NYC: Restaurant Review - Grimaldi's Pizza

Grimaldi's Pizza - dinner on November 19, 2016

I have a coworker who, every time he goes to New York, brings home a takeout pizza from Grimaldi's and posts a picture of it. Once I'm done licking my screen in pizza envy, I make plans to go visit Grimaldi's when I'm in New York.

They have several locations in NYC and there's one within walking distance from our hotel at Grand Central. Well, walking distance to me. Shawn took a cab to meet me there, lol.

The location we went to looks like it was once part of an old church but had been remodeled into a little pizzeria. It's L-shaped inside with the narrow part holding several tables and the other section intersecting it holding more tables. I got there before Shawn, a little before 5 and I was the first customer in the entire restaurant. I thought New Yorkers just didn't eat that early. Turns out I was wrong because it was only a matter of minutes before the restaurant was nearly full.

The next customers after me were several women who took a table but shortly after, one of the pizzeria folks (maybe the owner?) asked them if they would mind changing to another table as a large party, mostly of kids, had come in and they needed to put together tables long enough to accommodate them; one of the tables they needed were where the women were sitting. They obligingly moved with good grace and I saw later that the owner had comped them dessert for the minor inconvenience. I thought that was a nice exchange on both sides and reiterated to me why I like patronizing small businesses. There's still a nice touch of great customer service and caring.

Not to mention, their pizza was awesome. Shawn and I ordered a medium meat lovers pizza for $28. And when they say meat lovers, they mean business. Look at that pizza. You can't even see the cheese because there's so much meat - sausage, pepperoni, ham, meatballs and a couple of other proteins. To a carnivore like me, it was pizza heaven. From this pizza forward, any other "meat lovers" pizza I order pales in comparison. Grimaldi's knows how to do pizza.

It's the first meat lovers' pizza I've had where, if you skipped the crust, you can easily Atkins diet with this pizza. Really. Now I know why my coworker almost always goes to Grimaldi's when he's in New York and why he brings a pizza back home. I would too.

NYC : Restaurant Review - Tavern on the Green

Tavern on the Green, Central Park - brunch on November 19, 2016

I mentioned in the previous post that I was late getting to Tavern on the Green thanks to GPS deciding to dump me at the museum instead. And, cutting through Central Park, it wasn't like there were well-labeled streets. Nope, just a bunch of walking paths so the directions were "in 200 feet, turn left", regardless of whether there was a left turn or not. And don't get me started that I almost missed Tavern on the Green regardless of the fact that it was standing in front of me once I had arrived. Not like they went in for super signage or anything.

Fortunately, I had perused the menu online the night before and had been able to text Shawn my order so she didn't have to wait for my 1.5-mile hustle to the park and could put in my order when she did hers. Consequently, the waiter brought out our food as soon as I had arrived, huffing and puffing with a flurry of apologies for having a lame GPS function.

The food was good, if a bit overpriced, but I'd gotten used to that in New York...and everywhere else. I ordered the steak and eggs which came with crispy hash brown potato cakes that were divine. The steak and eggs themselves could be had anywhere but still, by then I think I had walked at least 8-9 miles already on an empty stomach so I wasn't complaining. Too busy scarfing the food down.

I was feeling fine after the brunch (meaning comfortable, not full but not hungry anymore) but then we decided to order dessert. Despite the fact that I was carting around the sucre plaisir from Laduree and a 5" red velvet cake from Two Little Red Hens. No matter, we were there and so was the dessert menu.

This is another one that falls under the "no regrets" column, although I did go past comfortable once I'd eaten it. But it was warm chocolate bread pudding with speculoos (cookie butter) sauce. Yes, it was as good as it sounded and as it looked. I actually preferred it without the speculoos sauce but it was still delicious, no matter what. The bread pudding was made with challah which is my favorite bread. Just the right amount of chocolate and a perfect bread pudding texture. Okay, that was worth ending up in the wrong place, wandering all over Central Park and walking half of Manhattan. If you ever go to Tavern on the Green, try this dessert - it was fantastic.

NYC: Bakery Review - Two Little Red Hens

Two Little Red Hens Bakery - visited November 19, 2016

After my sojourn to Laduree on Madison Ave, I still had time before I went to meet Shawn for brunch to check out another bakery. I mapped myself over to Two Little Red Hens which was only a mile or so away from Laduree and (sort of) on the way to Tavern on the Green which is where we'd decided to have brunch. Have shoes, legs and feet, will walk miles for baked goods.

I can't remember what made me choose Two Little Red Hens as opposed to the other bakeries in Manhattan. It was probably location since I was already going to be headed to that part of Manhattan. Or it could've been a random yelp review. Or someone mentioning their cupcakes were good. It didn't matter because as soon as I stepped in, I was glad I came.

This is exactly the kind of bakery I like to try out. Lots of beautiful desserts in the display cases, small-ish space, kitchen on premise, friendly counter staff. I think I'd come with the intent of trying out a cupcake but they said they didn't make their cupcakes until the afternoon. I was there in the morning before 10 am. Bummer.

Undeterred and still having red velvet on the brain, I opted to get the 5" cute little red velvet cake instead. I did blink a little at the $15 price tag for such a small cake but when in New York.... Yes, it went into a bakery box and bag and I carted it several more miles to Central Park. I wandered around killing time before I met Shawn, GPS'd my way to what Google maps claimed was Tavern on the Green only to discover it erroneously led me to a museum 1.5 miles away. Ugh.

I redirected the GPS to tell me where I was really supposed to go - no, really, somewhere in Central Park, not the outskirts, and hustled my way to arrive 20 minutes late. More on that in the Tavern on the Green post coming up.

But in happier news, later that day, I cut into the little cake and let me tell you, it was worth every step of the 13-ish miles I had walked that day.

It wasn't just the flavor of the red velvet cake which in itself was pretty good, not quite chocolate but not just a red-colored cake either. But the cake texture was everything. Fluffy but not light-cakey. Not pound-cake-texture heavy either. But, like the Crumbs dulce de leche cupcake, it was just right.

I wish I could make cakes like this, I really do. I make decent cakes but so far I haven't cracked the code on making cakes with this kind of texture. It wasn't too soft, it wasn't too dense and it wasn't too airy but just right. Fluffy is the only way I can think to describe it although not as fluffy as my beloved banana cake from Icing on the Cake. But still a good fluffy.

That $15 for a little cake? Worth every penny. I want to learn how to make cakes with this kind of texture. I suspect cake flour for some of the flour, hence the softness of the crumb. But not all cake flour or else the texture would be too soft. I need to experiment.

NYC Bakery Review - Laduree Madison

Laduree Madison - visited November 19, 2016

I first visited Laduree in its home city of Paris, France. It was there on the Champs Elysee, I was there, there was a line outside before the mecca for macarons had even opened so of course I got in line.

You might remember that I don't really care for macarons (too sweet) and the only one I've actually liked was Laduree's salted caramel macaron. And even then, I wouldn't travel worlds for it. I'm just not a macaron fan.

However, I did become a huge fan of Laduree's plaisir sucre or a hi-falutin' way of calling a tremendous confection of chocolate layered with hazelnut mousse (?) atop a crunchy, airy base. Superb.

I visited a small Laduree when I was in Dublin some months ago but to my disappointment, because the shop was so small, they only sold the famed macarons.

But when I discovered, thanks to another foodie friend, that there was a Laduree in Manhattan, out comes the iphone, I plugged in Laduree and lo and behold, there was one on Madison Avenue. Walking distance from my hotel (again remembering walking distance to me is anywhere in Manhattan, no matter how long the blocks were or what the cross streets are).

And further lo-ing and behold-ing, they were large enough to offer more than just macarons so my beloved plaisir sucre and I were united once more.

Was it as good as I remembered? On the first bite, I wasn't sure. Perhaps my taste buds had gotten spoiled by all the other amazing food I had already consumed from New York's bakeries. Could Paris compete? Then I had to take a second bite to confirm. Okay, yeah, it was still good and worth fondly remembering. The $8.50 price tag might make many people cringe for such a small slice but I'll take quality over quantity and this is definitely quality.

NYC: Bakery Review - Crumbs Bake Shop

Crumbs Bake Shop - visited on November 18, 2016

Crumbs Bake Shop was also on my NYC foodie bucket list to visit. I've blogged before about my old college roommate Caroline sending me a mail order birthday present from Crumbs. I'd also blogged about making the cupcakes from the Crumbs Bake Shop cupcake mix I found at Target. I liked cupcakes from both sources but you know I had to go visit Crumbs for myself. Nothing like personal research after all.

What I didn't know was Crumbs had declared bankruptcy a few years ago, according to an old grad school classmate, Fran, who I met up with in New York. What?? I was checking all these Crumbs locations and seeing how I could circumnavigate to one but Fran advised me to call first before I used up my shoe leather hiking over in case that location had closed. Eeek.

But my fears (and you know I was afraid - it's me and cupcakes after all) were unfounded. After Shawn and I had lunch at Mama Mia and inhaled the Mississippi Mud Pie at Little Pie Company, we were strolling back to the hotel through Times Squares and, lo and behold, thanks to trusty GPS, yelp and my own unerring instinct when it comes to nosing out bakeries, we did come across a Crumbs Bake Shop in Times Square. Score.

By then though, you can imagine I was quite full of pasta and pie. Which left little room for cupcake. So despite my eyes always being bigger than my stomach - although, honestly, my stomach seemed to be doing its level best to catch up to my gluttony - I only got one cupcake. It was hard to narrow down the choices and I almost got two but sanity and my straining waistband prevailed and I "settled" for the dulce de leche cupcake. Even though the Chocolate Salted Caramel below was looking at me reproachfully for leaving it behind. ("Pick me! Pick me!")

Shawn and I had to wait until later in the day to eat it after we both had some room. All I have to say is the wait was worth it. The cupcake was smaller than I remember my birthday cupcakes being but the dulce de leche was really good. The highest compliment I can give any cupcake is when I eat the frosting (non-frosting person here, remember?). Yep, I ate the frosting too. The cake part of the cupcake was perfectly fluffy and delicious and the frosting complemented it nicely. I'm glad that of the one flavor choice I made, it was the right one. And no lie, I thought about going back later and getting another one. I didn't but yeah, I thought about it. Maybe next time.

Dulce de Leche cupcake

It wasn't just the flavor that made me love the cupcake, although that was certainly no slouch. But the texture is what sold me. This isn't your box-mix cupcake texture. It's like if a box-mix cakey cake texture met a dense pound cake texture and they compromised perfectly to meet right in the middle. Not heavy, not dense, not light or chiffon-y either. But just right, Goldilocks. This is the kind of texture I have yet to achieve in my cupcake and cake-baking efforts. The kind that, if I can't make it myself, I'd spend top dollar to buy it. In other words, this is Icing on the Cake banana cake-worthy. Please stay open, Crumbs Bakeshop. I want to come back.

Best taste and texture ever