After having a wonderful lunch at Highline, we took E, Y, R, B & W for a treat at Time Warner Center where Bouchon Bakery is located. This was the first time for our friends to come here, so they were pretty excited to try the dessert themselves, especially after hearing my praises all these time.
R, B & W arrived there first and reserved some seats for E, Y, my husband and me as soon as the tables were available. When we arrived, as usual there was a line at the take out counter, but it was not bad. I like to browse their display cases since most of the sweets are always new items that I haven't tasted yet. Since I was the one who would pay, I went to order for everyone while they sat down.
R and B have a chance to see the display before we came so they knew what they wanted, which were strawberry parfait, chocolate macaron and seasonal fruit tart. W came with me to the counter since he didn't know what to order yet as well as to help me carry the trays. E wanted chocolate croissant, while Y asked me to pick for her considering I came here quite often. As usual my husband let me get what I wanted and help me to finish them since he knows that I always buy more than one goodies :-)
After looking at the cases W said that he would like to try the pistachio apricot tart. Now for me (and everyone else who was willing to try what I got), I bought key lime millefeuille, seasonal macarons (peaches & cream, fruit of the forest, yuzu), boston cream donut, strawberry parfait, and last but not least the chocolate tart. As for the drinks, we had some coffee, tea and fruit juice soda.
Assorted pastries
When I placed the orders, the nice and friendly lady behind the counter was looking at me curiously. Beside ordering a lot of desserts (total of 12, in case you are wondering), I also told her that everything was for here instead of to go. As soon as I realized that, I told her that I was not the only one who would eat that. I assured her that there were 6 other people waiting at the table who would help me to finish all of these. She started to smile and said that she was concerned about how I was going to finish everything by myself :-)
I tried a little bit of W's pistachio apricot tart, it was wonderful, the pistachio cake was moist and the apricot filling was not too sweet. The boston cream donut was as fantastic as the last time I tasted it, the donut was moist but dense, the custard was creamy.
Pistachio apricot tart and Boston cream donut
The key lime millefeuille was tart, light and coconuty, it was pretty good but the puff pastry was not crisp anymore, a little bit soggy. There was always different kind of millefeuille everytime I visit, so far my favorite is still mocha millefeuille. It was the first dessert from Bouchon that I've ever tasted 1 year ago, unfortunately I don't see it anymore on my visits.
Key lime and Mocha millefeuille
Regarding the macarons, it was okay, nothing special. The texture was a little bit dry, but definitely better than what I usually got from here. The taste was nice though, the peaches & cream was creamy, the fruit of the forest was sweet (and the only one that had moist texture), the yuzu was chocolatey with a hint of citrus. I guess after tasting Pierre Herme's macarons during his special 2-day class in Chicago last month, other's macarons were disappointing.
Seasonal macarons: yuzu, fruit of the forest, peaches & cream and Chocolate macaron
The chocolate tart was still increadible, the tart was flaky and the filling was smooth and chocolatey. I took the strawberry parfait home since everyone was full already. It was sweet, light and creamy, but the gelatin layer on top was too thick and a little bit too gummy. I didn't try the seasonal fruit tart, chocolate macaron or chocolate croissant, so I couldn't give any comments. However the last time I had their chocolate macaron, it was chocolatey but very dry.
Chocolate tart and Strawberry parfait
Seasonal fruit tart and Chocolate croissant
With a very high sugar rush and after hanging out for almost 2 hours, we decided to go on our separate way. When we arrived downstair we were surprised to see a very heavy rain pouring outside. I guess we were too focused on our conversations before and didn't pay any attention to the thunderstorm. R, B & W decided to take the subway, while the rest of us had to wait. We were thinking to get a taxi to go to our car that was parked few blocks away, unfortunately there was no taxi at all.
While waiting for the rain to stop or at least to die down, Y and I decided to go to Whole Foods since I needed to do some grocery shopping. Almost 30 minutes later finally there was a guy selling giant umbrellas outside. We were happy to see him, especially since not a single store in there sold umbrellas. My husband bought 1 for him, so that he could go to get our car since the rain already started to trickle down.
Finally after my husband came, we all got in the car and heading back home. Along the way, the rain poured heavily again, luckily we were already safe inside the car. We all had a lot of fun that day, what a wonderful weekend...
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Bouchon Bakery
Ten Columbus Circle, Third Floor
New York, NY 10019
(212) 823-9366
http://www.bouchonbakery.com/
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Desserts at Bouchon Bakery
Lunch at Highline
Yesterday my husband and I took several of our good friends (E, Y, R, B, W) for lunch in Manhattan to celebrate my birthday. It is customary in my country for the birthday person to treat his or her families and friends. Since we all love Thai food, we decided to try out Highline after hearing positive reviews about them. I also planned to take them to one of my favorite dessert places (Bouchon Bakery) right after lunch.
We didn't go to the meatpacking district often, if I remember correctly this was the second time we were there. The first time was when we went to Del Posto last year (sorry I didn't write a post about them since I haven't started blogging yet, but here are the photos if you want to see).
We left home around 10:30 am to pick up E and Y before going straight to Manhattan. We were going to meet R, B and W at the restaurant, our reservation was at noon. By the way, we were lucky that we planned for lunch instead of dinner since there was thunderstorm later that day.
As soon as we arrived in Manhattan, we found a parking spot right away, on the same block as the restaurant. When we first saw the spot we thought we couldn't park there since there were orange cones, but soon came a man who moved the cones for us and then stood nearby. We understood right away what he wanted, so E got out of the car and gave him some money since we didn't want to have any problem.
The restaurant was empty, I guessed it might be because they just opened but proven to be wrong when there were only 2 other guests that came throughout our 2 hour lunch. We were quite surprised since from what we've read this place was usually crowded on the weekends, maybe at nights? The interior was modern decorated in white color, bright and very clean, the server was quite friendly.
While waiting for W who arrived 15 minutes later, we ordered our drinks. I knew that I wanted Thai iced tea, while my husband who usually like regular tea, that day wanted to try lychee cha dum thai which is an infused Thai black tea with re-hydrated milk and lychee fruit. R and B also ordered the Thai iced tea, while E ordered chrysanthemum tea and guava tea for Y. All the teas were very good, definitely a good start.
Thai iced tea and Lychee cha dum thai
Chrysanthemum and Guava & lemon peel cha dum thai
When everyone had arrived and got a chance to peruse the menu, we were ready to order. Since this was lunch, we were given a complimentary appetizer for each of the entree. Wow, it was a very good deal!
We decided to share everything so that we could taste them all. Here were what we ordered for appetizer:
- 2 orders of chicken lettuce wrap with 10 spices vinaigrette, it was amazing -- very tasty
- 2 orders of shrimp and chicken fritters served with mint and tomato sauce, it was moist and a little bland
- 2 orders of pad thai spring rolls served with tamarind dipping sauce, it was fantastic -- crunchy and flavorful
- 2 orders of caramelized shrimp with dried mushrooms, it was very good
Chicken lettuce wraps and Shrimp & chicken fritters
Pad thai spring rolls and Caramelized shrimp
As for entrees, here they were:
- 2 orders of black rice towel with beef flank and reduced soy (basically pad see ew), it was wonderful, the noodles were soft and the meat was tender
- 2 orders of black and white salmon, it was disappointing -- tasteless
- 1 order of massaman curry with organic chicken breast, peanut and potato, it was delicious, rich and very tasty -- we should have ordered 2 of this dish rather than the salmon
- 1 order of pad garlic with bokchoy and tofu, it was okay, nothing special
- 1 order of roasted duck with pineapple curry and fresh bamboo, it was fantastic, the meat was tender and the sauce was flavorful
- 1 order of green curry with tofu, eggplant and basil, it was pretty good
Black rice towel with beef flank and Black and white salmon
Massaman curry with organic chicken breast and Pad garlic
Roasted duck and Green curry with tofu
Since we planned to go to Bouchon Bakery after this, we didn't order any dessert from here. However when the waiter came bringing the check, he brought cheesecake for each of us, how nice! The cheesecake was creamy and rich, so yummy!
Cheesecake
After paying, we were off to the Time Warner Center for my "main entree" and more chit-chatting :-) Overall we were satisfied with both the food and service. This was a good and inexpensive place (especially lunch) to celebrate a birthday with some good friends.
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Highline
835 Washington St
New York, NY 10014
(212) 243-3339
http://www.nychighline.com
Monday, April 28, 2008
Good food from Paris Sandwich, Tafu, Bouchon Bakery
Before going to Chicago, we took a small trip to Manhattan. We stopped by Paris Sandwich to pick up something for breakfast, we got green tea waffles (one plain and one with kaya), pancake muffins, grilled chicken sticky rice. The waffles only cost me $1 a piece (extra for the kaya), they were light and tasty. "Kaya" is a jam that is quite popular in Indonesia, I was pleasantly surprised to find it here. The sticky rice was also good, a little salty but it has a lot of meat in it mixed in. Unfortunately the muffins were disappointingly dry, and didn't really have much taste to them.
Green tea waffles with kaya and Pancake muffins
Grilled chicken sticky rice
We then stopped by at Tafu. I love anything with green tea, so it's been a while since I wanted to go here and finally today was the day. When I opened the door, I was very happy to see a lot of goodies and wanted to buy one of everything :-) These were what I bought:
- Houjicha cheesecake: very creamy
- Matcha, Houjicha and Sakura truffle chocolates: good
- Matcha, Houjicha and Genmaicha cookies: dry
- Matcha daifuku: good
- Matcha cupcake: very moist, they were from Kyotofu
- Matcha rollcake: very good
- Matcha, Kocha, Plain financiers: very moist, they were from Kyotofu too
Cheesecake and Daifuku display at Tafu
Actually I also wanted to try their iced latte, unfortunately the machine was broken so they didn't have it today. I guessed now I have more reasons to go back.
From Tafu, we went for more sweet at Bouchon Bakery, one of my favorite places to go. I told my husband that I had to go there at least once a month, crazy huh?! :-) Today I bought boston cream donut, flourless chocolate cake, spring bonnet and quiche lorraine. The donut was moist but dense, the custard was not too sweet. The chocolate cake was good and chocolatey. The spring bonnet was okay, the cake was a little bit too dense but the mousse was creamy. The quiche lorraine was amazing, the crust was flaky and buttery, the filling was smooth and not overcooked.
Boston cream donut and Flourless chocolate cake
Spring bonnet and Quiche lorraine
Then we went to Mitsuwa Marketplace for their Glico sweets fair, read about it on my next post.
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Paris Sandwich
113 Mott St
New York, NY 10013
(212) 226-7221
http://www.parissandwich.com/
Tafu
569 Lexington Ave
Double Tree Metropolitan Hotel 1F
New York, NY 10002
(212) 980-1310
http://www.tafuny.com/
Kyotofu
705 Ninth Ave
New York, NY 10019
(212) 974-6012
http://www.kyotofu-nyc.com/
Bouchon Bakery
Ten Columbus Circle, Third Floor
New York, NY 10019
(212) 823-9366
http://www.bouchonbakery.com/
