For my friend Melissa's going away party (she's moving to LA this week), she had a going away party at 8 Mile Creek. While there was no sign of Eminem or Mekhi Phifer, the bar was nice enough to let Melissa rent it out and BBQ for her friends and family. For dessert, Melissa chose to order 200 of Baked by Melissa's mini cupcakes, so everyone could have a taste of one of her desserts of choice. I was thrilled, because this gave me an opportunity to review every flavor of cupcake without having to look like a pig at the store ordering one of everything!
The cupcakes, made by Melissa Bushell (who MY Melissa went to college at Syracuse with), are made bite-sized so that cupcake lovers can taste more flavors without the extra dose of guilt. There are 10 set flavors with a flavor of the month (this month it was Sundae, complete with a cherry on top!) They're about the size of a quarter, so I'm going to assume they're only between 50-75 calories each. That might be low-balling it, but I can dream, can't I?
The available flavors are (and I am ranking in order of my preference): Tie-Dye, Cookies & Cream, Sundae, Cookie Dough, Smores, Chocolate Chip Pancake, Red Velvet, & Mint Chocolate Chip. 3 other flavors are Cinnamon, Peanut Butter & Jelly and Peanut Butter Cup, but since I don't like PB and Cinnamon doesn't have chocolate in it, there was no reason for me to try them. I don't actually know what flavor the Tie-Dye ones are, but they were adorable, a perfect mixture of pastel pink, blue, green and yellow, and I just adored them! The cupcakes have a tiny bit of filling, and a tiny bit of icing on the top and, depending on the flavor, an extra little treat (i.e. mini chocolate chips on the mint chocolate chip). Jake seemed to agree that the tie-dye was the best; as you can see he stole the cupcake right out of my hands!
Baked by Melissa has 2 locations;Baked by Melissa has 2 locations;the original being a stand in Soho at 529 Broadway, and a newer location in Union Square at 7 East 14th street. I recommend going to the Union Square store, where there's more room to look at them up close and a spot to stand and eat them. At the store they sell for $1.00 each, and the price drops as you purchase more (a dozen are $10.) Melissa also custom bakes them, with the minimum order of 100 cupcakes. They cost $70 if you pick them up, or $100 if you get them delivered.)
Wow. Where do I begin?! I had read about the new frozen yogurt place that opened in Park Slope, Wicked Spoon, about a month ago, and added it to the list of places to try. Frozen yogurt is my favorite dessert ever, and I'm always excited to try a new place, especially in my favorite neighborhood. I tried not to read too much about it, because I wanted to form my own opinion when I visited. I mentioned this new place to a few friends, including the fact that chocolate covered crickets were for sale, and we decided to head out to Brooklyn today to investigate.
Wicked Spoon's concept is that they have wickedly delicious flavors and combinations, unique from anything you'll find at your run of the mill Red Mango or Pinkberry chain. The owner, Alex Rozhitsky, wanted to bring creative culinary combinations to the yogurt-loving world, and he has more than succeeded. He has created a place that actually makes me wish I had never moved from Park Slope! Although probably better for my pocket, because if I lived closer I would be coming here every day. Although I'll probably still try to come here every day, it's only 2 stops from Atlantic Avenue.
So let's get into the details. There are 4 flavors on the froyo tap. Tart, chocolate, and pomegranate are the staples. The 4th is the flavor of the month, which luckily for me was cookies and cream. The yogurt itself comes from Oregon, and is all natural, nonfat, gluten free and kosher. So it's good for everyone. Unlike most froyo joints, the consistency of the yogurt is smooth through and through. It didn't melt fast in the cup, or lose it's sturdiness as we ate. The tart was just the right balance of tart and tangy, and the chocolate was rich but not overly sweet. I even liked the perfectly fruity pomegranate, even though I'm solely a chocolate girl.
The difficult part was choosing the toppings. There were over 40 to choose from, which meant over 10 minutes at the counter deciding what the best flavor combinations would be. Alex was super nice and let us taste a few of the toppings, which most places don't ever offer. Alex partners with local NY food entrepreneurs to offer toppings such as Jacques Torres' chocolate covered cheerios and ginger, bobbysue's nuts! (plain or chocolate covered), and WannaHavaCookie, who provides the cookies for the froyo-filled whoopie pies. Traditional toppings were available as well (an assortment of fruits, cereals, sprinkles, chocolate chips, etc) but an additional array of unique toppings such as Tate's chocolate chip cookies, chocolate covered rice krispies, wasabi peas, nonpareils, yogurt craisins, chocolate malt balls, and chocolate graham crackers. There were also sauces to consider, from your chocolate and caramel to cabernet berry, lemoncello sauce and balsamic. It was nearly impossible to decide - note Melissa's pensive face analyzing the toppings:
I decided on a mixture of tart and cookies and cream, which were served one on top of another since they're in different machines. The bowls come with up to 3 toppings, and I chose Tate's chocolate chip cookies, chocolate covered rice krispies and Jacques Torres chocolate covered cheerios. Melissa's and my concoctions were fairly similar, and Jake went with one of the pre-set 'Wicked Combinations', Yellow Snow, which consisted of original tart yogurt, pineapple, mango, and lemoncello sauce. They were presented beautifully, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the yogurt and toppings alike. We also purchased 2 chocolate covered crickets for - I suppose dessert? As we sat at the table and discussed how much we loved Wicked Spoon, we discovered that Alex had cards for people to fill in their own flavor combinations. We spent the next hour on our rainy Sunday afternoon developing amazing combinations which I won't reveal too much of, but included the "Double Feature", "The Anti-Oxidizer", and the "Naughty & Nice."
While we brainstormed, Alex talked to us and told us about his venture, showed us the prototypes for the biodegradable spoons, which they had out of due to the popularity since opening. He told us he was in the works for opening up 2 additional locations, and explained the affiliation with some of the toppings providers like bobbisue's nuts! (and gave us a jar to try, and they were some damn good nuts!) He also gave us one of his favorite combinations to try, the Wicked Sonoma, which was pomegranate yogurt with blueberries, blackberries and cabernet sauce. As we tried to figure out some great international toppings that could be included in the "Around the World" sundae (still working on it, if you have suggestions please let me know!), Alex also let us try the whoopie pies, which I ALSO loved - EVERYTHING was great here! The whoopie pie cakes were made with WannaHavaCookie cookies, and the red velvet cookie was paired with pomegranate froyo and the chocolate went with the cookies and cream. I'm not even a fan of whoopie pies, AND was stuffed, but still managed to have some!!
In the end, when I thought I couldn't ingest anything else, we had to try our chocolate covered crickets. Now, I've never eaten a bug before (knowingly at least) - but felt like walking in NY in flip flops is probably more disgusting than eating a bug covered in chocolate. Plus, Jake and I had talked about it all week (thinking we were going to be eating grasshoppers actually but - we were close), and we were there, so it had to be done. We unwrapped our crickets, which had nutritional facts on the package - only 30 calories per bug and 2g of fat. No protein. After a little toast made by Jake, we fed each other our crickets. It didn't taste much different than a chocolate covered rice krispie. I did hear the crunch as I bit, which was the only gross part until Jake later noticed that one of the cricket legs hadn't quite made it all the way down :) We proudly put on our 'I Ate A Bug Club' pins, shook hands with our new friend Alex, and went back home to share the news with the world. Alex is working on a lot of new fun combinations, and I know I'll be back here frequently to try them all!
Wicked Spoon is located at 321 5th Avenue, 1 block from the R stop on 4th Ave and 9th street, or 2 blocks from the F/G train at 7th Avenue. Go. Trust me. And when you're going, tell me so I can come along!
Okay, so there's no actual t-shirt. And Fire Island isn't all THAT far (although you do need about 15 modes of transportation to get there.) But once you do, it's a great little beach town, with fun little bar names like Albatross, and fines for riding your bike on Saturdays. There are no cars allowed, and foam parties on Thursday nights are a must. I had my first taste of Fire Island last summer, and fell in love. It's like going on vacation without actually going anywhere. So of course while I was out there this past weekend I had to review my favorite bakery that I found last summer!
Located at 325 Bay Walk, Rachel's has been a restaurant/bakery on Fire Island since 1975. Located just a block to the right from the ferry station, you can't help but smell the freshly baked cookies from the 3-mile radius that is Ocean Beach. Rachel's restaurant itself has a full menu for any time of the day - omelets and breakfast burritos in the morning; burgers and sandwiches for lunch, and seafoods and pastas for dinner. But next door is a small bakery, big enough to fit about 7 people max at one time.
On our last night in Fire Island, me and guest star of the day Danielle stopped by Rachel's on our way home from the bar. We've decided that drunken pizza is so college, drunken 2,000 calorie brownies are much more necessary. We went in, and our eyes immediately floated over to the marshmallowy smoresy cakey brownie chocolatey puddle of goo. We ordered a piece to go with 2 forks and brought it home. It was soft, but not crumbling. The marshmallow sauce was liquidy, and melted in with the chocolate. There were chocolate chips dispersed throughout. It was warm, and every bite we took was better than the one before. At $4.50 a piece, it's a bit on the steeper side (but then again, a pound of turkey was $15 there so who am I kidding.) I loved this cake, and secretly wish I could go to Fire Island every weekend to try other Rachel's treats.
If you're out there this summer, definitely make sure to stop by for dessert! Or breakfast, or after-breakfast snack, or lunch, or mid-afternoon snack, or.....
There are an abundance of froyo places spread throughout Manhattan. You can hardly walk down the block without passing at least one Red Mango, two Pinkberry's, and 14 Tasti's. The one spot that's semi-lacking is the small patch of land between the Cjaps' Pilates studio on 17th and 3rd, and Union Square. After Pilates class last week, the Cjaps were contemplating walking down to 16 Handles to get froyo for dinner, but were too sore from class to walk 4 entire blocks out of the way. Laziness at it's best! We walked to the train station, but right before we got on, on the corner of 14th street and 4th Ave, we saw something even better than Mr. Softee! It was a froyo truck called Berry Froyo. Such a simple concept, it's astonishing these trucks aren't riding all over the city, bringing yogurt to people like us, who think 4 blocks is too far to walk.
Berry Froyo is a cart that appeared in Union Square in May. I had heard of it's existence, but hadn't noticed it when I'd been in the area. The truck is limited in it's offerings - only tart and non-fat vanilla, but the consistency is thicker and able to stay in a cone (most froyo places don't offer this option, because the yogurt melts too quickly). The cones were only $2.00, and toppings $0.75, which priced much lower than a small yogurt with topping at the competitors (Red Mango and Pinkberry both come in over $5.)
The topping choices were sprinkles, cookie crunch , mochi, dried marshmallows (a new topping we haven't seen to date), strawberries, blueberries, almonds, coconut, banana, and chocolate chips. After doing some research, we learned that the owner of the truck shares his supplier with 16 Handles, but he does change up the recipe a bit so we didn't recognize that they were one and the same.
To the important part - our evaluation.
We did like the yogurt, although we typically enjoy mixing the flavors, which we weren't allowed to. The cones were a good size for the price, and we loved the concept of froyo in a cone, with cookie crunch, our favorite topping. I wouldn't go out of my way to get this yogurt, but when in the area, it's certainly worth stopping by for a snack on the go!
