite size cupcakes, but I split them with Neil, that way we were able to taste every one of them. Unfortunately they tasted like they were made from a mix, but they were still pretty good. The buttercream, I cannot remember if it was American or Italian, was good, not too sweet, and the stuffing's were even better! I would have to say that they deserve a 6.25 because they did taste like mix, the service was okay, and they were soooo overpriced for their size. An overall fun eating experience, but it should have cost $6 for 12. 

Chelsea Market Round 2 & 3

I was told that if I wanted to eat a good chocolate chip cookie I had to go to Jacques Torres. He has a few different locations around New York, I chose to go back to the Chelsea Market and visit the one they had they there. The cookies are $3 each, but they are about 5 inches across, and there is a lot of chocolate in the cookie. I bought 2. It really was a good chocolate chip cookie. I was amazed when I broke it in half to see the layers of chocolate and cookie stacked on top on each other. It was like they spread out the dough, and poured chocolate over it and spread it, then folded it 5 times. It was even better when I warmed it up slightly. When you buy it at the store they ask you if you want it warmed up, or cold. Unless you are bringing it home you have to get it warmed up. It is amazing.  The service was also really good inside the market, the cashier was friendly, I also really like Jacques Torres. I give it a 10! I will be sad to not have this cookie option when I leave.

Along with the cookie I decided to buy a brownie. There is a brownie shop inside of the Chelsea Market called Fat Witch. They have a few different flavors, and they call each brownie a witch. The packaging is a cute witch and depending on the flavor, her hair color changes, like a blondie is a called a blond witch and the picture is a blond witch. Its a very cute little business. The brownies are about 3 inches by 3 inches and cost $3 each. They also sell witch babies, that are about 1.75 each and are a little less than half the size, a cook book, and box mixes. Once in a while they will sell unwrapped witches for a discounted price. I chose to buy a caramel witch to bring home. It was a very good brownie. It was moist and very chocolaty and sticky, but not too sticky, like the Peanut Butter & Co brownie. I was happy with it, it is a little expensive for the size of it, but over all a delicious brownie. 8.5 out of 10.

The third time I went to the Chelsea Market I was with Michele and she wanted to try the gelato. We chose caramel and chocolate. The flavors were very rich and went well together, as well as alone. I really love that gelato store, it is just so over priced.

I would really like this huge jar of nutella. Its 70 dollars. The large jar is the same amount as 13 little jars. 13 little jars costs $30 less than the big jar unfortunately.  I found this in the Italian Market within the Chelsea market. They have really good cheeses and meats like prosciutto.

Peanut Butter and Co

Peanut Butter and Co is a restaurant-like cafe that serves peanut butter everything. They have plain peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to peanut butter milkshakes. I was interested in going because I love peanut butter and I heard they have the Elvis,a toasted sandwich with peanut butter, banana and honey with bacon! Which is what I ordered. As well as a peanut butter milkshake and a brownie. I shared the sandwich with a friend from work. When it was ready it looked and smelled amazing. The peanut butter was warm and leaking out of the sandwich. The first bite was great, although I didn't get the bacon yet. It was sweet and warm and super sticky! Once the bacon came in it made the sandwich extra special. It was so sticky, and the peanut butter milkshake did not help the stickiness, but it was all very satisfying. The milkshake didn't have an overwhelming peanut butter flavor to it. My other friend chose a chocolate, peanut butter, banana milkshake, he said that the banana was overpowering the peanut butter, but it was still good. The brownie was incredibly sticky and extremely hard to eat. I split it with Neil and it was too rich and intense for us to even finish our halves. The flavor was good. it did not taste like peanut butter at all, it was very chocolaty though.

I thought that the prices were pretty decent, 7.50 plus a dollar for the bacon. It came with chips and a pickle. The milkshake was $4.20 plus fifty cents for the peanut butter, and the brownie was 2.50.
The menu also has a lot of things that did not have peanut butter in it like chicken salad sandwiches and tuna melts. They also sell they're companies peanut butter, and all the 10 different versions of it, including "The Heat is On" spicy peanut butter. The store sells these peanut butters, recipe books, a box mixes, but they can also be bought online.


I give this place a 7 out of 10. The service was okay, the place was small but cute, and the food was good.

Laboratorio del Gelato

 I was told by another intern of this gelato bar in the lower east side that had many different flavors of gelato. I figured it would be the usual chocolate, vanilla, nutella. She started listing them off and it turned out that they had really fun, different flavors like olive oil, basil, and a lot more. That night I checked out their website and saw the list of flavors.  I decided to check it out one day after work. I was really excited to try a flavor that I had never had; I was thinking possibly the olive oil and basil.
http://www.laboratoriodelgelato.com/flavors.php
I came up to the building, after calling Neil a few times for directions, and realized it was no longer there, and had moved to a new locations. Again, I had to continuously call Neil to get the new directions. It wasn't a very pretty walk either, very dirty area. I finally got there and it was open. When my friend told me about it she said that she had to wait in line for 20 minutes. When I got there, there was only one person waiting, and he had left, leaving me to be the only person! It was great. I was disappointed  to find that they didn't have all of the flavors that the website showed, which makes sense because there were so many, but they didn't have the olive oil! It took me about 8 minutes to decide, I chose Guinness and cheddar cheese. Two different flavors, I thought they'd be fun together, beer and cheese! It was $3.25 for a small, with two scoops. It was bigger than the once in the Chelsea Market, and cheaper. Again the service was obnoxious, she acted like she had a better place to be, which I'm sure she did, but come on!

The Guinness had a nice flavor, it was sweet, but had a rich beer flavor to it, but the fact that it was sweet kept it from being too intense. It reminded me of how coffee is usually pretty bitter and intense, but when you have coffee ice cream, its smooth and easy to eat. It was a very similar situation. The other gelato was the cheddar cheese. I was nervous for this one, but excited at the same time. I did not know what to expect. I should have tasted it before the Guinness, the Guinness was slightly sweeter than the cheddar cheese, so once I had taken the bite of the cheddar cheese it tasted even less sweet, and a little more sour. I took a second bite, and it was a lot better. It was sweet, and it was cheddar! It had a sort of surprising flavor, but a very strong, cheesy, daily flavor to it. The texture was a little more solid than the Guinness gelato, I thought about it for a minute and realized that cheese is hard when cold, so the fat content was making it more solid. It did not leave a fatty, slimy mouth feel, it melted just like ice cream. I was satisfied with the gelato they also sell they're flavors by the pint! I would go back, 8.5 out of 10, bad service and they advertise the wrong address!
The building itself was very interesting because it was all windows, and you could see everything going on inside, like a laboratory. The wore lab coats, and they were testing and mixing things. The glass also had writing on it describing what each station was doing.

Momofuku Milk Bar

The Momofuku is a Japanese restaurant group that has other outlets like Momofuku Noodle Bar, Ssam Bar, Milk Bar and more. Momofuku means lucky peach. The Milk Bar, the bakery, was the one that I visited. It offers cakes, cookies, ice cream, pies and more, including some savory foods. Their style is kind of rustic, yet sophisticated. They deal with comfort foods, but present them in a new, or different way, and making the food taste good is important to them. The ice creams they serve are flavors like cereal milk, candy bar pie, and grasshopper pie. Their ice cream flavors derive from some of there pies, like the candy bar pie, grasshopper pie, and the crack pie. Their cookies are not the type of cookie you would find in a normal bakery, they have the compost cookies, the corn cookie, and the cornflake-marshmallow chocolate chip cookies. I am really interested in their cakes, and I would not mind having there cake as my wedding cake one day. It is a cake, without the buttercream on the outside, you can see every layer of the cake from the outside.

This is one of their wedding cakes, it is a pretzel cake with a beer ganache. Sounds awwwwesome! It's also very unique, but still pretty to look at. They also make cake truffles, which are basically cake balls.

 When I visited the milk bar I knew right away what I wanted to have, I knew I'd need an ice cream, a piece of the grasshopper pie, and the compost cookie. I chose the candy bar pie ice cream, it has the flavors of the candy bar pie, peanut butter nougat, pretzels and chocolate crust.  The ice cream was extremely rich, and very sweet, my friend Alisa, from Japan, isn't as accustom to sweet food like Americas, so to her it was extremely sweet. I wasn't able to finish it, because it was so rich, but it was really good. I could taste the different flavors in every bite, and the textures made it fun. It was smooth and creamy, but also crispy and crunchy from the Graham cracker crumbs on the outside, as well as the chocolate crust pieces on the inside. The compost cookie has a ton of ingredients listed on the package, but the main ingredients are pretzels, potato chips, coffee, oats, butterscotch, chocolate chips. It sounds like it could be disgusting, but they probably wouldn't sell it if it was. I love it, it also had varying textures from the coffee to the potato chips. The combination of flavors worked so well together and it was worth the price. Now for the pie; I love the original grasshopper pie, so I was really excited to see that they had it on their menu. Their version is slightly different from the original version. It is more of a chocolate mint cheesecake with the marshmallows on top rather than mixed inside. The pie was also extremely rich; I split it with Neil, but probably could have eaten it all alone, since it was a pretty small piece. The cookie cost 1.85, the ice cream was 4.50 and the pie was 5.25.  The prices were pretty good for the quality of the food. I was upset about the price of the ice cream, but once I realized I would not be able to finish it I realized it was worth it, a little goes a long way. I forgot to mention how awful the service was. A woman asked a question, which pie was better, and they looked at her like she was a moron for asking them that question, their answer was that they were both good. When my friend ordered they acted as if she was interrupting their conversation. When I ordered they gave me a piece of the pie and said it was my friends, although she had already gotten one, they did not notice that they served her already, even though they only had 3 customers when this happened. I gave it back, but I should have kept it! 7.5 out of 10, service was bad, and prices were decent, and food was pretty good, just a little too sweet and rich.

Bobby's Burger Palace

This was another New Jersey restaurant that I HAD to go to because it is one of Bobby Flays restaurants, and it was featured on Food Networks The Best Thing I Ever Ate, Burgers. Claire Robinson, host of 5 Ingredient Fix was on the show, and her favorite burger was the Buffalo Style Burger from BBP, Crunchified! To crunchify a burger at BBP means to fill it with chips. BBP is a casual dining restaurant that is all about burgers, there are different types of creative burgers as well as simple ones. They also serve grilled cheeses, salads, onion rings, sweet potato fries, regular fries and milkshakes! The most most you'll pay for a burger is 7.50, a side of fries is 2.50. The prices were very reasonable, especially when you think of who owns the place. The milkshakes, vanilla bean, chocolate, pistachio, blueberry, strawberry, mango, coconut, cola, coffee, were 5.00 each. I found that to be a little expensive, but I decided to have one anyways.

To get to BBP, Neil and I had to ride the bus to the Bergen town center, which is probably a 10 min drive, but was a 25 min bus ride. Totally worth it. The decor and atmosphere in the restaurant was great, lots of red, orange yellow colors and a fun modern look to it with bar-like tables that squiggle through the restaurant. The way it works is when you walk in, you walk straight into the line, order at the counter and find your seat. After that the waiters bring your food and milkshakes to you. The staff is very friendly, we had 3 different people ask us if we needed anything, and how everything was. I decided to order the buffalo burger, because it sounded so good when I saw it on Food Network. The burger contains the beef patty that is topped with blue cheese, red hot sauce and watercress. Obviously I got it crunchified! So it was topped with chips. I also ordered a side of fries and a vanilla bean milkshake. I know, vanilla, so boring, but the fact that it was vanilla bean instead of straight up vanilla extract made it so much more special to me. I would have loved to try pistachio too, but I was not going to pay $10 for two shakes. Neil and I are saucy people, and apparently so is Bobby Flay, at the table there are bottles of different sauces, like a chipotle sauce, jalapeno relish, and a few more. The french fries also come with a barbecue sauce, so we were set with sauces. The burger came out looking great. It was a super messy, slightly soggy burger, which was expected because of the hot sauce. It was juicy, and very flavorful, fun to eat. I was so excited that I forgot to take a picture when they set it in front of me, so I took one after I dug in. The milkshake was delicious, a bit icy, but the flavor of the vanilla bean was very rich and comforting! It all went so well together, and only cost me 16 dollars! I was very happy with this experience and would love to take people back with me. 9 out of 10! 

I apologize for forgetting to take a picture of the fries, milkshake, and sauces. I was too excited to be there.

Cuban in Jersey!

Just thought I'd share a little bit of what we have in New Jersey. Up the road there is a cute little Cuban restaurant run by a very nice Cuban woman. I may not remember the names of the things we ate, but they were so darn tasty that I brought my parents to it. We started with these potato-like things, with a different name, that were cut and fried and served with a cilantro dipping sauce. We also had a empanada appetizer with another dipping sauce that was slightly sweet and spicy. I went with the fried chicken, white rice and black beans, and Carol-Ann chose a dish that she often had when we lived in Florida. It was a humongous steak with a green chili sauce on top, yellow rice and black beans. Her was about 20 dollars, but when you see the amount of food that comes on the plate, it's worth it, we could have share, which I did with my dad when I went back. Mine was 12 or so. The total was $40 dollars, and was enough to feed 3-4 people, plus she doesn't have a liquor license, so it's bring your own. She happened to have leftover and gave it to us for free. We had a really great time there and I will miss it when I'm gone. 10 out of 10! Wooohooo!

mix and match

 

After we visited Magnolias we decided to walk around the Rockefeller area and we came across a chocolate shop that was in the Rock. In the basement of the Rockefeller there is a sort of shopping mall, the chocolate shop was on the main level, so it probably sees a lot of business from employees within. This place was ridiculous. The chocolates were lovely, but the prices were extremely high. They had a chocolate bark with hazelnuts, pistachios and other nuts that was $80 dollars a pound. Nuts are expensive, but that is outrageously high for a pound of chocolate. The macaroons were around 2.50 each, which is pretty expensive, but very common around these parts. I was holding my camera up to take pictures and managed to sneak one before I got yelled at and told to not take any. Bitches. Again, bad service, and the macaroons I bought, chocolate and passion fruit were good, they looked very nice as well, but they weren't worth what the store thinks they are. I think it deserves a 5 out of 10, for there exclusiveness, rudeness and okayness of macaroons.

That same day we visited the M&M store... and I bought a pound of M&Ms for 13 bucks... but they were colors that I picked out! Off of the worlds largest wall of M&Ms!

The day before all of these lovely pictures, the same day that we went to the Chelsea Market we walked around Soho, visited Body World, and went to DASH... not worth it, we stopped at a sandwich shop, which had premade sandwiches, salads and pastas, and sandwiches made to order. I chose the prosciutto, mozzarella sandwich with tomatoes and arugula with a delicious and surprising sesame mayo, which was sweet and tangy. The bread was nice and moist and did not scratch my gums.  The soup I chose was a spicy chicken, I was expecting it to be creamy, and it wasn't. The soup was okay, a little disappointing. I believe Carol-Ann had the BLT, she said it wasn't special, just a normal BLT. The service was great, I believe the guy was from Australia. They make their breads on site, and they have a pretty patio. The prices weren't bad if you consider we were eating in Soho, Carol-Anns was 5.25 and mine was 5.95, we eat got a half, but if you look in the picture a half was pretty large. I really like this place, I give it an 8 out of 10, services was good, as well as the food and the atmosphere.

We saw a couple of rats in the subway! This one was HUGE!










Traffic at 6:30ish. Honking is illegal in NY, you wouldn't know...