Levain Bakery in New York City

Levain Bakery was one of my stops to make while in the city. I've been there before, but the pictures never got uploaded. It's a small bakery with very minimal seating. Upon entering, you walk down to see a view of the kitchen, with trays of freshly baked treats and bakery goods that have yet to be put in the oven. The bakery is always busy, and yesterday (Sunday) was no exception. Between the three men in front of me, the total amount of cookies purchased was near 30!

Along with an assortment of sweet and savory baked goods, there's also a decent beverage menu. Their coffee is only $1.25 (cheap for the area) and the water isn't too bad (I think it was less than $2, similar to buying it from a street vendor). Besides the basics, they also offer traditional espresso drinks, hot chocolate, and tea.

Back to the cookies that have made Levain so popular amongst the blogging world. I managed to take a few decent pictures through the wall of people. This is a tray of refrigerated chocolate chip walnut cookies being put on a baking sheet. They're bigger than baseballs!

Here's the display case. If you're not in the mood for a cookie, they sell savory pizzas, baguettes, scones, brioche rolls, cinnamon rolls, and quick breads. If you do want a cookie, you can choose between a few different flavors, like the aforementioned chocolate chip walnut, or chocolate peanut butter, or oatmeal raisin. The cookies will run you $4 a pop, but they're so large that you can split one between friends, or save half for later.

Here is my cookie next to a macaroon, for scale. As you can tell, it's quite large and about two inches tall. The cookie is very soft and chewy, though not at all unbaked. It's just barely set, while the outside is golden, with a slight crunch. The walnuts add a great flavor with the chocolate, and this cookie is packed full of both.

Many bloggers have recreated the Levain cookie, so if you want to try your hand at making some yourself, try this recipe by Confessions of a Foodie Bride. Search the web for many more.

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Levain Bakery
167 West 74th St
New York, NY 10023

There are a few other locations, too. Visit their website for more information.

Doughnut Plant in New York City

The next stop after the Dumpling Man was the Doughnut Plant, a gourmet doughnut factory in New York City. Their doughnuts are all natural and made with the high quality, natural ingredients.

The allure of the Doughnut Plant is their unique doughnut flavorings, ranging from Peanut Butter and Jelly (a peanut butter-glazed yeast doughnut with homemade jelly filling), to Matcha Green Tea, Lavender, and Valrhona Chocolate.

Along with their yeast doughnuts, they have a great selection of cake doughnuts. I should have stuck with those, because they're my favorite. The nice gentleman working the register gave us two free cake doughnuts, salted peanut and carrot cake. The carrot cake is a moist and delicious cake doughnut filled with cream cheese. Simply incredible. I didn't try any of the salted peanut, but I was told it was great.

I chose the White Peach Glazed Yeast. It was exactly like biting into a peach, only nowhere near as healthy and with a chewy, tender doughnut as the center. The doughnut was just about the size of my face, so I was only able to eat half of it.

Behind those windows is a view of the doughnut factory, but I can't take pictures without the glare. Oops!

Make sure you have some cash on you, because unless you buy more than $10 worth of doughnuts, you can't use a card. Although, it won't be that difficult. I think each doughnut was around $2.50 to $3.00 for yeast glazed doughnuts.

If you don't feel like doughnuts, they also have churros and cinnamon rolls, fresh peach lemonade (seasonal), and super spicy chai tea.

Doughnut Plant has two locations:
379 Grand St, New York, NY 10002
& 220 West 23rd st, New York, NY 10011.

For hours and other details, visit their Facebook page.

Dumpling Man in New York City

For the past few weeks, I've been in Jersey by New York City. I haven't gone into the city all that much, but I went yesterday and visited a few places. The picture aren't all that great (cell phone camera), but they do the job.

Dumpling Man is a little restaurant consisting of nothing but dumplings. Pork dumpling, shrimp dumplings, vegetable dumplings, sweet pumpkin dumplings. They are sold individually so you can mix and match, or by six or ten. You can also customize how they cook, either steamed or seared.

My mom and I first became aware of Dumpling Man years ago on an episode of Martha Stewart's show. I couldn't remember the name of the place since it had been so long, though luckily my friend did.

After I ordered, I took a few pictures of the building. When you enter, you face the right side to look at the menu and order. The building then extends into a narrow hall-like seating area with stools and chairs. If you sit on the chair side, you get to watch Dumpling Men and Women prepare dumplings.

This man was using the green spinach wrappers, which means the filling was vegetarian. He stuffed the filling and pinched the wrappers shut methodically, filling tray by tray. They make a ton of dumplings. Some of them are frozen because they also sell frozen, uncooked dumplings as well as the dumplings made as you order.

My order of six seared pork dumplings arrived, glossy and topped with sliced scallions. I like the seared dumplings because the bottom gets a little crispy and the dough gets chewy. They are still steamed, but only after the bottoms are seared, like I did in my potsticker recipe.

The pork filling was so flavorful and juicy that I didn't need any soy sauce.

As the dumplings cook, the filling, which hasn't been cooked, shrinks, creating a gap between the dough. While you're stuffing the dumplings, though, it can be a bit of a hassle to get the wrappers around all the filling without it tearing. There were a few tears in the dumplings I had, so that was cool to see. Back when I made potstickers, I was dealing with the same issue. It's not always preventable, especially if you stretch the wrappers too much.

If you're in the city and you need an inexpensive bite, check out the Dumpling Man at 100 st marks place, nyc.

Prices range from $3.95 on up for six dumplings, or a la carte for around .90¢ a dumpling. They also offer a selection of sauces, side dishes, and dessert dumplings.

If you're in your kitchen and are now craving dumplings, take a look at my recipe for potstickers.

Nutrition Now

I found Nutrition Now located next door to where I got my haircut. I hadn't heard of it before, and didn't know they had a menu. The salon had coupons for free smoothies, so I thought I'd check it out.

Nutrition Now has many different varieties of smoothies, ranging from "fun flavors" like thin mint, butterfinger, and more unique fruity combinations. These aren't just regular smoothies, though. Each smoothie contains 24 grams of protein and a blend of vitamins and minerals, so they don't just taste good, but they're also good for you.

I chose the cherry almond for today's flavor. I watched as Desie, the smoothie server for the day, prepared my smoothie using frozen cherries, protein powder, milk, and more. They don't skimp, and the smoothie has the same texture as a milkshake. It's filling, but not heavy. It's been a few hours since I drank it and I'm still not very hungry. Desie said they use their smoothies to help their customers lose weight and maintain weight loss, and having tried one, I can see how it would help.

I also received a complimentary iced tea and a shot of aloe juice. You may not know that you can drink the juice of aloe, but you can. It was smooth, light, and had a tropical essence. Taking aloe juice internally is said to help your system in a variety of ways, such as helping alleviating digestive problems, and much more. Conclusive studies are still out as to whether aloe actually works, but it's an option to try if you're faced with the choice of taking medication or seeing if a natural alternative might be a solution*. Read up on it for more info. (*Of course, if your condition is serious, take your meds.)

The tea, which I believe was a concentrated powder, offers a steady stream of energy without the spike and crash of many sugar-filled caffeinated beverages. It had a really nice flavor. It was very refreshing on a muggy day.

I enjoyed spending a few minutes talking to Desie as he prepared my drinks. We talked a little about running, nutrition, and the benefits of the products I was trying. He also told me about his weight loss, which is always a cool thing to hear about. I've never personally struggled with weight loss, but I know how hard many people work to become healthy, and it's nice to hear a success story!

Nutrition Now also offers metabolic testing and weight loss/maintenance plans. I wasn't there to try those out, but you can inquire about them if they interests you.

I enjoyed my visit, and it's worth the stop to try a smoothie out at Nutrition Now.

235 West University Drive
Mishawaka, IN 46545-1104
(574) 277-2611

Starbucks' 40th Anniversary and New Starbucks Petites

There's yet another new change occurring at Starbucks and this time it doesn't concern cup size. The change is to the pastry case, unveiling new Starbucks Petites, treats under 200 calories that they say are great for an afternoon snack. For the size of these things, I hope they are under 200 calories, though a part of me can't believe that for the size they even come close to that amount (mini cupcake???). To promote these little bights of delight, in honor of Starbucks 40th anniversary they're giving a free Petites out to anyone who orders a beverage. The promotion started yesterday and ends the 12th, so head to your nearby Starbucks between 2 - 5 p.m. today and tomorrow.

Another difference between these and their standard desserts is that the Petites are all natural, containing no artificial sweeteners, flavors, dyes, preservatives, and high fructose corn sugar. The rather long ingredient list (invert sugar, anyone?) suggest that it still isn't the same as making them yourself, though for about $1.50 each with eight varieties to choose between, it's not bad as far as their pastries go.

The first test was the Salted Caramel Sweet Square, which consists of "Salted caramel and chocolate filling with a layer of crisp pretzels and pecans on top of a butter shortbread crust." I think these are similar to how a million dollar bar turns out, though a little different. I liked the pretzel and pecan combination and the sweetness was balanced nicely by the salty.

What I was most surprised to see were cake balls. The cake ball trend started on a blog and spread like wildfire, appearing in bakeries across the States. It looks like Starbucks decided to hop on the bandwagon and offer three flavors of their own. They have a standard vanilla with a pink coating, a rocky road variety with chocolate cake, and the tiramisu cake ball that I got, which is a vanilla cake moistened by Starbucks coffee and vanilla icing, then dipped in what they say is a "mocha flavored chocolaty coating". It's obviously white chocolate.

Not really having tasted many beforehand I didn't have much to compare this to, as the only cakeballs I made came out pretty but with soggy centers, I just aimed to see if it didn't disgust me. The center was moist but spongy with a nice coffee flavor. It tasted good with the smooth white chocolate shell and I was happy with what I got, though I wouldn't say I'd order it again.

Overall, I'm impressed so far by their new line. I will go back later to try some of the other treats, like the cupcake and whoopie pie, hoping they won't simply be smaller versions of their other baked goods (which are often dry and just don't taste good). Don't forget to head over to try them for yourself!

On a side note, I had a dream that I bought overpriced madeleines from Starbucks. In the end, I put the bag back because I actually have the proper tins to make them, so I need to get on that!