Coffee, Tea, & Bakeries

Amy’s Bread | New York City

this will be short and sweet. this is lauren’s favorite, favorite bakery in nyc. when someone tells me something is their absolute favorite, i take it seriously (especially if it is in a city full of awesome eating options). her favorite thing here: the black and white cake.

but since i don’t eat chocolate, we asked the cashier which was better: the coconut cake or the carrot cake. no hesitation: “coconut cake hands down” i love when people don’t hesitate because they are that sure.

have i told you i have been obsessing over coconut cake ever since i tried the famous coconut cake in pebble beach? well it was my favorite coconut cake until this. yep.

why? the cake is extremely moist. probably the moistest (moist is not my favorite word but i cant think of a better word to use here) cake i have ever had. not the soggy kinda moist… the perfectly fluffy kinda moist. the coconut frosting just adds to its greatness. not too sweet (a big rating factor for me).

i have now added this to one my favorite bakeries. alright new york, you win this one.

ps. i visit this bakery every time i visit nyc now. of the two locations i have been to (chelsea and west village), my favorite is the one in chelsea since it has more options.

Amy’s Bread
75 9th Ave
New York, NY 10011
Neighborhood: Chelsea / Meatpacking

250 Bleecker St
New York, NY 10014
Neighborhood: West Village

By fabliss | November 25th, 2014 | Coffee, Tea, & Bakeries, Food, New York, Restaurants, Travel | 0 Comments

il Laboratorio Del Gelato | New York City

our awesome friend, lauren recommended that we stop by her favorite gelato shop, il laboratorio del gelato (near katz’s). after trying a few samples, we decided to get a scoop of the amaretto crunch and blackberry.

bomb. so bomb. amaretto crunch is so delicious. we got the blackberry since we thought it was a nice balance between creamy and tart.

ice cream: scoops are on the smaller side… but still worth it in my opinion. get the amaretto crunch. you will not regret it.
ambience: very open space. white walls accented with orange and blue. large windows with lots of natural light. limited seating along the windows.
service: staff is good. during peak times, you have to grab a number and wait to be called. they are pretty efficient at servicing people even though everyone is trying to sample different flavors.
overall: great gelato. we will be coming back, fo sho.

il Laboratorio Del Gelato
188 Ludlow St
b/t Houston St & Stanton St
New York, NY 10002

Neighborhood: Lower East Side

By fabliss | September 23rd, 2014 | Coffee, Tea, & Bakeries, Dessert, Food, New York | 0 Comments

Momofuku Milk Bar | New York City

last time we were in new york city, we tried momofuku’s ramen and pork bun and fell in love. after that experience, we put momofuku milk bar on our must try list!

i will be honest and say that we did not do any homework before walking into the relatively new location in midtown west. first question to our cashier: “sorry, this is our first time here… what is crack pie?” response: “a gooey pie made of butter, sugar, eggs, cream. it is so addicting!” done! we will have one slice please!

second question: besides crack pie, what else do we absolutely need to try right now? soft serve! whaaat?! cereal milk soft serve with cornflake crunch. whaaaaaaat??!

cup of cereal milk soft serve ($4.50) with cornflake crunch ($0.75) – yes, just like everyone else has claimed… its like eating a bowl of cereal. but! imagine, eating the coldest bowl of cereal in your life. sounds good, right?! welp! we were fans and would highly recommend this. if you are a texture person, you will definitely love the cornflake crunch. they top your cup with it and add some to the bottom of your cup. nice touch.
crack pie by the slice ($5.50) – this is pretty darn good. however, it is verrrrrry sweet. (this is coming from a person who loves sweets… take it how you want to) i would recommend coffee. or! get the soft serve… it helps cut the sweet.

milk bar is good. we will definitely be back to try other things on the menu (anyone want to split a whole birthday cake with me? it looks amazing and i have to have it!) if you had to get one thing though, i would get the soft serve… that’s just me though.

Momofuku Milk Bar
15 W 56th St
New York, NY 10019

By fabliss | September 21st, 2014 | Coffee, Tea, & Bakeries, Dessert, Food, New York, Travel | 0 Comments

Blue Star Donuts | Portland, OR

we put blue star donuts on our list since we wanted to try their blueberry donut! we tried going here three times. first time was on national donut day… nope. they sold out and shut their doors by noon. second time, we couldn’t get into downtown since there was a parade. thank god our final attempt was a success since we stumbled upon their location in hawthorne!

since it was such an ordeal trying to go here, we decided to order a dozen donuts for 3 of us! boom.

good thing you get a little discount when you order a dozen. flavors available that day:

blueberry cake
dulce de leche hazelnut
raspberry cake
original glazed
blueberry bourbon basil
passionfruit with cocoa nib
apple fritter
lemon poppy
cinnamon vanilla sugar
widmer hefe citrus cake
chocolate almond ganache
real maple and bacon

blueberry basil… mmm. get ready for this to melt in your mouth, folks!

passionfruit with cocoa nib (above) was a lot more subtle than we expected. they liked it (i didn’t really eat this one since it was chocolate. i just licked some of the passionfruit glaze).

the polar opposite of the passionfruit one is the chocolate almond ganache since it is on the heavier side.

maple and bacon. this isn’t anything we haven’t had before but we did appreciate bacon bits instead of strips of bacon on our donut. well done.

cinnamon vanilla sugar donut (above) was very fluffy! compared to the rest, it is pretty plain but still a great donut. the blueberry cake is one of the favs. i want one now.

our absolute favorites:

blueberry cake / blueberry basil
raspberry cake

probably my favorite donuts. ever.

our least favorite:

dulce de leche too way too sweet.
widmer hefe citrus cake was meh.
apple fritter. we just weren’t fans. this was extremely heavy and sweet.

raspberry cake is awesome! so awesome.

notable: i’ve had a number of maple and bacon donuts just out of curiosity. this is my favorite. it is just very well done. love bacon bits (over strips of bacon), the donut itself is just great. with that said, it is not something i order on the regs but it is a must try if you haven’t had it already.

food: the donuts in general were awesome. glazed donuts were fluffy and melted in your mouth. the cake donuts were light. just quality donuts.
service: line moves quickly. can’t say any more than that since there was minimal interaction.
ambience: the location in hawthorne is not as cute as the one in downtown. both locations are very bright. clean white walls with a lot of natural light.
parking: pay and park on the street.
overall: we ended up getting donuts from here twice because we had to have the blueberry and raspberry donuts again. make sure you get a cup of coffee.

apple fritter (above) was heavy. lemon poppy (below) was not mind blowing.

i had high hopes for the citrus cake. unfortunately, i wasn’t a fan. dulce leche (below) was way too sweet.

last but not least, the original glazed (below). great donut.

side note. i know voodoo donuts is the famous donut establishment in portland because it has been featured on a number of food network shows etc. however, after looking at some of the donuts (captain crunch on a donut and oddly shaped donuts) and reading some reviews, it seemed like more of a tourist trap than a quality donut shop. so we decided to give blue star a try. if we had more time, we probably would’ve ended up trying voodoo. just wanted to throw that out there.

Blue Star Donuts
3549 SE Hawthorne
Portland, OR 97214

By fabliss | July 7th, 2014 | Coffee, Tea, & Bakeries, Dessert, Food, Photography, Portland, Travel | 0 Comments

Ristretto Roaster | Portland, OR

while you are waiting for a seat at tasty n sons, head over to ristrotto roasters for a cup of coffee and maybe even a donut! this is our advice to you even then we did the opposite. we went here after we ate at tasty n sons. oh, we were full but felt like an ice coffee and donut (you know, since it was national donut day and all).