Posts Tagged ‘Blue Bottle Coffee’
i can’t believe it’s not butter … [or eggs … or dairy … or animal …]
t says: Now, for those who’ve read adsz for a while, you know a few things for certain.
#1) I’m not vegetarian.
#2) I’m certainly not vegan.
#3) I have no problems eating vegetarian/vegan for a meal or two (especially with good friends!) – but firmly believe that the goal is never to say, “wow! this is good for not having any animal products”, rather, just plain “wow! this is damn good [with no qualifications whatsoever]”.
So, when I went to Pure Fare a while ago, I ordered up two of their cookies – one was chocolate-avocado and the other was some kind of chocolate chip …
They. were. super. gross.
Their textures were horrible, the flavors were horrible, and the price was horrible. It was as if someone was playing a really mean practical joke on me (like making brownies with tofu). I swore off Pure Fare …
… until now …
You see, they started advertising Blue Bottle coffee, a coffee which I have loved oh-so-much, both in NYC and SF (we visit every time we go to SF!).
Pure Fare’s coffee isn’t quite as good as a real Blue Bottle’s coffee – I suspect the method of brewing is different. Yes, Pure Fare uses Chemex, but it still contains a little bit more astringence than a lot of the products I’ve had at Blue Bottle (now of course, with so many brews available, it’s possible that it could just be literally a different coffee – but it could be due to technique). Nevertheless, it’s close-by and tasty enough that I’ve had a mid-day cup on each of the past few days I was available.
But I wanted a little something to go with the coffee – a little bit of sweeet. As I looked at the pastries and cookies they had, I could here myself saying, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” So I bit the bullet, preparing to feel the shame …
This is a sweet potato chocolate brownie. And to my surprise, it was delicious! Yes, it’s dense and rich, but in a good-dense-and-rich-brownie sort of way. It has intermittent chocolate chips. (?”intermittent” chocolate chips? what the hell kind of phrase is that? ugh – my worklife is invading my bloglife). It’s nice and moist. And no – there’s no essence of sweet potato anywhere. It won’t impress people who like the corner brownies (lookin’ at you, k), but for middle-of-the-pan brownie lovers like me, it’s great! Now it’s not going to usurp Ina Garten brownies, but as far as any store-bought or coffee-stand-bought brownies are concerned, I was very impressed.
The CRAZY part is that this is supposed to be a vegan item. I’m no vegan expert, but I assume that means that there’s no butter or eggs or dairy. So I’m not sure where the moisture is coming from – vegetable oil and sweet potato? Beats me! (Or if I was talking about their other chocolate pastry, it’d be “Beets me!”).
So maybe I’ll give Pure Fare some more props now, and maybe even try some other items in the future. Just keep the Blue Bottle goin and I’ll be comin’ back for more …
g&t&a&v take over NYC
t says: The other weekend, we got in a car with a and v, who graciously drove us to NYC. Rather than give a super-long-winded blow-by-blow, let’s take a look at the picture roll and see what I actually used the iPhone to capture:
momofuku ramen!
Our first stop was Momofuku Noodle Bar. Inspired by my previous visit, I knew that this place would at the very least have some delicious food. Plus, I feel like a David Chang restaurant is mandatory for any food enthusiasts like ourselves. l and c met us there (after a spirited 20-block jog), and the 6 of us were the second party to enter the restaurant when they opened at noon. As a side note: if you’re not there more than 25 minutes early for Saturday lunch, your butt is going to be waiting outside in the cold.
The pork buns. Amazing. The smoked chicken wings. Scrumptious. The rice cakes were hit-or-miss depending on if you can deal with rice cakes (e.g. I loved them – and so did l! But the rest of the party was less-impressed.) The kim-chi was white-ified (i.e. white people added too much sugar to it, so it had a sweet tang to it and not enough funk). And the ramen, while tasty, was indeed [just-as-every-New-Yorker-has-ever-said] not-as-good-as-Ippudo’s. Don’t get me wrong – the broth was delightful, with lots of different flavors. But there wasn’t the depth or soul of Ippudo’s. (Also, Ippudo’s noodles are superior). Next time, we’ll hit up Ippudo … (a opines: Momo, sadly, did not live up to the hype – of course the hype was Earth-shattering noodles and ramen which is no small task. I thought the apps were more interesting and noteworthy. Starting with the smoked chicken wings which had a savory, smokey dimension to them beyond the typical heat of a hot wing. The star of the meal, pork buns, would put a smile on anyone’s face. A perfect execution of Korean comfort food, the pork belly was delicious and the perfect texture, and the buns provided an appropriate canvas. The chilled spicy noodles with sichuan spiced sausage, spinach, cashews was interesting but only to a point and its novelty was lost before the bowl was finished. I love all the ingredients in the bowl and cold noodles can be fun but their consistency didn’t blow me away. My main enjoyment came from the buildup of heat from the sausage.)
ice cream break!
We did some shopping. And we did some Christmas-tree-watching. And we did some hunting. Hunting for what? The Blue Bottle Coffee tucked away underneath Rockefeller! It was absolutely wonderful. Their coffee is some of the best I’ve ever had (not that I’m a coffee afficianado like a). It’s just so easy to drink and full of non-coffee flavors while lacking any bitterness. They might be poo-poo’d by those “in the know”, but let’s just say that in my eyes, they can do no wrong. Actually – I hesitated before writing/gushing about them because I kind of want them to be my little New York secret … I will say that the dudes behind the counter are the most not-in-a-hurry workers ever … so if want coffee on a run, don’t go here – they’ll make you wait as they perfectly brew each cup of coffee … with one hand … ‘cuz the other is too busy sipping a coffee of their own …
super-wicked sausage gravy!
We went to Brooklyn Farmacy … and let’s just say that this place is awesome! Of course, the workers were just a little “too cool” for us, dressed in dapper threads from head to toe (literally: a cool, period-specific hat must have been mandatory to work there). The sausage gravy pictured above was ridiculously good. Although, g probably liked her dessert better:
“sundae of broken dreams”: sweet-and-salty deliciousness!
g also had a great egg-based sandwich, but no photos made it onto our phone. And yes, more things were eaten on our trip than just at the above three stops, but … you know what they say: “pictures or it didn’t happen!”.
after dinner sneeze 