NY Eats: bakery roundup
On this trip to New York, I had the good fortune to try a few well-known bakeries. Now, I did order significantly different things in each bakery, but my favorite of the bunch was Bouchon Bakery, one of the Shops at Columbus Circle.
Here, I ordered the demi-baguette, bear claw, madeleines, sticky bun, nutter butter cookie, and pistachio macarons. I liked everything, especially the macarons which were delicately flavored and the first time I'd had macarons that weren't overly sweet (including the ones I made).
My other favorite was the sticky bun. Also not too sweet, the multiple folds and layers inside made for a super luscious and decadent experience. I just loved chewing on this!
The bakery I was most eager about going to was Momofuku Milk Bar. I had read so much about two menu items in particular: the cereal milk soft serve and Crack Pie. Cereal milk soft serve is flavored like the milk at the bottom of the bowl after you've finished your cornflakes. It's a soft, comforting flavor, and I thought it was great as soft serve. On the other hand, people have raved about Crack Pie, and it's named based on popular reaction, but I thought it was overrated. It's basically a chewy chess pie.
If Crack Pie is so popular, why don't people line up for chess pie in pie shops elsewhere? (The line at Milk Bar was at about 15 minutes long, and eating was a crowded experience since the space is also used as a waiting room for Ssam Bar.) I'm thinking in particular about a slice I had from "Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Parlor" - it's in the back of this picture; in the front is a slice of Shaker Sugar Pie. I went to this pie shop once when I went to do some research in Louisville, Kentucky (had caramel apple and rhubarb that time), so when I went back to Louisville I made sure our focus group facility ordered some for us to eat behind the one-way mirror!
The final bakery I tried was Financier. I went to Grand Central Station to catch the subway after a visit to the New York Public Library on 42nd and 5th, and I jumped in to try one of the financiers since I had also heard of this place from all of my blog reading. The financier was good, but not something I felt like I couldn't make. As a note, the staff here pronounce it "financi-err," but they do understand you if you pronounce it "financi-eigh."
