Entries tagged as ‘dessert’
If I had my own cupcake shop, it would have an awesome name. That goes without saying. When I say the sign for, “Hello Cupcake,” in D.C. I thought, “Hey, that’s me!”
In college when I was a designer for The State News, we created a page of valentines for people to cut out and I drew a picture of a cupcake for mine with the simple text, “Hey there, cupcake.” It was cute.
So I like cupcakes. Another thing I like: oreos. So a cookies and cream cupcake has got to be tried. Crumbs has some sort of oreo something cupcake but we all know what I think of that. This cupcake wasn’t just a cookies and cream on top, the batter was cookies and cream too. And that’s sweet. Anyway, Hello Cupcake is cute and the cookies and cream cupcake is pretty good. They have so many crazy options, my friend Ryan was blown away:
Sophia was pleased too:
Helloooo cupcake. In other news, today is my baby sister Sambe’s 21st birthday! So happy birthday, Sambe! She’s also coming to NYC this weekend with some friends and it’s gonna be bomb. :)
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: cupcakes, dessert, oreos, treats, washington dc, dc, hello cupcake
Oysters and ice cream. An interesting combination, no? Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. In Detroit last weekend, I went to a new restaurant called South Bar in downtown Birmingham and we ordered some Blue Point oysters. I’m becoming a huge oyster fan but I thought it was strange when they were served on salt, not ice. Not a fan.
South Bar is a strange place, anyway. My friend Abby told me it was like a restaurant in Miami and she was not kidding. It had the plush couches on an outdoor deck and seemed very… Miami. Or Meatpacking District. Is this the way downtown Birmingham is heading?
This is the Birmingham I prefer:
Dairy Mat! I’ve been walking (or driving) up to this place from my home since I moved there when I was two. And it’s still exactly the same. And you can get a face on your ice cream cone:
Or a flurry:
Now excuse me while I hunt down the nearest Mister Softee truck.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: birmingham, blue point, dairy mat, dessert, detroit, faces, flurry, ice cream, ice cream shops, metro detroit, michigan, oreos, oysters, restaurants, south bar
It’s been quite a week so I just wanted to end it with this picture of a piece of chocolate cake. I got it last weekend when I met up with my pal Melissa. We stopped at Big Daddy’s and this was my dinner. Yep. It was also the biggest piece of chocolate cake I’ve ever seen. I had some help and we still didn’t finish it. But alas. I’m feeling this picture right now.
So Happy Friday. I’m on my way to Detroit today and I’m excited to see some friends and some fam. It’s been a long time so it’s gonna be good.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: chocolate cake, chocolate, dessert, diners, big daddy diner, dessert for dinner
OMG, I love the summer. Not only do I feel like I’ve been on fifteen different rooftops in the past two weeks, I also feel like I can’t stop having fun! I even tried to lay low this week, but fun still finds me. Look at this girl. She is all over my blog ALL THE TIME! I’m about to rename this thing Missy Mitten. Missy, you are cut off for a week. Oh wait, we already have two things planned this weekend, one of which is a CANDY TOUR and she’s the guide! So I guess I can’t help it, she’s my most willing partner in crime. There she is with a Salty Pimp (vanilla ice cream, dulce de leche, sea salt, chocolate dip) that she couldn’t wait for me to take a picture of before she took a bite. Oops!
We stopped by the good ol’ Big Gay Ice Cream Truck last night before heading to Park Slope for a show:
There’s my homeboy, Doug Quint. He’s out there fighting for food truck rights (there is this crazy bill that would shut down trucks if they had two parking tickets in one year – two!!) and he’s out there bringing you the best gay ice cream you ever did see. Unfortunately, our trip there was completely impromptu and I had just had half a milkshake (Shake Shack, what?) so I’m going to have to bring myself over there again sometime soon. Doug is my homeboy cause I interviewed him when I was an intern for Gothamist, which I don’t think I shared before because I wasn’t sure if I wanted my full name on City Mitten… pff! He’s also my homeboy on Twitter. If you haven’t yet checked him out you should A) be embarrassed and B) get on it, he’s usually at 17th st and Broadway.
Our visit was right before this awesome show at Southpaw by Frontier Ruckus, who is getting a City Mitten shoutout today because they are A) really good and B) from Michigan:
I like going to Southpaw because there are so many attractive boys but I don’t like going to Southpaw because half of them look like guys I have already dated. One in particular last night looked exactly like the last guy I actually dated and it was driving me nuts! Even Missy was like, “Um, that guy kinda looks like…” GAH! Doppelganger, go away! But when that wasn’t distracting me, I was jammin’ along with the Michigan boys on the banjo. At the end of their set, they came in front of the mics and did a little ditty while half of the crowd sat down on the floor, like kindergarten kiddies watching a teacher read to them from a picture book. It was so cute and you can sort of tell from this blurry picture:
Things are happening. Life is good. It’s the weekend. Go see the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck and support your other local food trucks too!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: bands, big gay ice cream truck, brooklyn, chocolate dip, dessert, doug quint, dulce de leche, food, frontier ruckus, ice cream, michigan, new york, new york city, nyc, salty pimp, sea salt, shows, southpaw, summer is funner, vanilla, yum yum
Oh, I wanted to love you, Minetta Tavern, with your impossible reservations and your $26 hamburger. And you’re gorgeous. But I just don’t know if it’s meant to be. So let’s talk about it.
Minetta Tavern opened last year and has been all the rage. Everyone talks about the $26 Black Label Burger which is, yes, pricey, but this is New York and you can justify anything (It’s really good beef!). I’ve wanted it for 9 months. Tried to make a reservation a few times, but it never worked out until about three weeks ago when Kelly got us a reservation for 6 p.m. on a Thursday. 6 p.m. Like old people. But we’ll take it!
This is how light it was when we left dinner. Strange. Strange. Strange. It is summer. But it’s still strange.
Anyway, who wants to see this burger nonsense?
I was told to order mine medium rare. So I did. And now I’m not sure if I’ve ever had a medium rare burger in my life because I could NOT HANDLE IT. And I love my burgers juicy as can be. So I think I may be at fault there. And it was good. I think I was spoiled recently by having grass-fed burgers on an actual farm, because I was expecting/hoping to be blown away off my chair and it just wasn’t. I actually thought about how I’d rather be eating a burger at Paul’s. Yes I did. Or even the Shake Shack. The fries were delicious, that is true. The pickle, unfortunately, was sadness. Kelly and I think it kind of tasted like Tobasco. Sad. I could tell the beef was quality, but I think next time I should not listen to everyone and just get it medium. I also must report that I left some of the burger on my plate, uneaten. I’d say about three dollars worth. I just thought I was going to die, and not in the typical way that I use that phrase.
Now this was pretty good:
Chocolate souffle for two. I am sick of being served that tiniest baby size of chocolate cake at restaurants, so this was nice. Very warm and very gooey and we ordered a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side because how could you not? We liked this. But we’re still waiting for a restaurant to pry Diner out of our little hearts.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: burgers, greenwich village, restaurants, fries, chocolate, dessert, the village, minetta tavern, macdougal, black label burger, red meat, chocolate souffle
You’re never going to guess where this mini ice cream is from. Actually, you will, since the name of the restaurant is in the title of this blog post. Opps. But it was at the Oak Room at the Plaza. The Plaza. They serve ice cream cones. Hilarious.
Okay, remember yesterday when I voiced the need for feeling like you’re being taken care of when you’re at a nice restaurant? Well if you’re not sure what this is like, go to the Oak Room. You feel like a million bucks. The place just looks like a million bucks. Actually more. But I don’t want to think about numbers.
The Oak Room is so nice I almost didn’t blog about it. I certainly didn’t take five million pictures like I do normally. There’s just too much class. And my cousin was embarrassed. Haha. There was a girl there wearing a suit that looked like it came from the closet of Hilary Clinton. And she was probably younger than sixteen. That’s just the Upper East Side, y’all!
Anyway, the Oak Room and Bar is somewhere worth going to. I had such a great time. Lobster and corn bisque and hanger steak. A million bucks. I’m just going to keep saying that.
The only thing I wasn’t too impressed with was the Oak Bar:
It’s chocolate-praline mousse and brown butter ice cream, but it sure didn’t taste like it. It tasted like a frickin Butterfinger. Yep. My cousin thought it was amazing. I had one bite. So that’s that.
Here’s a picture of my cousin telling me to “Stop it” with the pictures (seriously):
And those were the only pictures I took. Ha.
We walked down a hallway for a bit and saw this ginormous room with nobody in it:
Even in the basement, huge areas were blocked off. How much would I love to explore the Plaza? It has so much history! I just learned that it was originally opened as a bar for men only. Which means white men, at that. What an interesting world we live in.
And now here is my favorite part of the evening. So I had just enjoyed a fabulous meal and fabulous wine with my fabulous cousin. When we came out of the the restaurant, it was lightly snowing. When I came out of the subway stop near my apartment it was still lightly snowing. And gorgeous. So I had the hugest smile on my face because I just love everything and then I get up to my apartment entryway and what do I see? An action figure sitting on one of the posts, covered in snow:
Just like that. It was so great. In the morning, he was gone, but when I came back from work the next day, he was there again! I wonder where he is now.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: a million bucks, butterfingers, dessert, hilary clinton, ice cream cones, new york, nyc, restaurant week, restaurants, the oak room, the oak room and bar, the plaza, Things I Like, upper east side
This is Anne and I met up with her on her birthday to have a lovely lunch at SD26. Now I know not everyone was a fan of yesterday’s Tocqueville post, but I could venture to guess that SD26 will be a little more fun.
First of all, this is what they presented to me when I got to the table:
It’s an electronic wine list! I had no idea! It listed wines by type and price and region and who knows what else. It was Anne’s birthday so I joined her in a glass of champagne. Cheers!
This is raviolo with a soft cooked egg in the middle and truffled butter (yes). So when you cut it in the middle, the egg oozed out. It was quite nice, if I do say so.
Here we have the main: Guinea hen, which was truly delicious. And I love, love leeks. I wonder if my mom thinks this picture is gross but it was SO GOOD.
And look, more middle-aged women. I feel like when I walk around the city, I’m always surrounded by young people like myself. Either I’m not paying attention or all the older people are at lunch. This is what I like to believe. Anne and I wondered/hoped we would be doing this when we were older, going out to fancy lunches and having glasses of wine in the middle of the afternoon with our lady friends. What a nice life. I mean I already think to myself that my life is one giant vacation sometimes, but that would be fantastic. Just don’t let me wear my hair like that.
ANYWAY.
What was kind of cool was to the right of the picture is the kitchen, which you can look into. It was an open space and when I looked in on our way out, I saw some people eating at a table inside. I wonder if they were the chefs!
And now, are you ready? I promised you a dessert that I am in love with that is not chocolate cake. Which, by the way, is kind of funny because I just made chocolate cake this very moment. But this was better. It was so good that the couple next to us told us we had to get it. So here we go:
Panna Cotta! I didn’t even know what it was when I ordered it. Turns out it’s an Italian dessert (we were at an Italian restaurant) made of cream, milk, sugar, and gelatin. And look at all of those vanilla beans! Mmmm… It was very light and very delicious and I am very much in love.
Whee!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: food, restaurant week, restaurants, wine, new york city, dessert, panna cotta, vanilla beans, sd26, champagne, raviolo, hen, mom hates my pictures of meat, middle-aged women
There are some chains I absolutely cannot get behind. Actually, that would be most chains, so let me start over. There are some cupcakes I absolutely cannot get behind. And this one happens to be a chain. Coincidence? I think not.
Crumbs Bake Shop. Perhaps the most popular cupcake stop in New York, perhaps only due to sheer volume of stores. Seriously there is an effing Crumbs on every corner. They put one a block from my office last year. So it’s the most convenient. But sadly, not the most delicious.
The cupcakes are huge, and I’m sure that’s part of the draw. I remember my first time in, I got a giant Oreo cupcake and was extremely underwhelmed. The cake part was eh and the frosting was actually kind of hard. No thanks. People rave about these cupcakes and I try my best to hold my tongue, cause what’s the point in being bitchy about a cupcake?
Last week at my office’s holiday party, one of my co-workers brought in Crumbs and they were actually quite good. I tried the vanilla cake with chocolate frosting and thought maybe they got it right. Maybe Crumbs is actually good.
But then today, my friend surprised me with one of their brownie cupcakes. I was very excited to try my treat, but when I got home, again Crumbs was a disappointment:
It just doesn’t taste like anything. It even had frosting in the middle and that did nothing for me. Oh, Crumbs, why does everyone love you?
I don’t get it.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: bakeries, brownies, chocolate, crumbs, crumbs bake shop, cupcakes, dessert, new york, nyc, oreos, overrated, treats
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend! I have a lot of stuff to post from Detroit, so let’s get it started, shall we? I had a great time back in my hometown with my friends and family, and as you can see from the above photo, we had some really yummy treats!
On Friday night we had a dessert party at my mom’s house. I had brought goodies from New York: cupcakes from Butter Lane and a cheesecake from Junior’s. The best part was I didn’t even tell anyone what I was bringing so when I got off the plane with my Junior’s bag, my mom was like, “Ye-ah!” It’s her fave.
My best friend Michelle made this awesome cookie cake (above) from this recipe I had seen online and passed along to her saying, “Please, please, please!” I was thrilled that she actually made it and it was my favorite thing I tried. She made the whipped cream from scratch and it was delicious! My cousin M brought in a giant mocha cake, truffles, and Candy Cane Joe Joe’s (oreos) from Trader Joe’s.
Here’s some of the spread and here is Michelli trying to sneak some frosting from the mocha cake:
Cupcakes:
Look at the concentration here:
And here’s little B and her big cake:
After everyone had enough sugar to last us the entire week, we gathered around the kitchen table for story time with R:
Good times, good times. And geesh, after looking at all these pictures, who wants to go take a run in Prospect Park? Or, you know, just take a nap. :)
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: food, junior's cheesecake, cupcakes, dessert, cookies, family, cheesecake, mocha cake, cake, whipped cream, dessert party, joe joe's, trader joe's, oreos, butter lane, oh my, michelle, bfc
Welp, today is the final day of the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck for the summer. It better be back next year!
The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck was a new thing this year and Doug Quint (inside, making cones) is probably the coolest ice cream man ever. He made QUITE the treats. In the beginning of the summer I tried a cone with nilla wafers and dulce de leche. It was good except I got it everywhere. I think I dropped it on my shirt like 18 times. Still tasted good, though!
Yesterday I was finally able to try their newest item on the menu: Affogayto Mexicano. It’s vanilla soft serve with their own Mexican hot chocolate over it, whipped cream, cocoa powder, and cayenne pepper.
Now, you should know how I feel about hot chocolate: It is my FAVORITE. I mean I always liked hot chocolate but once I went to Athens and had a hot chocolate that thickened on the top while you sipped, my world was changed forever. So I pretty much like to try all hot chocolates everywhere, which means I couldn’t pass this up. Six dollars for hot chocolate? Sure! But it was more like a hot chocolate float, anyway:
It was pretty good. Could have used a leeeeetle more chocolate though, maybe a chocolate drizzle on the top or bottom? That would have done it some good. I really liked when the soft serve started melting into the hot chocolate, it was a nice blend.
Hmmm. I’m really, really tempted to go back today and try out the Salty Pimp: vanilla soft serve with dulce de leche and sea salt, dipped in chocolate. The guy in front of me yesterday ordered that and it looked damn pretty when it came out.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: big gay ice cream truck, dessert, food, hot chocolate, ice cream, new york, new york city, nyc, union square
