From Soho to Japan - the best chocolate across the globe!

After learning about my chocolate obsession, a friend from work told me the most amazing news ever - his wife works in marketing for the beloved MarieBelle (www.mariebelle.com)!  If you're not familiar, MarieBelle is a chocolatiere with a shop in Soho, over on Broome Street.  To celebrate her opening of a store in Kyoto, she partnered with a Japanese kimono designer named named Nobuaki Tomita, and he used her chocolate to make the first ever chocolate kimono!  Unfortunately I ruined my 15 seconds of fame with MarieBelle & Tomita by making weird faces at Craig's camera, but I had to post the pic anyway since I was so excited to meet her!

Craig, Cjap and I went to the event over at the Lowell hotel, where up on the second floor MarieBelle and Tomita were waiting to showcase his array of stunning kimonos, as well as demonstrate how he created the chocolate kimono.  At the end of the show, where we saw up close and personal how to dress like a geisha, they handed out MarieBelle's hot chocolate and a gift bag with a sampling of her luxury chocolates in an adorable case.

Why do we love MarieBelle?  Her chocolates are not only delicious and made from the finest and most diverse (and natural) ingredients, but each and every piece is a work of art.

Her chocolates are bite size, and while there are standard combinations like hazelnut, mint and caramel, there are also flavors such as earl gray, cilantro, lavender, mojito, dulce de leche, and caipirinha (leading me to believe she is inspired by flavors around the world, predominantly South America!).

There are regular chocolates and chocolate bark as well, but since we tasted the hot chocolate tonight that's what I'll focus on.  This takes the lead, replacing City Bakery as my favorite hot chocolate.  It was thin enough to drink, but thick where you felt like it was more of a luscious dessert than a beverage.  Caryn and I were so filled up on a glass that we didn't even eat dinner (okay, the hors d'eurves and wine may have had something to do with that too).  While I've shied away from purchasing too much MarieBelle in the past because I'd need a second job to cover the cost, it makes a lovely gift for any occasion.  Actually everyone, Christmas is just around the corner so if you want to send some as a holiday/housewarming gift...just saying :)


The shop and cafe are located at 484 Broome Street, and while you can purchase her chocolate at retail locations like Whole Foods, the store is definitely worth a visit.  Both the shop and cafe are beautifully decorated - it has the feel that you're stepping into a victorian living room at tea time.  Or if you're visiting Japan, check out the Kyoto location!

To order online and receive your own blue box in the mail:
http://www.mariebelle.com/store

Schmackery's - a cookie haven in Hell's Kitchen

Most New Yorkers avoid Times Square like the plague.  There's really not much reason to go, save for the occasional Broadway show or a trip to Carmine's for a special occasion.  So that will explain my reason for being in Times Square last week, a visit to good old 42nd street to see Bring It On the Musical.  While wandering around amongst the tourists before the show, we stumbled across a cookie shop I hadn't seen or heard of before - Schmackary's.

Zachary Schmahl, the founder, wanted to add a level of sophistication to cookies, and show the world the potential beyond plain old chocolate chip.  He opened up shop in May 2012, after spending years hand delivering his "Lip Schmackin' Good" home-baked cookies to his friends.  The name Schmackary's is a combination of Zach's name.  I thought it was kosher for some reason, but nope - the name was just a nickname of the baker.

The standard menu includes some of our favorites, but with a unique assortment of ingredients within.  For example, the chocolate chip cookie includes coconut and sea salt.  The menu changes daily with about 12 cookies on hand at all times.  Some of the other options include cookies and cream, maple bacon, oatmeal scotch, sch'mores, peanut butter banana crunch, peanut butter cup, red velvet, and white chocolate cherry.  There are two gluten-free options; lemon poppy and sweet corn.

There are seasonal flavors along with their traditional favorites; for Fall our options were caramel apple crisp, candied yam, blueberry cobbler, carrot cake and pumpkin spice.  The cookies come in 3 sizes - Schmall (a bite-sized option), Old-Fashioned (traditional style) & Schmack Snack (dee-dish).  There were also brownies, macaroons and bars that looked equally awesome, but we stuck with the Sch'mores cookie since that's their signature item and the guy at the counter said that's one of his faves.

The cookie base was graham cracker, and it had a layer of chocolate topped with toasted marshmallow.  The cookie portion tasted a bit dry, and the chocolate was underwhelming.  I felt that $2.75 was kind of overpriced for what it was.  But, it IS Times Square, and everything is double what it should be.  I would go back to try a different cookie and give it a second chance, since we did wait hours to actually try it and the marshmallow had solidified, but based on my original experience, I wouldn't put this high on my priority list of places to try.

Schmackery's is open Sunday-Tuesday 8am-11pm; Wednesday-Saturday 8am-midnight.

362 W 45th Street off of 9th Ave

www.schmackarys.com
646-801-YUMM

NOLA Special - Sweets Below the Mason Dixon Line

To celebrate my 30th birthday, the Cjaps took a trip down to New Orleans, the same place we went on our first vacation together 11 years ago!  On this trip, Caryn had a major hit list of all sorts of food we had to try - from beignets at Cafe du Monde to muffaletta sandwiches at Central Grocery.  In terms of dessert, I was a little bit nervous when in my research all I found were pralines, banana foster and bread pudding - how was I going to survive with no chocolate for a weekend!  I contemplated picking some up at the airport just in case, but decided to try to seek them out once we landed instead.

Well, I sure am glad we didn't bring anything with us at all - because who knew that on practically every block in NOLA, you can find a specialty candy shop!  There was the Southern Candymakers, Sucre, Blue Flog Chocolates, and Bee Sweet Cupcakes - almost too much to review at all.  But don't you worry, we managed to try something at each shop to report back so on your next trip below the Mason Dixon line you know just where to go!

Southern Candymakers was probably the largest of all of the candy shops in and around the French Quarter.  They had two locations, one at the end of Decatur street (334 Decatur)  and the other by the French Market.  They had a sign touting that their pralines were the best in New Orleans, and we agreed with this statement - although by the time we made it to SoCa we'd had so many different pralines we were on a major sugar high and had kind of stopped tasting things.  We tried a triple chocolate Oreo, which was 1/3 milk chocolate, 1/3 dark chocolate and 1/3 white chocolate with colorful designs throughout.  The chocolate surrounding the cookie was thick, and although they were $2 each (not far off from the price of an entire package of Oreo cookies, I enjoyed this as a fun treat.  We also tried sweet potato pralines, which were delicious - I actually liked them better than the traditional pralines.  They were a little too sweet, but there's no such thing as too sweet to us.

Southern Candymakers carried much of the same chocolate you can find in any great chocolate shop, but also an assortment custom to the area.  You could buy a chocolate cajun gator, crawfish, or fleur de lis.  There were Jackson Squares (milk chocolate mixed with Rice Krispies, peanut butter and caramel) and Bourbon Street Bark (milk, dark and white chocolate, peanut butter, pretzels, Oreo pieces and Rice Krispies.)

If you're not making a trip down south anytime soon, you can also order from their webiste: http://www.southerncandymakers.com/
But if you are in the area, stop in - they're open daily from 10am-7pm.
334 Decatur Street

On our second day in NOLA, the Cjaps took the #12 bus through the Garden District all the way down Magazine street to the very end. Magazine street is a 6-mile strip full of boutiques, chocolate shops - and the best Whole Foods we've visited to date! (Interesting note - WF outside of New York are allowed to sell alcohol in-store.  We had samples of red wine and rum while we shopped. Amazing!)

We had heard Sucre was voted the best candy store in all of New Orleans.  Unfortunately by the time we got there we had gorged on cupcakes, beignets, giant cafe au laits and god knows what else, so we weren't exactly starving.  But for research purposes, we knew we had to give something a try!

Tariq Hanna, a Nigerian pastry chef who has appeared in many competitions on the Food Network, teamed up with Joel Dondis, a New Orleans restaurateur in 2006 to create Sucré.  Tariq has been named Pastry Chef of the Year, and is known throughout the area for his amazing Lousiana desserts.

The store is a wonderland of sweets.  The windows display giant plastic ice cream cones, and macarons piled high in artistic creations.  Macarons are one of Sucre's specialties, and they have every flavor imaginable.  Chocolate, strawberry, almond, hazelnut, pistachio, peanut butter and strawberry jam, salted caramel - and NOLA-themed flavors like Bananas Foster and Chicory!  They're packed in a light blue box with a pastel striped top covered with a pink bow - pretty, but resembling a gift you'd bring to a baby shower.  There are a plethora of specialty chocolates, sold by the piece, gift set or bar (some Sucre chocolate can be found in stores throughout New Orleans, including Whole Foods, if you can't make it to the store.  The individual chocolates also included NOLA themes, such as a Fleur de Lis set, chicory (coffee folder into chocolate ganache), pecan ganache with candied southern pecans on top.

There was a full gelato bar with assorted flavors that could be made into fun sundaes (I wish I was hungry enough for the brownie sundae!)  There are seasonal and holiday themed gifts, and catering for weddings. This candy shop truly did have it all.  We spent half an hour looking at all of the different options, and if you tried something new every day it would probably take you an entire year to go through it all.

There was also a display case of pastries - eclairs, mousse, chocolate cake, bread pudding, and fruit tarts - as well as assortments of cupcakes topped off with frosting that contained glimmers of gold.  We decided on a brownie, since that's our go-to dessert and they looked right up our alley.

It was a good choice - the double fudge n'stuff brownie was thick, chewy and rich.  It was topped with caramel swirls and nuts, and ranked high with one of the better brownies we'd tried.  It held up well too; when we finished it hours later after having some drinks on Bourbon Street, it still tasted fresh and hadn't gone stale at all.  Sucré was voted #1 in the Best of NOLA 2011 for best sweet shop, place for dessert, and gelato, and the Cjaps second this ranking.  You can visit Sucré at 3205 Magazine Street, as well as in the Lakeside Mall in Metairie, LA.
They're open daily at 8am, and close at 10pm Sunday-Thursday, and midnight Friday and Saturday.
http://www.shopsucre.com/

No dessert round-up would be complete without a cupcake shop, so when we spotted a sign for Bee Sweet Cupcakes, in we went.  It was a small shop, with just one table and a display case of cupcakes so we were second-guessing making this our next stop, but once we went inside the employee was so friendly and informative that we had to stay.  He told us the ingredients of every single cupcake, as well as his personal account of Hurricane Katrina.  And when Caryn mentioned it was my birthday, he gave me my cupcake for free!

But on to what makes Bee's special now.
Bee's cupcakes are made from scratch each day including ingredients from around the world.  Chocolate from Germany, Belgium and France, vanilla from Madagascar, etc.  The cupcakes all have kitchy NOLA-themes.  There were two named after the Saints - one for the team and one for one of the players, although since I'm football-challenged I couldn't tell you what they were called.  There was a Prailines n Cream cupakes, with pralines baked into the cake and Aunt Sally's praline crumbles covering the frosting on top.  There was, of course, a Bananas Foster cupcake - a banana cake with caramel, a little bit of rum and cinnamon nutmeg buttercream frosting.  There were non-NOLA cupcakes that were just fun, like the Joe Dirt - a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting dipped in Oreo crumbs and topped with a gummy worm.  He said this one was popular with the kids, which of course made sense why that was the one I liked the most :)

But I went with the Chocolate Manic Attack (this blog isn't called 'Chocolate's Why I'm Fat for nothing!') - chocolate cake topped with chocolate frosting and sprinkled with chocolate crunch pearls imported from Belgium.  He put it on a cute cupcake plate and told us so many interesting facts about New Orleans - how life changed because of Katrina - he was 15 at the time and had to live with relatives in Florida for 5 months since his school was closed.  Apparently the crime rate went up in Texas because a lot of the poorer (and I'm guessing dangerous?) people evacuated and went to shelters there and reaked havoc.  Very interesting stuff.  But on to the cupcake!
I'm not going to lie.  It was a mediocre cupcake.  This can sometimes be a problem when you come from NY, where you can find the best of everything - it's hard for other cities to live up to our reputation!  It was okay, but the frosting was a little too sweet and it just wasn't doing it for me.  Caryn put down her fork after one bite, which never happens - especially when it's free!  But I give it points for the cupcake names, ingredients and creativity.

Bee Sweet Cupcakes is located at 5706 Magazine Street.  They're open Monday - Saturday, from 11am-6pm.  Why do they close so early?  Because once the freshly baked cupcakes are done for the day, the store closes - so make sure to get there early or there's a chance they'll be gone!
http://beesweetcupcakes.net/

Lastly was have Blue Frog Chocolates.  This was located directly across the street from Bee Sweet Cupcakes, and definitely had one of the widest assortments of chocolate creations I've seen.  The first thing I saw when I walked into the store was a chocolate pizza.  If it wasn't so hot out or if we were leaving that day, I would 100% have brought this back to NY with me - it looked phenomenal!  With a milk chocolate crust, mini marshmallows for cheese, red milk chocolate morself for pepperoni, and white chocolate and almond butter toffee nuggets for spices and parmesan - this was such a fun chocolate creation that I knew Blue Frog was a New Orleans gem.  They had chocolates for every holiday and occasion - birthdays, baby showers, weddings and the current Jewish holidays.  The store was massive, and we spent a good amount of time looking at the great chocolate masterpieces.
We settled on some chocolate cayenne drops, which left a kick of spice in our mouths and we thoroughly enjoyed.  Blue Flog has won the 'Best Candy Shop' by the Gambit-Weekly for the past 6 years in a row.
We didn't try much from here since they were on the more expensive side and had more gourmet chocolate, but it definitely should be checked out if you're in the area!
Blue Frog Chocolates is open from 10am-5pm Monday-Saturday, and 12pm-5pm Sundays.

http://bluefrogchocolates.com/
5707 Magazine Street

Coolhaus - the ice cream truck that puts Mr. Softee to shame

On the third Sunday of every month this summer, Prospect Park has been hosting a food truck rally, with some of the city's most loved food trucks congregating in the front of the park near Grand Army Plaza.  This past Sunday I ventured over to Park Slope to see what this rally was all about.

Now, I'm aware of the food truck craze that's taken over the city in the last few years.  I've seen the multitude of Yogo trucks in practically every neighborhood in both Manhattan and Brooklyn.  However, I'm usually a passerby, opting to eat my meals in establishments with a roof and a seat.  But people rave about some of this food truck food, so I had to give it a try.

There are about 28 food trucks that rotate at this monthly event (which will only run through October so be sure to make it there September 16th or October 21st).  This week, after carefully evaluating our options, we decided to give Coolhaus a try.  Coolhaus has a fun concept - creating a custom ice cream sandwich with both unique cookie and ice cream flavors.

The cookies come from Ovenly, who have a store location in Greenpoint and sell their baked goods at numerous location across Brooklyn and Manhattan.  The cookies themselves will receive a separate blog entry, because not only were they amazing but I just added them to my list last week before realizing they were affiliated with Coolhaus!  There are about 60 flavors of ice cream, none of which include your plain old chocolate or vanilla.  Coolhaus offers flavors such as molten chocolate cake, bananas foster, beer & pretzels, and sweet potato & marshmallow.  Here's a full list of flavors for your reference: FLAVORS

The cookies include some classics like double chocolate chip and peanut butter, but also have fun flavors like red velvet, potato chip & butterscotch and snickerdoodle.  There are gluten-free and vegan options too!

On this particular trip, I tried the double chocolate chip cookie with Dirty Mint ice cream (fresh mint ice cream, semisweet chocolate chips & a hint of brown sugar).  For $6, you get a scoop of the ice cream served between two cookies, wrapped in edible calorie-free paper.  The calorie-free paper part actually made me laugh, since the Sammie probably had about 800 calories in itself.  Despite that (hey - today was a gym day!) I LOVED this ice cream sandwich.  The cookies were definitely on the super sweet side, and I shockingly was only able to eat half of the sandwich, but it was well worth every bite.  You could taste how fresh the mint was in the ice cream. The cookies were hard enough to hold the sandwich, but soft enough to be able to easily bite into it.

Coolhaus got it's start back in 2008, when the founders Natasha and Freya began making ice cream and baking cookies in interesting combinations, naming the flavor combos after architects and architectual movements that inspired them.  The girls decided the best way to get their Sammies out to the public was by a food truck, so in 2009 they bought an ice cream truck in LA and showed up at Coachella with their fun flavored sandwiches.  People loved it, word spread, and now you can find Coolhaus trucks in NY, LA, Miami, Austin and Dallas.

For New Yorkers, aside from the food truck, you can find Coolhaus creations in assorted stores throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn and even Citifield (including Brooklyn Fare, the market across the street from my house!)  Although the best way to experience it is prepared fresh with the flavors of your choosing.  Coolhaus can be followed on Twitter and Facebook to find their daily locations.  They also make appearances at different concert venues, including ACL in Austin and the Electric Zoo festival at Randall's Island.

You can follow them on Twitter @Coolhaus.  Or @CoolhausNY.  Or whatever other city you live in that I mentioned above.  But since I don't actually know how to use Twitter, I'm not sure that what I just wrote is correct.  Maybe it involves a hashtag.  Maybe this is easier: www.eatcoolhaus.com

Scratch This On Your Brownie List

The Chocoholic Cjaps have attended the Village Voice Choice Eats tasting event in the past, but unfortunately missed it this year since I was stuck in Austin for work.  The participants are typically very meat-centric, but the VIP tickets include special desserts.  One in particular, Scratchbread, was a participant this year, and we read amazing things about their brownies.  Since we couldn't try it at Choice, I decided the next bike ride through Brooklyn, it was on the hit list.

The owner, Matthew Tilden, started off baking breads in whatever spot he could secure and delivering them to local shops and flea markets in Brooklyn.  In October 2010, he decided to turn Scratchbread into a stand-alone bakery, with only $5,000, with the goal being to produce food that's "delicious, awesome, and not pretentious."  He wants to not only bake from scratch, but use pure ingredients rather than a whole slew of processed ingredients like you'll find in most products in grocery stores.  After about a year of using the space (which used to house a pizzeria) mostly to bake breads, and eventually opening the window once a week to sell to the public.  Now he's able to operate 6 days a week, and people line up to try his baked creations.

Fortunately, when my brother and I decided to meet up for a bike ride to Rockaway, Bed Stuy was a decent meeting point.  Since they were written up for having great bread (namely the focaccia) and breakfast dishes as well as the brownie, so off we went to investigate.

Adam and Pat (guest bloggers of the week) and I ordered our breakfasts - Stumptown ice coffee (one of my favorites), toast with almond butter and vinegared blueberries, and succotash - a small pot of roasted potatoes, corn, and cheese with a soft boiled egg on top.  I was a big fan of the succotash dish, but that can be partly because I've never had it before, and I was famished by 11am when we finally stopped having flat tires, wrong directions and finally made it to the window.  The menu changes daily, allowing for Matt to experiment with different combinations, and cult followers of Scratchbread claim they're never disappointed.  My one negative with Scratchbread was that I wished there were benches to sit on to eat the food.  After reading the background I understand why there are no tables inside, however a bench or two would have been great!

Since it was a hot day, the woman working (who is a volunteer apprentice, working to learn the trade as are all the Scratchbread employees) offered to hold my brownie in the refrigerator while we ate our breakfast, since she said it would definitely melt in the sun.  She pointed to the display, where there had once been a brownie but now just contained the residue of melted chocolate.  I had intended to bring it along on our bike ride and have it as a snack when we got to the beach, but that was a non-option on a 90 degree Friday in August.  So I paid the $3, left it waiting, and came back to give it a try after having our Stumptown and succotash.

The verdict - it wasn't like a typically brownie.  There was a thick layer of buttercream in the middle, with a light spattering of buttercream on top.  This sandwich-type brownie was unique, crispy rather than fudgy, and I can understand why Choice chose them to be in last year's event.  It was delicious, without being too intense.  If there was any more buttercream I could see it overwhelming, but it was the perfect combination.  Adam and Pat agreed, that it was one damn good brownie - even enjoyable at breakfast time.

I would definitely come back here to try their different breads.  The website lists all of the varieties and ingredients (http://www.scratchbread.com/the-goods/the-breads/), and I'll be back to try the focaccia and cracked fennel.

Scratchbread is located at 1069 Bedford Avenue.  The closest train stop is the G train to Bedford/Nostrand Ave.

The hours are:
Monday, Tuesday & Friday - 6:30 am - 3:00 pm
Thursday CLOSED
Wednesday - 6:30 am - 8:00 pm
Saturday & Sunday 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
www.scratchbread.com

Dominique Ansel - A Little Taste of Paris in Soho

Dominique Ansel has been showing up everywhere since it opened in Soho in November 2011.  My general rule of thumb is if I read about a new bakery more than 3 times, and the word 'best' is included  somewhere in the review, it gets added to my neverending list.  I saw mentions of Dominique Ansel in NY Mag, Time Out NY, Serious Eats, Dessertbuzz - all my go-to sources for everything chocolate related.

My initial problem with Dominique Ansel, was that every time I tried to go there - it was closed!  The first time I went after the gym around 7:30, to find that they closed at 7. The next time I tried to go with a friend, we got there to discover they're not open Mondays.  I mean, for the city that never sleeps, this place sure does seem to get it's share.  Yesterday I finally made it there, on a Wednesday, at 6:30, and I was good to go (finally!)

Dominique Ansel (who is a man, which I just learned when doing my background research) who used to work as the Executive Pastry Chef for the restaurant Daniel, which I've never been to and probably never well since it's way out of my price range.  Originally from Paris (obviously), Dominique has risen to pastry stardom, and has been named one of the top 10 Pastry Chefs in the United States.

Dominique Ansel has a selection of sandwiches, salads, and soups, if you choose to stop there for lunch, which isn't a bad idea since they have a cute little garden area in back.  But I was there for the liquid caramel chocolate tart.

I definitely had my choice of desserts that looked amazing there.  There was a dulce de leche cup, filled with orange blossom milk chocolate ganache and caramelia rice krispies (that are also gluten free - I probably would've tried that too if I'd realized it yesterday).  There was a chocolate soft bun - milky chocolate bread with a chocolate ganache center.

But on to more important things - the liquid chocolate caramel tart.  Even the name makes me excited.  Who doesn't like liquid caramel with gourmet chocolate.  You really can't go wrong here.  The tart was a decent size - easily split between two people but not overwhelming for you to enjoy solo.  The chocolate shell was too thick to cut through with a fork, so you had to eat it by hand.  I was nervous the 'liquid' caramel would spill all over the place, but while it was liquid-y, it was also thick enough that it didn't ruin any article of clothing :)
The combination of thick caramel and soft ganache was perfect.  It was rich and creamy and each bite was thoroughly enjoyed.  There was a layer of chocolate cake with espresso, where I couldn't actually taste the espresso but it contrasted well with the sweetness of the caramel to dim down the sweetness.  The tart was $5+ tax, which is on the pricey side, but - it's in Soho, and it's French, and it's some sort of celebrity-type pastry chef, AND it was really good, so - I'll have to let it slide.

To be honest, after I finished the tart I wished I could try every other dessert in the place.  I was curious if everything could be that good.  I'll definitely be heading back here to try the chocolate bread and a cappuccino, and probably 3 or 4 other things that will definitely break the bank.

Dominique Ansel bakery is located at 189 Spring Street between Sullivan & Thompson. 212-219-2773

Their hours are 8-7 Tuesday through Saturday, and 9-6 on Sundays.  CLOSED MONDAY! DO not make the same mistakes I did - do not go on Monday, and don't show up at 7:30.  I promise, they will be closed :)
www.dominiqueansel.com

Cupcakeries from DC

A few years ago a friend went to Washington DC and told me about a cupcake place that was so good, people lined up to get inside.  In 2008 when Georgetown Cupcake opened, it was the first cupcakery in DC.  I found this shocking, since I've been a Crumbs loyalist since at least 2005!  But the DC market was apparently untapped, and Georgetown made a huge splash.  About a year ago, Georgetown opened a location in where else but NYC, so now I'd have the chance to try it too!

What I learned about these cupcakes, and why there were lines to get in, was that the owners - Katherine Kallinis and Sophie LaMontagne - are sisters who loved baking since they were children.  They used to bake with their grandmother, and use the leftover to make mini cakes and cupcakes.  Once they got older, they decided to quit their jobs in fashion and finance to open up the first shop, and once it got big it became their full-time gig (so envious!)  In 2010, they became the stars of the TLC show DC Cupcakes, which told their story and the aspects of running a small business from scratch.  They've now opened up locations in LA, Boston and Maryland as well.

If I was ranking establishments on decor alone, Georgetown would probably top the list.  EVERYTHING is pink!  If you know me, you know that this alone is a major sell point.  There's a whole wall of pink boxes to wrap the cupcakes - pink t-shirts - pink aprons - even a pink sparkly blender!  It's a 5 year old girl's dream :)
The down side of the shop are that there are only 3 tables to sit at in the NY location, but it's on Mercer street on a block that has a lot of stoops to sit on.  My friend Alana and I brought our cappuccinos and cupcake across the street and enjoyed them there, Sex & the City-style!

You can taste the freshness in Georgetown's cupcakes.  They're baked fresh every day, using specially imported ingredients (cocoa from France; vanilla from Madagascar, etc).  The menu changes daily, with about 18 flavors rotating each day.  they always have varieties of chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet, and then seasonal and special flavors.  There are some fun sounding ones on the menu like chocolate hazelnut and mint cookies and creme.  The full menu can be found here: Cupcake Menu

After staring at the display case for a good 10 minutes I decided on the Chocolate3, which consisted of Valrhona chocolate with Callebaur chocolate ganache icing, topped with french chocolate sprinkles.  Immediately after ordering, I decided  I'd made the wrong choice- the frosting is my favorite part!  
It was still a delicious cupcake though - it had rich chocolate, but not overwhelming chocolaty.  They're moist, with the perfect ratio of cake to frosting.  Surprisingly they mention the calories of the cupcakes, which you don't typically see except at places like Crumbs that have so many locations that they're mandated to put it on display.  Georgetown's cupcakes are estimated to be 250 calories each; 200 in the ones that have less frosting like the C3.

A fun tip - if you follow Georgetown on Facebook or Twitter, every day they announce a flavor that's not on the menu.  If you're one of the first 100 inside and mention the flavor, you get the cupcake for free!  

Georgetown Cupcake is located at 111 Mercer Street between Prince and Spring in Soho.
They're open Monday-Saturday from 10am-9pm, and Sundays from 10am-7pm.
www.georgetowncupcake.com

Rocco's Not So Modern Life

After a wonderful dinner at one of my favorite restaurants Sushi Samba in the West Village, my friend Becca wanted to pick up dessert at one of her favorite bakeries on Bleecker Street, Pasticceria Rocco.  I'm pretty sure I've been here before pre-blog days, but now it was time to write a review!

Pasticceria Rocco is a New York tradition.  It's probably the only spot on Bleecker Street that's been there since 1974.  An Italian bakery, you can find anything from cannolis to rainbow cookies to about 47 different kinds of cake.

Rocco is definitely famous for their cannolis.  While we were there I heard almost every other person ordering them.  Now you might think that would be what I'd review, however - recall the name of the blog here.  It's all about chocolate.  I'm just not a cannoli kind of girl, sorry!  They did have little chocolate covered ones, but I was distracted by the giant cookies in the window.  They were about the same size of a Jacques Torres cookie, but also extremely thick.  Holding one in your hand, it feels like it weights about a pound!  
<--- Brownie marshmallow cookie

                                                     Oreo marshmallow cookie --->

There were chocolate chip cookies dipped in chocolate, brownie
cookies with marshmallow, regular cookie dough cookies with marshmallow and oreo - lots of fun combinations.  I tried the brownie marshmallow and Becca had the oreo marshmallow.  They were decent cookies, but not close to being my favorite.  They had that Italian bakery taste to them - not very doughy or fresh tasting.  The rainbow cookies and lacy cookies were better, but not all that different from what I'd find at any other bakery.  Maybe I've gotten spoiled, but I felt that while Pasticceria Rocco has been around for almost 40 years, it hasn't changed with the times.  It had the taste and feel of an old-school bakery.  Which is fine, but I'm always on the hunt for something new and life-changing, and with places like Levain in existence, I can't give Rocco's too much credit.
That's not to say if I stopped off here to have coffee that I wouldn't get something anyway, because there were about 100 desserts to try (the chocolate mousse cup looked great, as did a number of the cakes).

Pasticceria Rocco is located at 243 Bleecker Street.  Open daily from 7:30am - midnight (weekends til 1am), you can stop in early for a cappuccino or after dinner at Keste for a late-night snack.

www.pasticceriarocco.com

Blue Bottle Coffee - a sweeter view from the Highline

To continue our never-ending quest for a NY cookie better than Levain, we took a trip over to Blue Bottle Coffee, located across the street from Chelsea Market beneath the Highline.  To give fair credit, Blue Bottle is originally from San Francisco, but since I never intend to go to that city again and there's more than one location in NY, I'm counting it.

I had read that Blue Bottle, aside from having amazing coffee, featured a double chocolate cookie with chocolate from Mast Brothers, a Williamsburg-based artisinal chocolate maker.  Mast Brothers makes some really good chocolate, but the $8 a bar pricetag stops me from buying it every time.

The cookie at Blue Bottle is $2.25, and includes large pieces of Madagascar Mast brothers chocolate.  They sprinkle sea salt throughout the cookie, giving in to that sweet & salty flavor I fell in love with at the NY Chocolate Show, and have been seeking out wherever I can find it now.  Each bite gave you a good ration of cookie, chocolate and sea salt.  My biggest complaint about many chocolate chip cookies is the uneven distribution inside.  Some, like Jacques Torres, have a bit too much chocolate to cookie ratio.  Others, too many to name, skimp out with the chocolate and I'm left with giant heaps of plain old boring dough.  But Blue Bottle had it just right.  We also liked the presentation - the cookie was served in a brown coffee filter (unused, of course!)  There's limited seating inside, but you can always take your coffee and snacks over for a nice walk down the Highline.

The coffee was indeed amazing too.  We opted for the New Orleans blend iced coffee, and it was strong and tasteful.  It was also $4 for a small.  I think I'd prefer to fly to New Orleans and go to Cafe DuMonde for that much - but our 2 coffees and 1 cookie totaling over $10 WAS a nice and well-deserved break during our 30 mile bike ride.

The location we went to is located at 450 W 15th street, between 9th and 10th Avenues.  There is a larger Blue Bottle Coffee in Williamsburg, at 160 Berry Street which has a larger selection of cakes (Gingerbread cake, rice loaf brought over from their original San Fran location), and one in Rock Center.  They also have a temporary outpost for the summer on the Highline, and at Smorgasburg (spoiler alert - the next free Saturday I plan to do a giant Smorgasburg entry to cover the massive amount of dessert food trucks there!)

http://www.bluebottlecoffee.net/

Almondine... Another reason to visit Brooklyn

I keep an ever-growing list of new desserts to try saved on my Google docs, which at this point in time has been in the works for so many years that I don't even know what's on there anymore, where it came from, or why I decided I should go in the first place.

A few weeks ago when my roommate Stacey and I were wandering around DUMBO, we passed a Jacques Torres on Water Street (who knew that was there?!), and across the street, a bakery with a line out the door.  We went closer to investigate, and I recognized the name - Almondine Bakery. Almondine had been on my list for at least two years now, but since I never go to DUMBO and thought that Water Street was in the Financial District, Almondine was doomed to remain there forever!

Stacey and I peeked inside and saw (and smelled) amazing desserts.  Giant chocolate chip cookies. Meringues that looked like ice cream sandwiches.  Macarons in every color and flavor imaginable.  We had just eaten, but decided to come back on our next journey to DUMBO.
Memorial Day weekend, we returned.  Luckily for us, Almondine was much emptier on this trip over.  On the down side, a lot of the desserts I'd been dreaming of since our last visit weren't there.

We ended up with one of the giant chocolate chip cookies, an oversized chocolate macaron, a chocolate rocher and a pretzel bread filled with gruyere cheese.

They also offer chocolate mousses, tortes, specialty cakes (definitely recommended for the next special occasion, they looked amazing) and a ton of breads made with organic flour and few ingredients (the Cjaps aren't fans of processed foods, which is why we stick to bakeries where everything is made fresh).  Almondine is known for their croissants and macarons.  We didn't try the croissant, because they were out of chocolate ones, but the pretzel bread was delicious.  There was a light layer of gruyere cheese on top, which could've been heated up a bit to make it soft and melted, but we still loved it.

As for the chocolates - well. The chocolate chip cookie was pretty damn good.  Not up there with Levain or Paradis, but it was a good cookie.  It was tremendous (see photo for proof.  My hand isn't that big!)  My initial reaction was that I wasn't going to like it because there were so few chocolate chips.  I like when they're evenly distributed throughout, and there's a little chocolate in every bite.  In Almondine's cookie, there were three giant chocolate chips, but then about 80% of the cookie was just cookie.  Despite this, it was a good cookie.  It was rich, thin and buttery, and there was a little bit of chocolate spread throughout.  Guest blogger of the day Stacey liked it more than I did, but it served it's purpose.  However, I probably wouldn't get it again.

There was also a dark chocolate walnut cookie offered, as well as oatmeal raisin, of equally large size.

There was an assortment of different flavored and colored macarons, but I opted for the large chocolate macaron that was so big it slightly resembled a whoopie pie. The chocolate cake layers were dusted with powdered sugar, and were dense and tasty. The chocolate in the middle was rich and flavorful.  It was a large macaron cookie, and can easily be split between two people.  The smaller ones looked good too, but those will be tasted another time.  The rocher I found extremely boring.  I had it in my bag and it melted, so the next day after refrigerating it, it tasted like a melted, re-chilled, mushy rocher chocolate.  You're better off buying them from your local Duane Reade and go for the better options at Almondine.

They also offer sandwiches and soups, and a full blended coffee menu.  There are a few tables inside, or you can walk down a couple of blocks to enjoy your treats at Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Almondine is open daily from 7-7 (except Sunday, 10-6)

85 Water Street between Main & Washington (DUMBO)
442 9th Street (off 7th Avenue in Park Slope)
www.almondinebakery.com

A Make-Your-Own of it's Own

We all know about make-your-own froyo.  We've all been to a 16 Handles, Yogurtland or some type of place where you take a cup, fill it up with different flavored frozen yogurt, and add 8 pounds of toppings of your liking.  It's a trend we all know and love.  What's a trend that we don't know but would love if we did?  Make your own cupcakes.  And you can now do that at Molly's Cupcakes in the West Village!

 Molly's features their own signature cupcakes as well.  Made from scratch each day with the finest ingredients, you can get classic flavors like chocolate, vanilla, red velvet, etc, but really fun flavor combinations.  They had:
-Cake batter
-Butterscotch caramel
-Kahlua
-Chocolate mousse
-Blueberry cheesecake
-Cookies & cream
and more....

We tried the Cookie Monster.  Which was a-maz-ing.  Cookie dough filling! Actual raw cookie dough inside the cupcake.  It was vanilla chocolate chip cookie cake filled with the cookie dough, topped with buttercream and a small chocolate chip cookie on top.  We loved this so much, and pushed Molly's way up in my list of favorite cupcake spots!  Pricing is on par with other cupcake shops - $3.75 for the specialty cupcakes.

Now for the make-your-own.  We did not make our own last night.  I'm ashamed to admit this, because that is the most exciting part about Molly's!  But I got thrown by the Cookie Monster!

But here's the details:
You pick a size.  A mini is $1.25, and a Molly, which I'm assuming is a large, is $2.25.
Then you pick your cake flavor, from chocolate, vanilla, red velvet, carrot or banana.
Next you pick your frosting: vanilla, chocolate, cream cheese, butter cream or brown butter.
Last you pick your toppings: cookie crumble, brownie bits, Reeses, M&Ms, Whoppers, gummy bears or chocolate chips.
When I DO make one, I know it'll be vanilla cake, cream cheese frosting, with brownie bits, Reeses & gummy bears.  And I can also tell you I'll be back here real soon.

Even if you don't make your own, Molly's has an assortment of colorful sprinkles that you can add on to any cupcake - a pre-made or custom made one.
There were other treats available too - ice cream, cookies, pies, cheesecake, and bars (the 7-layer looked amazing, but we were sticking with the signature cupcakes for the first visit).  The full menu can be found here: Molly's Cupcakes Menu.

Molly's is open until 10pm on weeknights and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, so you can get your cupcake fix after dinner in the West Village.  Any other questions?  Like who's Molly?  Molly was the owner's third-grade teacher, who used to bake cupcakes for her students' birthdays.  In honor of Molly,  a portion of their profits are donated to schools in the community.  How sweet is that?

Molly's is located at 228 Bleecker Street, between Carmine and Downing
There's also a location in Chicago, in the Lincoln Park area.
Take a trip down and tell us what custom creation you made!
Molly's Cupcakes

Dessert Truck Works Better on the LES

The influx of food trucks in NY started a few years ago, and has been expanding at a rapid pace.  You can barely pass a corner without running into someone selling pastries, frozen yogurt or tacos.  DessertTruck was one of the original food trucks, selling their pastries from a mobile operation since October 2007.  The success of their truck was so great that in 2010, a cafe was opened on the Lower East Side, down on Clinton Street next to to the ever-famous Clinton Street Baking Company.

The cafe has sandwiches as well, but people come for their desserts.  I went in because of a craving for bread pudding, but while there ended up with nutella filled brioche donut squares and a chocolate chip cookie as well (whoops!)  The bread pudding came with vanilla ice cream, topped with whipped cream.  It was extremely sweet, and definitely needed to be shared by two people, there was no way to eat this all alone.  Of course, in addition to this, we had the chocolate chip cookie, which was warm from the oven.  The cookie was good, but didn't make any of the top lists.

Now I'm not a big donut or nutella fan, but these were actually delicious.  Again, on the super sweet side, but they were perfectly filled with nutella, the brioche was crisp and fresh (again, served warm right from the oven), with a thick layer of sugar on the top.



All of the desserts are $5.97 + tax; the cookie was $3.03 + tax. Pretty reasonable considering the size and satiety.  The cafe itself has a strange seating set-up, the tables are super tiny and low, and the chairs are hard to sit on, so I wouldn't come with a large group.  But for 1-2 people, definitely add it to your list!


Dessert Truck Works is open Sunday - Thursday from the afternoon (2/3) until 11pm, and on Fri/Sat until midnight. Perfect for a late night snack!


Dessert Truck Works
6 Clinton Street between Avenue B & Houston St
http://www.desserttruck.com

Too Bad This Isn't The Ice Cream Sandwich On My Android

North Brooklyn is expanding at a rapid pace, and the places seem to be getting cooler and cooler.  Just a few blocks from where I used to live on 5th and 5th, you can find Bierkraft - a self-described 'dine-in or take-out beer and food emporium'.  I must have passed this place a million times, but since I'm not a beer drinker never thought to go inside...

...until I learned that Bierkraft doesn't just have beer, they also have an ice cream cookie sandwich that makes the 'Best Of' lists.  After dinner last weekend, we decided to take a walk over to this place to check out this gelato sandwich, since ice cream seems like an appropriate dessert in the middle of winter.  When we walked in, I was a little bit confused - it appeared to be a convenience store of sorts with a long aisle filled with beer upon beer upon beer.  It turns out Bierkraft sells beers from around the world both by the bottle and on draft, where you can enjoy it with a sandwich, cheese and meat platters or specialty chocolates.  

In the freezer section, there I found the reason I came - the gelato sandwiches!  I picked the brownie cookie sandwich with chocolate chunk gelato, which comes from Il Laboratorio.  Honestly, what could be better than this!?  I was a huge fan.  It was crazy expensive - $6 for the sandwich - but two of us were barely able to split it, it was so rich and filling.  Of course I managed to finish it, because it was incredible.  I let it sit out for a little while once I got home so that it had melted just a little bit, and the gelato melted into the brownie to make it a little less thicker and easier to eat.  There are other varieties - cherry blondie with dark chocolate gelato and brownie with peanut butter gelato.  

Bierfkraft is open 7 days a week, from 12-11 Monday-Saturday, and 12-8 on Sunday.

191 Fifth Avenue (between Union and Berkeley Streets) in Brooklyn

R train to Union Street is the closest stop

www.bierkraft.com

Good thing it's a leap year when February is hot chocolate month!

The month of February holds a lot of things for a lot of people.  For kids & teachers, it means a week off of school for President's week. For Hallmark & select females, it means cards & roses on Valentine's Day.  For snowboard enthusiasts, it means weekend trips out to Vermont or the Poconos.  For me - it means hot chocolate month at City Bakery!

Every February, City Bakery has their hot chocolate month 28 (this year 29 thanks to the Leap Year!)  This year, we planned to go one day over President's Day Weekend and decided to go on February 19th, which was Sunken Treasure day.  The lines were longer than usual, which I attribute to a combination of it being hot chocolate month and also President's Day, when most people were on holiday.

We decided to go all out today and get TWO cookies - one of the traditional chocolate chip cookies that makes everyone's top 10 list, and the double chocolate one.  Between those two cookies and the hot chocolate, we were definitely in chocolate overload.  But it's just SO GOOD here!  I am fairly certain the sunken treasures in the hot chocolate were caramels, but all I could taste and smell and see was chocolate everywhere so I really can't be sure.

City Bakery has a great chocolate selection (obviously the cookies and hot chocolate are the most common) but they also have a cafe in back where you can get soup, salad, and sandwiches.  All of the food looks amazing, and every table of both floors of this two-story cafe were filled.  I would definitely recommend coming here for lunch, or to bring food back to your office (they have a salad bar where you can get things to go).


City Bakery is located at 3 West 18th street, right off of 5th Avenue.  They have a sister location called Birdbath, that I actually stumbled into one time and recognized the cookies and knew they were related!
www.thecitybakery.com

Le Chocolate on Le Strip

While ChocolatesWhyImFat originated as a New York-centric blog, we have decided that while traveling, why not find the best desserts around the world?  We've covered Philly a few times, and now we're heading out west to the city of sin.  Viva Las Vegas.

Some come to Vegas to gamble.  Some come to replicate the Hangover and experience a little of that 'what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas' philosophy.  Some want to eat all they can eat and frequent strip clubs they discovered by having fliers shoved into their hands at every corner.  And some want to see minor glimpses of cities around the world all along one strip of land in the middle of the dessert.  

I don't exactly fit into any of these categories.  This was my first time in Vegas above the legal gambling age, however my time there was short, as it was merely a starting point for a ski trip to the mountains in Utah.  Now with limited time, the most important thing to do was to figure out the best places to eat, since Vegas is known for having the best of everything all in one place.

What our photographer Justin discovered upon researching desserts on the strip, was a chocolate shop located in the Bellagio, Jean-Philippe Patisserie.  Chef Jean-Philippe Maury comes from Paris, and serves as the Executive Pastry Chef for all of the Bellagio's 17 gourmet restaurants.  

At the front of JP you'll find a giant chocolate fountain with streams of dark, milk and white chocolate dripping down from the ceiling, amassing at the bottom to create a giant pool of mocha-colored chocolatey wonderfulness.  Blocks of the chocolate fountain are available to purchase as souvenirs.  The fountain is certified by the Guiness Book of World Records as the largest in the world.

While the fountain was impressive, the rest of the shop was filled with beautiful cakes, ranging from birthday to wedding cakes, each more glamorous than the next.  

There was a wide selection of gelatos, but we had come to try some of the pastries and chocolates.  Justin, being obsessed with both Nutella and brioche (and really anything Parisian), bought the last Nutella brioche available.  While I'm not overly excited by Nutella, this pastry truly was a not-so-little piece of heaven.  The pastry was large, fresh, and dense, able to hold what seemed like an entire jar of Nutella.  With a layer of powdered sugar across the top, this was certainly messy to eat (we both were covered in hazelnut spread and sugar after the first bite), but delicious and highly recommended.  Guest blogger of the day Justin described it in just one word - "epic".

The selection of confections to purchase was quite large, including chocolate rocks (which I accidentally spilled all over the floor - the package was much heavier than it looked!), hot chocolate pellets, chocolate covered caramel sticks, and much more.  The dessert I opted for was a package of four chocolate macaroons, half covered with a layer of white chocolate.  The macaroons were extremely thick and moist, and retained their flavor and moistness for days.  (Who am I kidding - I don't know how long they really lasted because I finished them off on my plane ride back to NY!) Each one was large enough for two to share, and the inside tasted like a flavorful cake, rather than the typical drier taste of a traditional macaroon.  The white chocolate layer provided an extra kick of chocolate that added a nice balance to the chocolate cake.  Since this was a one-time trip to Vegas where I probably won't be returning any time soon, I was okay with buying a package of 4, however at $3 apiece, if I was in Vegas and wanted one I would have preferred for them to be sold individually.

Lastly, we got a tin of assorted chocolates.  The bars came in dark, milk and white, a little bit of everything from the fountain.  I usually like my chocolate less on the plainer side, but these bars were delicious, and I felt the taste of Paris in every bite.

I would certainly return to Jean-Philippe if I ever made it in Vegas again, next time to try the gelato.  I definitely would recommend checking out the one in the Aria, which is even bigger and better than the one in Bellagio, as I just found out from investigating on Google.  Even if you don't have a sweet tooth, this place is worth checking out if you're on the strip, even if you're just window shopping and want to see the world's largest chocolate fountain.

A taste of the Catskills, down in Tribeca

Growing up, I used to go with my family to the resorts up in the Catskillls.  Primarily, it was the Pines & Kutshers.  I remember a lot of things about those vacations - I remember my grandfather playing shuffleboard out back while my grandma played bingo by the pool.  I remember going to kids camp where we would have scavenger hunts around the hotel.  What I don't remember, is anything about the food having any redeeming qualities.  That's why when Kutsher's Tribeca, a 'modern Jewish American bistro' opened up a few weeks ago, I was skeptical.  Did I really want to go somewhere to pay $10 for a bowl of matzoh ball soup? The words gefilte fish manke me queasy.  But my friends from Birthright wanted to go for Restaurant Week, so since I wanted to see them I went and prepared to eat challah bread all night.

Since this is a chocolate blog, I'm not going to go into detail about the meal.  Proving to be the stubborn one I am, I was the only one at the table of 5 who opted out of the restaurant week menu and went with a salad and brussel sprouts.  Now when the time came for dessert, I spotted two things on the menu which made me realize the reason to come here hadn't been about the rugelach at all.  There was a black and white ice cream cookie sandwich, and a rainbow cookie ice cream fudge sundae.  Four of the girls ordered the B/W cookie sandwich, and I ordered the rainbow cookie sundae.

The sandwich was such a fun concept.  Two black and white cookies surrounded a heap of ice cream, forming a sandwich that was too big to eat in sandwich form.  Luckily, the dessert came with a bowl of chocolate to dip it in, so we dissected the cookie, scooped up the ice cream and dunked it int he chocolate.  Taste wise, it wasn't anything spectacular, but I definitely give it points for concept.  I think it was the vanilla ice cream that killed it for me, because  since I'm a chocolate freak, vanilla is too bland for me.  The girls all loved it though, although were so full from their steak and potato dinners that they gave me all of their leftover cookies :)

Now for the rainbow cookie ice cream sundae.  I am very particular about my rainbow cookies.  There are certain bakeries I get them from, my favorite being the bakery in Astoria, Queens that I reviewed last summer.  They were my fathers' favorite before he found out he was diabetic, so by the way if anyone knows of a really good sugar-free rainbow cookie, please let me know!
There were pieces of rainbow cookie spread throughout the sundae, which were fun surprises as I picked through the cup to throw away the vanilla ice cream and get down to the fudge at the bottom.  I didn't realize it at first, that there were two different types of consistencies to the white part of the sundae.  I thought it was whipped cream, which is also a skippable ingredient for me, but Alana and I figured out it was marshmallow fluff!  This was such a fun dessert, and made my experience at Kutsher's a happy one.  I have to say, I wouldn't eat here specifically for the desserts, but if you are going here for dinner, it definitely is a fun after-dinner treat.

Kutscher's Tribeca
186 Franklin Street
(212) 431-0606
www.kutsherstribeca.com

Best of Philly 2012

We have been to Reading Terminal Market before, specifically to check out Flying Monkey Patisserie to see their 15 layer Pumpple cake.  Once we got there, we saw that every single stand in the market had been featured at some point in the 'Best of Philly'.  Which meant, of course, that a more in-depth review of the whole market was very necessary.

This past weekend, I made a trip back to Philly with Chocolate's Why I'm Fat's new official photographer to try a little of everything the market had to offer.  

We started back at Flying Monkey, since that was the place we loved so much the first time.  This time, we tried the cheesecake brownie, the smoreo, a whoopie pie, an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie sandwich, a red velvet cake ball, and a chocolate chip cookie.  All of the desserts looked amazing, and they have interesting spins on traditional treats.  Since we bought so much, and expressed our love for Flying Monkey, the lady even gave us the cake balls for free!

Market bakery, which carries a full line of LeBus breads (a famous Philly bakery featuring artisan breads since 1978), also had fantastic chocolate chip cookies.  They were fresh and warm and had giant chocolate chunks.  We brought half home and warmed it up in the toaster oven, and it proved to be just as good the next day (or at 5 in the morning when we tried this experiment).  The focaccia breads looked amazing, but we made the mistake of saving them for the next morning when they were slightly stale after sitting in the ice cold car all day.  Putting them in the toaster didn't help in this case, so we'll have to try them again next time.  LeBus also has a separate store where you can purchase their breads near Rittenhouse Square.

One of our favorites in the market was The Famous 4th Street Cookies.  They have a lot of different flavors, and initially we just bought a white chocolate chip and a chocolate chip walnut.  But then we saw there were traditional chocolate chip cookies with a fresh coat of chocolate fudge on top.  So back out came the wallets, and another cookie was purchased.  This was my favorite, although very sweet and I was only able to handle a couple of bites at a time.  The Famous 4th Street Cookies is located at the very front of the market, but you can also have them shipped off of their website.  Although to be honest, I would rather hold out until a return trip to Philly because spending the day at Reading Terminal Market is such an enjoyable experience.  There are other things besides food stalls here, such as beautiful flowers from Lancaster county, candles made naturally with bee pollen, and so many Amish people.  Especially for someone who's never been to Amish country, coming here will be a very unique experience.

At the back of the market we found an Amish bakery called Beiler's Bakery.  They are apparently known for their pies and sticky buns, but since neither of those have chocolate we were ready to keep walking.  They we saw a sign that said, 'try our chocolate covered whoopie pies'.  I've never had a chocolate covered whoopie pie before, so we asked if we could try them.  They were sold out of the packages, but they had one package left that they were willing to give us as samples.  I don't usually care for whoopie pies all that much, but these were smaller than a normal pie - probably 3-4 bites in total - and the chocolate covering did the trick.  It was delicious, and I was disappointed they didn't have more for us to bring home!

Reading Terminal Market is located at 51 N. 12th Street.  It's walking distance to the historic district, Rittenhouse Square, and the shopping along Walnut and Chestnut streets.  We parked the car next to the terminal for the day and were able to cover all of the major sites, so I would strongly recommend doing this.  Aside from the bakeries, there are a lot of places for real food too - from Cajun to seafood to Turkish to Italian.  Anything you want, you can find here.  Just make sure to come on an empty stomach!