Dim Sum Treat

I had this at Dim Sum when I was back in Boston. A never seen before treat! Tasted like light yellow cake. Delicious.

New Favorite Snack

I first came across these when I went to Madison Square Garden to see the Agassi vs. Sampras match a few weeks back. Of course I had to get a hotdog (it being one of my favorite foods), but couldn't decide what side snack to get that wasn't also unhealthy until I saw Pretzel Crisps on the menu board. Pretzels are healthy-ish, right?

The thing is, I've always wanted to like pretzels as a chip-like snack, but the allure of Lays sour cream and onion potato chips or Cheetos or Doritos always won. Pretzels. whether in its normal shape or stick form, always tasted a bit mealy to me, like there was too much pretzel matter in the pretzel. I tended to like really thin pretzels since they had more of a crunch to them, but then they were so thin that they seemed insubstantial.

This is where the Pretzel Crisp comes in, a cross between a pretzel and a cracker. I ended up buying the Classic kind, and was instantly amazed at my find. Really crisp, nice light crunch and ample in its surface area. How perfect. I immediately shared them with my friends, who also approved.

I didn't think much about them until I saw them at my local Duane Reade this past week, and thought, this must be a sign. So I bought the Supreme kind (flavored with garlic, onion, and poppy, caraway and sesame seeds), whose spices don't overwhelm the pretzel at all, but complement it quite nicely.

I have found my new favorite snack, and it's not terrible for me!

It takes winners to make winners

Doughnuts!

An article in the NY Times and slideshow of doughnuts made me remember that I had gone to Dough, the fairly new doughnut shop that opened down the street from me, back in December. Dough is the new venture by Choice Market (the cafe/bakery also by my house). When we visited we saw cooks preparing food and baked goods for the other Choice locations in the large kitchen area; it almost seems like Choice rented the location for more kitchen space and then decided to make a doughnut shop of it as well. The front part of the shop has only a few stools and a bar counter for seating.

Here are some pictures of the doughnuts that we ate:

Cafe au Lait

Dulce de Leche with pumpkin seeds

Hibiscus

Dough makes yeast doughnuts, all of which have the same doughnut base, but the glazes are different and change on a daily basis (I went back for the Dulce de Leche with pumpkin seeds and they were replaced with almonds the second time I went; also, the New York Times article mentioned an Earl Grey doughnut, one I haven't seen yet).

If you look closely at the top picture of the case of doughnuts, there are also smaller filled doughnuts on the bottom, which I'm excited to try but haven't yet. The doughnuts that we ate were soft and fluffy, but had a nice bite to it, and extremely fresh. The Cafe au Lait has a hint of vanilla; the Dulce de Leche one was simply divine (I preferred the pumpkin seeds, which had a better crunch to softness ratio than the almonds which I tried later); the Hibiscus was promising-looking (look at that color!), but the chewiness of the dried petals and the oversweetness made it my least favorite.

I really enjoyed the doughnuts at Dough (even better that it is close to my house!). I would like them to try putting fillings into their large round doughnuts or somehow incorporate the glaze more so that each doughnut doesn't seem like the same base with a glaze. I keep thinking of Doughnut Plant's doughnuts, which have more complex flavors than Dough's, but I'm sure, based on Choice's previous baked goods, that it will get there.

Dough

305 Franklin Avenue @ Lafayette Avenue

Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

(347) 533-7544

Bagel Romance

via Oh Joy