Levain Bakery

There are many places in NYC that are on the "best of" lists and have a lot of hype surrounding them, and too often they don't live up to high expectations.  Levain, however, is one of the places that will without a doubt not meet, but exceed even the highest expectations.

The bakery is nestled on the Upper West Side in a busy area that consists of Jacques Torres, Alice's Tea Cup, and Magnolia Bakery, to name a few, so there are many options to choose from.  But, anybody in their right mind would rush past all the other options without even looking back and head straight for Levain.  They sell a lot of freshly baked bread items, but are most known for their monstrous cookies.  The owners created these cookies when they were training for the Ironman and needed a calorie/energy bomb to counteract the grueling workouts, and they hit the jackpot with these cookies.

When you first see them in the display case, you are in disbelief at the size of the cookie.  They look like huge scones, but way better.  You have four options to choose from: Chocolate Chip Walnut, Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip and Oatmeal Raisin.  Each one of the cookies is about a pound in weight (I have read that they are 6oz, but they feel like a pound to me) so they are not for the faint of heart.  I have tried all flavors besides the Oatmeal Raisin, because even though I hear that the oatmeal raisin is amazing, I can't imagine making the trip there and not getting something with chocolate.  My favorite flavor, and the one I always order, is the Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip, which is a chocolate lovers dream.  No matter what time of day you get there, the cookie is always served to you warm and fresh with the chips oozing.

After craving these cookies for weeks and dreaming about them, I finally made my trip to the bakery today and ordered the Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip.  Once it was handed to me, I split the cookie opened and was immediately overcome with the strong scent of chocolatey, buttery goodness.  Then, I looked down at the cookie and saw the oozing chocolate chips and the almost raw (in a good way) cookie center.

I took my first bite, and was in heaven.  The outside of the cookie has a nice crisp shell which works well with the soft gooey center and the melted chips.  I don't know how they get the chips to stay melted for so long, but it is just part of the magic of these cookies that can not be replicated anywhere else (in fact, I got my cookie about 5 hours ago and some of the chips are STILL melted).  You get a mouthful of chips in every bite, and the dark chocolate flavor is outstanding.  It is hard to put into words how amazing this cookie is (though I am clearly trying), but all I can say is that it is life changing.  While some could argue that it is more like a cross between a brownie and a cookie, I would take this over any other cookie any day.  While I had to limit myself to only eating half because I can't really rationalize eating an 8oz cookie, no matter how hard I worked out this morning, it was worth every last bite and calorie. 

 This isn't my first visit here, so I have gotten the chance to try their other flavors as well.  The chocolate chip walnut is also amazing and is more of the traditional chocolate chip cookie.  Even though they do get some grief occasionally for having walnuts instead of a traditional chocolate chip cookie, trust me you barely even taste them and it is SO worth it.  The dark chocolate peanut butter chip is also out of this world, and is a must for any peanut butter lover.  That being said, I will always stay true to my dark chocolate chip cookie and have to order that one every time I go.  

Lucky for me (health wise) I have to go out of my way to go to Levain, so I don't frequent here too often, which makes my occasional visits that much more special.  But, if you are in NYC visiting (even if just for a day) you MUST make the trip to Levain, even if it is out of your way.  Trust me, it will be worth it.  And, they also ship their cookies so you can get them no matter where you live!  Even though they won't be warm or oozing when they get to you, they will still be just as delicious.   

David Burke Kitchen

Sadly, last night's dinner brought restaurant week to a close for me and my sister.   Our last dining location was at David Burke Kitchen, which we had been to for brunch in the past but never for dinner.  We looked at the menu online and were excited about some of the offerings, and were just hopeful that we would have a better experience at this David Burke restaurant than we did at Townhouse.

We had a reservation for 6:30 and it was already packed when we got there!  We got seated right away since we did have a reservation, but our designated table left a little to be desired.  Since they try to use every inch of space that they can for a table, some of them are very close to one another.  There was probably about 3-4 inches of space separating our table from the table next to us, but luckily they were rather quiet so it wasn't too much of a bother.

This was another restaurant that offered their entire menu for restaurant week, which shows that they really capture the spirit of the event (again, there were a select few options that required a small supplement, but not many).  For the appetizer, I chose to keep it simple and ordered their simple salad.   The other option that I considered was the  burrata, watermelon, and asparagus salad, which I ultimately did not order because it comes with proscuitto, which I don't care for.  My sister ordered the lobster dumpling soup instead of her usual pretzel crusted crab cake (which is a staple at the David Burke restaurants) because the crab cake requires a small supplement and she wanted to try something new.

There isn't really too much that I can say about the salad except that you get exactly what it says-- a simple salad.  It comes with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, fennel, and supposedly onion (but I unfortunately did not taste any), and it is served in a mustard vinaigrette.  Even though it was a very basic salad, I did like it.  The dressing was really nice, and it was a light way to start the meal.  But, it was a bit large and after a while it just got kind of boring.  Also, there was a bit too much dressing for my taste, but overall it was a good salad.  My sister said her lobster dumpling soup was really nice and was exactly what she was craving.  When it came to the table, it was just a bowl with 2 lobster dumplings so we were a little confused.  Then, we saw that there was a pot of hot broth over a flame and the waitress brought that to the table and poured it over the dumplings.  It was a very light, seafood based broth, which she really enjoyed.  Overall, she said this dish was a winner.

The main course here is really what I was looking forward to the most.  When we did our preliminary look through of the menu online, I was intrigued by the short rib.  I have never ordered short rib in a restaurant before, but something about it peaked my interest.  My sister was in agreement, and we both decided to order the short rib as our main course.  It came glazed in a peach bbq sauce with 2 cooked peaches on top in addition to some chopped veggies, and served over aged cheddar mac and cheese, peas, and some crispy onions on the outside border.

My first test of the short rib was to put my fork into it and see if i could rip off a piece without a knife, to see if it was tender like it should be.  It passed the test by a landslide, and I was very excited to try my first bite.  The meat was extremely tender and flavorful, and the bbq sauce put it over the top.  The mac and cheese on the bottom also did not disappoint.  I mixed it with the crispy onions so that it had a nice crunch to it in addition to the peas.  I really liked that the portion of mac and cheese with this dish was on the smaller side so you didn't end up eating too much of it, as opposed to at David Burke Townhouse where it covered half of the plate.  Every aspect of the dish was perfect, and all the components worked really well together.  My sister loved the short rib as well, and almost cleared the plate!  I should also mention that I was taking note of the various dishes that passed by me and went to other tables, and the short rib was the most popular dish by far.  If every short rib is like theirs was, I will definitely order it more often in restaurants!

The last course, which usually is my favorite, was the dessert.  I opted for the caramel chocolate tart, and my sister got the passion fruit meringue pie.  

When ordering it, I forgot to ask for them to omit the raspberry sherbet because there is nothing that I hate more than mixing raspberry with my chocolate dessert.  Luckily, it hadn't melted yet when it came to the table so I was able to easily push it off the plate without tainting the tart.  The pie shell itself was a bit thick for my liking, and I would've preferred that it had been a little easier to cut into.  The first bite wasn't the best because it mainly consisted of the shell, but once I got towards the middle it got a lot better.  The chocolate was super rich and decadent, and the caramel layer underneath the chocolate paired really nicely with it.  I honestly would've been happy if there was no shell at all because I mostly ended up just scooping out the chocolate and caramel.  The tart was also rather large, so I had to control myself and not finish it.  My sister wasn't too happy with the passion fruit meringue pie, but it was mainly because it didn't satisfy what she was craving.  It wasn't bad, it just wasn't worth the calories to her.  

Not only was the food here much better than at Townhouse, but the service was far superior.  I would even say that it was a bit too quick.  Our appetizers came out within 5 minutes of ordering, and each course thereafter came out within 5-10 mins of our plates being cleared.  We are generally quick eaters and enjoy being in and out of a restaurant within an hour, but most people would probably think it was too quick.  It was very crowded so I'm sure they were trying to turn tables over quickly, especially since people flock here to take advantage of the restaurant week menu.  If they could find a balance between the slow and inconsistent service at Townhouse and the almost too quick service at Kitchen, it would be perfect. 

If you are looking to go to one of David Burke's restaurants, I would definitely recommend coming here over Townhouse even though the location is a little more inconvenient.  The food and service were far superior to our last David Burke restaurant experience, and the short rib stood out in my mind as the star of the evening. 

Riverpark

Tonight was our third restaurant week outing, and our chosen destination was Riverpark.  My sister and I went there during winter restaurant week and really enjoyed it, so I was excited to return.  The location is a little isolated, but luckily it is within walking distance of my apartment so it was easy to get there.  It is located right on the east river and they have some outdoor seating, which was great because the weather tonight was beautiful and breezy.  The ambiance inside was also really nice, but it is hard to pass up a table outside when the weather is as nice as it was tonight.

Just like David Burke and Telepan, they offered their whole menu for restaurant week and had just a few select dishes that required supplements.  There was a great selection of appetizers to choose from, and they had a few pasta dishes that you could choose to be either an appetizer or a main course.  I usually tend to order a regular salad as my appetizer, but I decided to be a little more adventurous and I opted for one of the pasta dishes.  There were a few that looked good, but I got the Bigoli pasta which came in a light tomato sauce with heirloom tomatoes, lemon verbena, and a light sprinkling of breadcrumbs on top.  My sister got the avocado and hamachi salad which came highly recommended by the waiter, and my mom got the baby lettuces & greens salad.

The bigoli pasta was really fresh and delicious!  The pasta itself was pretty thick and al dente, but I liked that it had a nice bite to it.  The sauce was really light and had a nice tomato flavor, but the cooked heirloom tomatoes were the best part.  They were really juicy and tasted local and fresh.  The lemon verbena also added a nice touch to the dish because it had an interesting and distinct flavor that paired well with the pasta and the sauce.  My sister really liked the avocado and himachi salad, and my mom thought that the salad was ok but nothing special so she didn't really eat much of it.

For the main course, I went with my usual dish of choice, the grilled chicken.  For people with a more adventurous palate, they offered a really diverse range of dishes including rabbit, scallops, trout, lamb, steak, and pork chop to name a few.  My sister ordered the scallops, again based on the recommendation from the waiter, and my mom got the pork chop which the waiter said was their signature dish.  

The grilled chicken was cooked perfectly, and was moist and delicious.  It came with some roasted tomatoes, which again were one of the highlights of the dish, in addition to freekeh and a delicious sauce.  Even though I loved the dish, I actually liked my mom's pork chop even better (which is weird because I NEVER order pork chop).  It came with collard greens, grilled peaches, sauteed onions, and was topped with the best part of the entire meal--candied barbecue pork belly, which tasted like deliciously sweet pulled pork.  I had never had a pork chop before, but I tried a bite and it tasted like a spare rib and was actually really good.  The sauce that it came in was also delicious and paired nicely with the pork.  The collard greens were way too spicy for my taste, but the grilled peaches were a really nice touch.  But, like I said before, the best part of the meal was the candied pork belly on top.  At first we weren't sure what it was, but after I took the bite I just knew that it tasted like the best pulled pork I had ever had.  When the waiter told us that it was candied, it sounded even better.  Since this is their signature dish, I am hopeful that it will still be on the menu for the next time that I come back and I will definitely order it.  But, to be honest, my sister and I both agreed that we would be happy to just order a bowl of the candied barbecued pork belly (which they don't offer) and be perfectly happy.  My sister also really enjoyed her scallops dish, and even though it was a slight supplement to the restaurant week menu she said it was worth it.  

When the dessert menus came, we were a little disappointed because they had an upside down banana cake listed on their online menu that is not actually offered in the restaurant.  Since this was what we had planned on getting, we were a little sad but we each easily found something else to order.  My sister opted for the cheesecake which came with cherry ice cream, brandied cherries, and crushed graham cracker, my mom got the raspberry and white peach-hibiscus sorbet, and I got the chocolate mousse which had a liquid chocolate center and came with chai ice cream (but I asked for them to leave it out because I really don't understand the pairing of chocolate desserts with tea flavored ice cream) and chocolate whipped cream.

Even though I am a chocolate lover, chocolate mousse is not generally my dessert of choice.  I usually only order it if it is a chocolate mousse cake, otherwise I always opt for a different cake option since I much prefer cake to mousse.  But, since the chocolate mousse was the only chocolate dessert on the menu, and it said it had a liquid chocolate center, I decided to order it.  I was pleasantly surprised by the dessert, and really enjoyed it.  The mousse was very light and fluffy, but it still had a strong bittersweet chocolate flavor.  The liquid chocolate center made it stand out since I have never seen that before with a chocolate mousse.  Overall, it was a good dessert but it was not my favorite that I have had.  I was satisfied with it, but I was able to only eat half and did not feel tempted to finish it(normally if I love a dessert I finish every last bite).  My sister loved the cheesecake (she cleared the plate) and the sorbets were also great and refreshing.  

This dining experience at Riverpark was great, and even better than the first time we had been there.  It was nice to be able to sit outside on the beautiful summer night and enjoy the breeze coming from the east river.  The food was delicious, the service was pretty good overall (not amazing, but not bad either), and the company was the best.  The two standout dishes in my mind were the bigoli pasta and the pork chop (mainly because of the candied pork and the grilled peaches) so I highly recommend both of those.  Even though the location is a bit off the beaten path, it is nice to temporarily escape from the bustling streets of NYC and have a great meal on the water.  

Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop

Ben and Jerry's is my absolute favorite brand of Ice Cream because they have such interesting and creative flavors, and they are all delicious.  While you can easily find the ice cream in every super market, it is so much better coming from one of their scoop shops.

I had minor surgery done yesterday morning, and knew that a trip to Ben and Jerry's was going to be my treat.  It seems counter-intuitive that you always end up eating worse when you are sick/have surgery, since you can't exercise and all you really do is lay down and sleep all day, but I went along with it and gave in to the ice cream temptation.

There aren't many scoop shop locations around, but luckily for me there is one in Mt. Kisco, which is only a 10 minute drive from my house out there.  I spent all day in anticipation of the ice cream, and ultimately decided that while I was going for it, I may as well go big.  So, I decided to get the Hot Fudge Sundae.

Unbeknownst to me, the sundae is a monster!  When I asked the worker there what was in the sundae, she said you pick two flavors of ice cream, either hot fudge or caramel, and two toppings.  For some reason I assumed that it would be served in the same cup that the small ice cream would be served in, since that also comes with two flavors, but boy was I wrong.  I looked away for a few seconds as she started to prepare the sundae, and it was too late to turn back.  All of a sudden, I saw in front of me what looked like a pint of ice cream.  It was smaller than a pint, but honestly not by much.

Since I am a chocolate lover, I obviously chose everything to be chocolate.  My two flavors of ice cream were Chocolate Therapy (dark chocolate ice cream with chocolate cookies and swirls of chocolate pudding--my favorite flavor here) and New York Super Fudge Chunk (chocolate ice cream with white and dark fudge chunks, pecans, walnuts, and fudge covered almonds).  On the bottom and coating the entire inside of the cup was the delicious hot fudge, and I chose reeses pieces and sno caps as my two toppings.  

This sundae was heaven for a chocolate lover.  The ice cream flavors were amazing, and the hot fudge sauce put it over the top.  I loved the toppings too, but I could've easily done without them, and ended up taking most of them off.  This is definitely something that I recommend only getting on a special occasion, since it probably contains a days worth of calories in the whole thing.  And, while it may look  a little daunting at first, I was surprisingly able to charge my way through and somehow ate it all.  Of course, afterwards I couldn't contract my stomach for hours and woke up the next morning still feeling full, but it was so worth it.

Petite Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Loaves

In my opinion, the best bread/muffin combination is banana and chocolate chip.  Banana bread is good on its own, but once you add chocolate chips it makes it that much better.  In January when I started my Muffin Tuesday tradition, I made a list of all the recipes I wanted to try, but the one staple missing was a healthy banana chocolate chip muffin recipe.  I had seen a recipe on Skinnytaste for Petite Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Loaves, but I did not have a mini loaf pan and for some reason it didn't seem like it would be as good to me if I adapted the recipe for muffins.  So, after a few months passed and my sister kept looking at the recipe, she finally decided to cave in and buy a mini loaf  pan.  Once the pan arrived in the mail, I immediately made the loaves. 

What is great about these is that they are bigger than muffins, but the same amount of points on weight watchers (5)!  I halved the recipe (though my sister wishes I would've made eight) and pretty much made no other changes.  The recipe (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/01/petite-chocolate-chip-banana-bread.html) has a lot of banana, flour, baking soda, salt, egg white, applesauce, vanilla, a little bit of butter, and chocolate chips.  I upped the amount of chocolate chips to 1 oz because it was the same amount of points when I put in the recipe to weight watchers, and who doesn't love more chocolate!  

When you put the batter into the pan, you can tell right away how big these are going to be!  They go into the oven at 325 degrees for 40 minutes, which is a bit torturous to wait for.  What makes it even harder is that the whole kitchen (and if you live in NYC, the whole apartment!) starts to smell like banana bread.  

These come out of the oven looking like perfect little banana bread loaves!  It looks even better than a muffin because you get your own personal loaf, and, lets be honest, who doesn't want their own banana bread!  These have such a strong banana flavor because that is the prominent ingredient, which is what I love.  The chocolate chips do not overwhelm the banana flavor because there are not many chocolate chips in the recipe, but you appreciate it more when you reach a chocolatey bite.

If you are a banana and/or chocolate lover, you should give this recipe a try.  You can play around with it and switch out the chocolate chips for nuts, or simply just make them as banana bread, though I do recommend keeping the chocolate chips.  They are really delicious and bigger than muffins, so they are more filling too!

Molly's Cupcakes

I have been taking a finance course over the summer (yuck!) to fulfill a requirement for school and to get it out of the way, and today was the final.  After a long weekend of studying and spending hours creating the world's most intense study sheet, I knew that I wanted to find some way to celebrate finishing the class.  Of course, I immediately thought, "what special food/dessert item should I treat myself to?"  Since I haven't had a cupcake in a while and have been craving one, I settled on that.  The next step was deciding where to get it from, because there are tons of places in the city that you can supposedly find the "best cupcake."  I have been to Magnolias, Butter Lane, Sprinkles, Georgetown Cupcake, and Two Little Red Hens, among others, so I have definitely gotten around to sampling some of NYCs best offerings.  Instead of going back to one of these places, I remembered Molly's Cupcakes- a place I have been meaning to try for a while.

I first looked them up on yelp and saw they have 4 1/2 stars, which is a very good sign.  Then, when I looked on their website and saw their menu, I knew I had to come here.  The first specialty cupcake listed on the menu is the Ron Bennington, which is a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter filling, chocolate ganache frosting, and a crushed butterscotch topping.  Needless to say, I was immediately sold.  I continued looking at the menu just to see what the other offerings were, and I couldn't believe I had never been here before!  Some of the other cupcakes that sounded awesome to me were the Cake Batter (vanilla confetti cake filled with raw cake batter, topped with vanilla buttercream and sprinkles), the Cookie Monster (vanilla chocolate chip cake, raw cookie dough center, buttercream, and a mini chocolate chip cookie on top), the Salted Caramel Butterscotch (vanilla cake filled with butterscotch caramel pudding, topped with salted vanilla buttercream and caramel drizzle), Peanut Butter Nutella (peanut butter cake filled with nutella, topped with nutella buttercream), and Flourless Molten Chocolate (flourless chocolate cake, dulce de leche ganache filling, french vanilla buttercream, and chocolate drizzle), to name just a few.  They also have a bunch of fruity cupcakes (mixed berry, lemon meringue, peach cobbler, blueberry cheesecake, etc.) but none of those particularly appealed to me.  Even though all of their offerings sounded delicious, I knew I had to get the Ron Bennington.

After much anticipation and a sigh of relief after finishing my final, I finally made my way over to Molly's Cupcakes.  It is a very cute shop nestled in the heart of the West Village, and is worth making the trip.  All of the cupcakes in the display case looked perfect, and even better than I had imagined.  While I could have easily bought a half dozen, I just got the famed Ron Bennington for myself, and the Cake Batter for my sister.  I took them to go, but if you are coming here with someone else they have tables to sit at where you can play board games while devouring your treat.  I made it back to my apartment at around 3pm, and opened the box to see the beautiful cupcakes staring at me.

Since it was only 3pm and I was trying to wait to have the cupcake for dessert, I had to immediately close the box.  The next three hours were torture, as I sat there on the couch thinking about this cupcake.  Finally, I finished dinner and it was cupcake time!  

Just when I thought I could not get more excited, I cut into this and saw the creamy peanut butter filling!  I finally took my first bite, and was in heaven.  You will happily know that it is even better than it looks in the picture, and that says a lot. Every aspect of this cupcake is delicious, and it is safe to say that this was the best cupcake I have ever had.  Yes, that means better than Magnolia's, Sprinkles, and all of the aforementioned cupcake establishments that I have been to.  The chocolate cake is so moist and chocolatey, and while I usually am disappointed by the base of a cupcake, this one was great.  The chocolate ganache frosting, however, was by far my favorite part.  It is so fudgy, rich, decadent, and chocolatey.  A lot of cupcakes with chocolate frosting are too sweet which overpowers the chocolate flavor, but these have the perfect balance.  Then, after a few bites of pure bliss, just when you are thinking that it couldn't possibly get any better, you reach the peanut butter center.  It balances out perfectly with the chocolate, and is a peanut butter lovers dream.  The crushed butterscotch on top also added a nice dimension to the cupcake.

If you are in NYC, don't buy into the hype surrounding the better known establishments like Magnolia's, and instead go to Molly's.  Their cupcakes are so unique and creative, and you will not be disappointed.  I HIGHLY recommend the Ron Bennington, and am already looking forward to the next time I will be able to return and enjoy my new favorite cupcake.  

(Just as a side note--this is the inside of the Cake Batter cupcake.  I tried a bite, and while the Ron Bennington is still my favorite by far, this one was very good too!)

Trader Joe's Frozen Chocolate Croissants

I know it is probably getting annoying reading post after post about Trader Joe's, but when I went a few weeks ago I stocked up on stuff (if you live in NYC, you know how long the lines can get), so now I am finally getting around to trying everything!

One of the items that I had read about online and saw in store was the frozen chocolate croissants.  I heard that they were supposedly the best frozen item and tasted just like a fresh baked chocolate croissant.  Intrigued, I looked at a box when I was in Trader Joe's a few months ago but was instantly scared away after looking at the nutritional information.  It probably comes as no surprise that they are extremely high in fat, since croissants are basically half butter, but it is still a little shocking when looking at that nutritional information.

But, after reading multiple blog posts about them and after a few times of picking up the box and putting it back down, I finally decided to take the plunge and buy them.  They have been sitting in my freezer now for 3 or so weeks, so I decided that today was the day to make them.

It does involve a bit of planning, because you have to take them out of the box and let them proof (rise) for 9 hours, or overnight, before you even start to bake them.  Therefore, you have to know that you want to make them the day before you actually want to eat them.  To me, this is actually a good thing since they are pretty unhealthy and you can't just wake up and make them on a whim.

Anyway, I have been craving these croissants lately, especially with the cronut craze all over the news, so I decided that I would finally make one this morning.  When you take them out of the box, this is what they look like....

It looks a little strange at first, but I knew that they had to rise overnight and was very anxious to see what they would look like when I woke up.  Upon waking up this morning, the first thing I did was go into the kitchen and see what it looked like. 

I was shocked at how much it grew overnight!  Even though it said on the box that it would grow a lot, I was a bit skeptical after seeing what they looked like when I took them out of the box.  Now that it had risen overnight, I still had to preheat the oven and bake them for 20 minutes.  You can choose to brush an egg over the top to give it a more shiny finish, but since I was only making one I chose not to waste a whole egg.  The hardest part of the whole process was waiting for it while it was in the oven, because the smell permeated my entire apartment!  I felt like I was sitting in a bakery in Paris waiting for a fresh baked croissant, and I was just hoping that the taste was able to stand up to the amazing smell.  

I actually want to take back my earlier statement and say that the hardest part was waiting 10 minutes AFTER taking them out of the oven.  It says on the box to wait 10 minutes after you take them out before eating them, and normally I would disregard the directions but I decided that I had already invested a lot of time in it and I may as well just wait 10 more minutes. 

So, I sat there staring at this beautifully golden chocolate croissant, taking in the aroma of a Parisian bakery, until 10 minutes finally passed.  When I picked it up, I noticed that even though it looked huge it was super light and had a nice and hard exterior, which were good signs!  Then, I finally took my first bite...

I was pretty much in heaven after my first bite.  It was very crispy on the outside and the outermost layer started to flake off onto the plate, which is exactly what you want to see.  The inside of the croissant, however, was the star.  The layers were extremely soft, fluffy, and buttery and once I got to the chocolate, I couldn't stop smiling.  There are two long strips of chocolate in these croissants so you definitely get chocolate in almost every bite, and it goes really well with the crunchy outside and soft, buttery inside.  

This croissant is honestly up there with some of the best that I have ever had (and yes, I have been to Paris).  Not only does it look better than some that are sold in bakeries, but it even tastes better!  You would never guess that these came from the freezer aisle!  If you have a Trader Joe's near you and you love croissants, I highly recommend purchasing these.  Even if you are scared away by the nutritional info, I figured that it was good to have in my freezer for when I was craving a croissant.  I mean, if I am craving one, I would rather make it myself, know the nutritional info, and eat it in my home instead of buying one in a bakery and not knowing how many calories I could be eating.  Also, since you do have to plan for these, it prevents you from making them on a whim which means when you decide to make them, you have really thought it through!  So, before you put that box down (multiple times, if you are like me), just buy them now and stick them in your freezer.  They honestly taste like a freshly baked croissant and are on par, if not better, than ones you could buy in a bakery.  

(I should also mention that last night I watched American Baking Competition and one of the challenges was to make croissants, so that made me in the mood for these even more!  I also took it as a sign that I made the right choice in making them for today!)

The Palm

One of my family's favorite restaurants to go to is The Palm.  I first started going there when my family would visit my grandparents in East Hampton, and it instantly became one of my favorites (and this was even before I ate steak).  I always loved the side dishes, and most notably, the huge chunk of chocolate cake for dessert.  I remember the first time I saw it when they brought the dessert platter to the table, and it looked like it was 1/4 of an entire cake.  Since I was the only one in my family that wanted a chocolate dessert, I asked if they had anything smaller.  They did not, and I ended up ordering this monstrous, but so delicious, piece of cake.  Since I was pretty young and it is extremely rich, I was only able to make a small dent in it, and ended up taking the rest home.  And, if my memory serves me correctly, I think the leftover cake was my dessert for the next 5 nights, thats how big it was.

So, even though they are known as a great steakhouse, I know them as the place with the amazing chocolate cake.  Every time my family goes to the Hamptons, we go to the Palm.  My Dad also loves coming here, so we tend to go to the Palm Too in NYC a few times a year as well.

I am also an avid user of Gilt City, so a few months back when I spotted a Gilt deal for the Palm, I instantly jumped on it and bought the deal.  It was $60 for $100 worth of food, and it expires in July.  Since it is mid June and we hadn't used it yet, we figured it was the perfect time to go since it is also Father's Day Weekend.

Even though the cake is  my favorite part of the meal, I do have a lot of other favorites.  I used to order the Chicken Piccata, which is a bit strange to love from a steak house but it is always so delicious there.   But, since I have been eating steak every now and again, I usually now order Filet Mignon whenever I go to The Palm.  The steak is very tender and delicious, and it always comes out cooked perfectly.  To start off, I always get the caesar salad (they now offer a slightly smaller size in addition to the normal size, so I opt for the smaller version), and it is always good.  My dad and sister love the crabmeat cocktail, but I can't attest to how good it is because I don't eat seafood.

The other star of the meal in our eyes is the side dishes.  My family has reached the consensus that we would be perfectly happy coming to The Palm and just ordering side dishes and cake.  But, we recognize that is probably not the best route so we do order regular food.  We always usually get a vegetable, whether its steamed asparagus or brussels sprouts, and we get a potato dish.  Our ultimate favorite is the half and half, but you really cant go wrong with either the hash browns or the half and half.  We haven't ordered the hash browns our past few visits because even though they are so amazing, we just love the half and half.  It comes with their homemade chips and fried onion strings.  My favorite part is the onions, and if my stomach could bear it, I swear I could eat a whole order of them.  Between 5 of us at the table, we got an order of steamed asparagus, roasted Brussels sprouts, and the half and half, and we had some left over of each because the side orders are huge.

To finish, we obviously got the chocolate cake.  They do have some other good options on the menu, like carrot cake, a bag of warm donuts, and cheesecake, but we could never get anything besides the chocolate cake.  They now offer a smaller version (which is still very large) but we opted for the large size since there were 5 of us.  The cake is 7 layers of chocolate cake and chocolate fudge, and the top of the cake has a really thick layer of creamy and fudgy chocolate.  It also comes with their homemade whipped cream and one strawberry (which my sister and I usually eat as a joke so we can say we ate something healthy).  I am not exaggerating when I say that this is one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever had.  It is a simple, no frills dessert which makes it that much more delicious because they are not trying to do anything fancy with it.  It is just a great chunk of chocolate cake.  Five of us had a slice of the large slice (and my dad had two) and there was still about 3 servings left.

The Palm has locations all around the country, so if there is one near you I highly recommend going.  In addition to their food being great, they have really cool caricatures of people all over the walls which makes there decor very unique.  In my mind, it is the epitome of a classic steakhouse, and everything there is delicious and worth the money.  I probably love  going there also because it is a classic family restaurant for me, whether it be with my grandparents in the Hamptons or my Dad in the city, and we have a lot of good memories there.   The Palm is one of my all time favorite restaurants, and if you ever have the opportunity, you should definitely go.  And, even if you feel really full from the appetizers, main course, and side dishes, you MUST get the chocolate cake!

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

It is that time of week again---Muffin Day!   Even though I try to keep the muffins on the healthier side,  sometimes you just need to start the morning out with some chocolate.  And chocolate can be healthy in limited quantities, right?  Well, I think so....

So, today I made Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins and  I used the recipe posted on emilybites.com (http://www.emilybites.com/2011/07/zucchini-chocolate-chip-muffins.html).  I have made these muffins before and wanted to remake them because the muffin base is really delicious, and the chocolate obviously makes them that much better.  I halved her recipe from 12 to 6, and then ultimately made 5 muffins because I follow weight watchers and after putting it into the recipe builder, each muffin was the same amount of points whether you made 5 or 6.  So I of course chose to make 5 and have them be a little bigger!  The only other slight change was using half whole wheat and half regular flour because I do not have white whole wheat flour in my apartment.

These muffins are really delicious, and the zucchini adds a nice touch because it makes the muffins a lot more moist.  You also don't even taste the zucchini, so don't let that scare you away from making these!  They also have some cinnamon, vanilla extract, and lemon juice, which helps makes the muffins more flavorful.  The best part of these though is of course the chocolate chips.  

I usually eat my muffin right when it comes out of the oven, so the chocolate is very warm and spreads more evenly throughout the muffin.  There is only 2 tbsp in the whole batch, but it is more than enough to give you that chocolate punch without it becoming too unhealthy.  If you are looking for a chocolate chip muffin recipe that is healthier than normal chocolate chip muffins, I would definitely recommend these.  The applesauce and zucchini that are in these muffins takes the place of any oil or butter that you would usually need for a muffin, and you can't even taste the zucchini.  So, before you immediately rule out making chocolate chip muffins because you think they are too unhealthy, try making these and you will be pleasantly surprised!

Rouge Tomate

Tonight, I went to dinner at what my sister has now dubbed her new favorite restaurant in NYC, which really says a lot.  It is always difficult to try to eat healthy when in a restaurant because the portions are at least double the size of a serving, and you never really know exactly what goes into the dishes.  So, when I was doing research on healthy restaurants in the city, I stumbled upon Rouge Tomate.  It is one of the only restaurants in the city that is SPE certified, which means that you can actually go online and see the nutritional breakdown of all of their dishes and the ingredients that goes into them, which is great.  Based on the availabilty of nutritional info and the intriguing menu, we decided to try it out.

The actual restaurant is pretty big and has a very nice ambiance inside.  It would've been a bit nicer if it wasn't torrentially raining outside, but I can't really hold that against them since they can't control the weather.  They have a pretty big drink list, which includes some homemade sodas, juices, cocktails, and an extremely long wine list.  My sister got the Pink Sangria, which was Rose, Plum Gin, Orange, Pineapple, and a Hibiscus Flavored Pineapple, and she said it was a nice, light drink.  Then, after we ordered, they brought an amuse bouche to the table, which was beet carpaccio with a horseradish foam and topped with some pumpernickel breadcrumbs.

This was so delicious, and had a perfect balance to it.  The horseradish was not too strong, and the breadcrumbs added a really nice texture to the beets.  I was super happy because normally when chefs actually make an amuse bouche, it has some sort of fish in it so I never get to eat it, but in this case it had my favorite ingredient, beets! 

Then, someone came to our table with a nice basket of bread and you could choose a slice of sourdough bread (I think thats what it was) or a peasant roll which was basically a wheat roll with a lot of seeds on it.  To have with the bread, they brought yellow lentil hummus and some ricotta cheese.  I had the peasant roll, which was really good with all of the seeds.  I tried the hummus, which was pretty good but I am not a big hummus person so I chose to ate the roll plain.  

For the appetizers, I ordered the beet salad which came with pineapple, pumpernickel breadcrumbs, and burrata cheese.  

When it first came to the table, the first thing that I noticed was the presentation.  It just looks so colorful and pretty that I didn't want to eat it!  Of course, I quickly got over that and dug in.  Every component of the dish worked so well together and the pineapple and breadcrumbs created a nice contrast with the beets.  I have had a lot of beet salads, and this one is by far one of my favorites.  My sister had the Wild Mushroom seasonal toast, which she said was really delicious.  It was two small pieces of sourdough toast topped with tofu aioli, sauerkraut, wild mushrooms and broccoli.  I tried one bite and it was delicious, and I usually don't like cooked mushrooms!

Having already had great bread, a nice amuse bouche, and amazing appetizers, we had really high expectations for the main course.  I ordered the Spring Pea Tofu with Buckwheat, Onion, Peanuts, Peas, Coconut and Rhubarb, and my sister got the Arctic Char. 

Again, the first thing I noticed when the plate came to the table was how pretty and colorful it looked!  You can tell that they really think every component of the dish through and they spend a lot of time on presentation.  The tofu was really delicious, and I usually don't order tofu.  It has a nice pea flavor to it, which set it apart for an ordinary piece of tofu.  All of the components of the dish worked really well together, and it is definitely something that I would recommend and order again.  I was only able to make it through one piece though because I was already pretty full and wanted to save room for dessert!

The dessert menu had some really great options, but my sister and I choose to stick with the small plates because we were pretty full.  Apparently the chocolate sphere is the most popular dessert, which I usually would get since I am a chocoholic, but I was too full and knew that if I ordered it, I would end up eating the whole thing and then would regret it later.  So, I choose the soy chocolate ganache with banana, olive oil powder, and cocoa nibs, and my sister got the small strawberry shortcake.  

The soy chocolate ganache was the perfect dessert!  The ganache was extremely rich and chocolatey, and you would never know that it was soy!  The bananas underneath the chocolate were really sweet and had great texture, which worked well with the ganache.  The size of the dessert made it the perfect way to end the meal without feeling overly stuffed.  And, while I did not try the strawberry shortcake, that got rave reviews as well.

Overall, I would highly recommend this restaurant!  Every single thing that my sister and I got was delicious, and you could tell that they really pay attention to detail.  While it is on the expensive side, it is a nice place to go to for special occasions or when you are looking for a little splurge.  You will leave here knowing that you had a very satisfying, delicious, and healthy meal, which is hard to come by in NYC. 

Mercer Kitchen

After a nice (but hot) day walking around the city, my sister and I treated ourselves to a nice dinner at one of Jean Georges' Restaurants, Mercer Kitchen.  I have been to one of his restaurants in Paris and my sister had been to two others, so we knew that we would be getting a great meal.  One of our rituals when going to a restaurant is to always look at the menu before hand.  It is slightly crazy, but we like knowing or at least having an idea of what we would want to get so that we can structure the other meals of our day around it.  Anyway, after we got there and heard recommendations, I decided to start with the Spring Pea Soup and get the Mozzarella Tomato and Basil Pizza as my main course.  My sister started with the Salmon Appetizer and had the Tuna Spring Roll Appetizer as her main course.

The soup was delicious!  It was really smooth and had a strong pea taste (which I love) and there was barely any cream in it which made it very light.  It also had a nice crunch from the little croutons and vegetables that were in the broth.  You can even see from the picture that it is made from mainly peas and not a lot of added milk or cream because it has such a bright green color.  I would highly recommend this if you are a fan of pea soup.  The pizza was also great.  There was the perfect amount of both sauce and cheese and the crust was doughy without being too thick.  This definitely hit the spot and made up for my pizza disaster the other night with the frozen pizza.  My sister loved both of her dishes, but I cannot vouch for them since I do not eat fish.

Of course, it is not a complete meal without having dessert!  The first item on the dessert menu was the Warm Valhrona Chocolate Cake, and I did not have to look any further.

It was my favorite kind of chocolate cake...when I put my spoon into it, the liquid chocolate center came pouring out.  It was so warm, chocolatey, and delicious.  Even though I probably could've gobbled the whole thing down myself, I opted to share it with my sister to try to control myself.  She is not as much of a chocolate freak as me, but she agreed that it was an awesome dessert.  

Overall, our dishes were delicious and even the bread tasted great!  They also have a lot of other great options that we didn't get a chance to try, like burgers, fresh fish, chicken, pasta, etc., so everyone can find something that they are looking for.  It was also completely full by the time we left, which is always a good sign.  Highly recommend it!