My mini Croissant tour of New York!

While in New York, I ate a lot of Croissants, and I mean a lot!  Here are 4 of my favorites!

Top Left: “Petrossian Boutique”

Top Right:  “Le Pain Quotidien”

Bottom Left:  “Bouchon Bakery”

Bottom Right:  “Patisserie Claude”

It is really hard to say which one was my favorite, but I am going to have to say “Patisserie Claude” left me savoring every bite. I love the idea of walking into the neighborhood bakery, gazing at the daily selection and then choosing a buttery delight to take pleasure in while wandering the city streets.  My experience with New York City is always one that changes with the season.  The city just feels so different sometimes that I almost forget it is the same one I was just in during the Autumn. 

This was a trip of food.  I have never eaten so much in such a small amount of time, and I will say without remorse that I enjoyed every minute of it!  I was a woman with a plan, to try bakeries that I have been hearing about, and sample their goods.  We arrived late Friday night and quickly hit the first stop on my “Food Places I Want to Try” list, a noodle bar in East Village called “Momofuku” which translates to ‘lucky peach’.  We were served large bowls of hot noodles, sake, and some shitake steam buns.  Just what we needed after our traffic filled drive.  Afterwards, my eye caught notice of a shop (Black hound Bakery) with some dainty small cakes in the window.  Upon entering we were greeted with a selection of cute cakes, from which I chose the spring blossom strawberry cream cake.  This was a great start to the weekend, the cake was fantastic and left me with sugary dreams (and probably some cavities) of the upcoming days.  During the weekend we dined at a lot of dessert spots, and two of my “Oh my goodness this is so cool” spots were “Chikalicious” and “Kyotofu”.  Chikalicious was amazing.  It is a small restaurant that serves a 3-course menu…of desserts!!! You sit at an open kitchen bar and watch the chefs make each dish, and then they arrive at your table almost too pretty to eat!  I smiled the whole time, each course better than the last.  Later we went to “Kyotofu”, an interesting small place that features desserts and tofu with a Japanese vibe.  We ordered a few appetizers (including the homemade tofu, which was amazing!) and the KAISEKI dessert sampler.  Each dessert that we were presented with was so small and cute, I was really sad when we were done!!   The highlight of the day has to have been “Lady M Cake Boutique”, the reason why I wanted to go to NYC. Wow. Just Wow. I scanned the cakes looking for the one… the one cake… the crepe cake.  Hands down the best part of the trip, I fell in love with that cake. Just the thought…..

I also enjoyed some of the great “cupcakeries” in the area, “Billy’s Bakery”, “Buttercup Bakeshop”, “Babycakes”, and “Baked at Red Hook”.  All were wonderful, and I was a little surprised that I liked the cupcakes at “Babycakes”(I know I know, why shouldn't I like them?!) but they were really good and I really like the idea of that bakery, so yay to them!