I went uptown this morning to have breakfast at Silver Moon Bakery. All I did was have a cup of coffee and a banana before I get out of my house at 6 AM. Those of you reading this, might be thinking, “What! You get out of your house at 6 AM!” Yeah, partly because it’s about 1 1/4 hours for me to get there from my house and my mom’s up, bugging me. So, I’m trying to evade her by leaving home early. I know, it’s kind of mean to do that to my mom. I love her and all, but if you live with her, you know what I’m living with.
So, I got off the 1 train to Broadway & 103th St., out of the 104th street exit and walked over to my beloved Silver Moon Bakery. Well, as I took photos of the place (see below) I noticed that most of their lights were off. I mean, the bakers and employees are all working but I realized that I’m there too darn early! I looked at my watch and it’s 7 AM.
Great. I thought to myself, “What the heck am I going to do?” I just decided to walk uptown. As I just walk pass the locals who are in their business suits, the joggers and dog owners. I’ve realized that Riverside Park was nearby so, I just walked westward and took some nature pics.
After taking in some nature and I’ve had it with the numerous dogs coming into the park, I walked back to Silver Moon. By the time I’ve reached there, my watch says it’s 7:30 but there were four other people, besides me waiting outside their door. While I was waiting and being the only possibly strange person out of the group to take a photo of their menu of the day.
When I saw on the list “Apricot Hazelnut Parisienne,” I just remembered about the whole list of stuff I should eat from the local woman I talked to last week. I automatically thought to myself, “It’s mine! All mine!” plus the croissant and pumpkin chocolate chip muffin I want to eat for breakfast.
As I (and the other locals) saw an employee unlock and open the door, we all scrambled in to get first dibs on their freshly baked goods. As I said earlier, I ordered the Apricot Hazelnut Parisienne ($4), Plain Croissant ($1.85), and the Pumpkin Chocolate Muffin ($2.40); total $8.25. Yeah, it’s pretty darn pricey but it’s totally worth it! Partly because it’s my breakfast and lunch and the quality is superb, as you will read on.
But first, the one of the many photos of the bakery’s baked goods’:
If you want to see more photos of the bakery, click here. Just go to the upper right hand corner to see a slideshow.
The first thing I ate was the plain croissant.
Isn’t it a thing of beauty? Perfectly golden brown exterior, buttery aroma, it has the crisp shatter effect from the slightest pressure. Oh, I’m getting excited! (Hey, I love food. If you don’t have any feelings for food, you don’t love food; you’re just eating for the sake of eating. One must appreciate the effort those bakers/chefs/cooks put into their product and if it’s good and exquisite, then it’s worth loving the product, the baker/chef/cook, and possibly the institution of where you bought that product).
Sorry about the sidetrack, I just need to get that out of my chest since some people think I’m strange (in person) the way I react to food. Back to the croissant. When I tear this beautiful, buttery pastry, it sang it’s brittle shatter song along with the sounds of thick broken glass, with the fall of thin, delicate shards of it’s flaky exterior. The moment I bite into the croissant, it had the shatter at the bite and it was actually very light in texture. I’m delightfully surprised because the woman I spoke to said it was dense. Hmm…anyways, it was (as I said) light, delicate and it had the faint creamy hint of butter flavor. I have to say this is one of the best croissants I’ve ever eaten in my entire life! J’adore! C’est magnifique!
Next up, the pumpkin chocolate chip muffin.
When I took it out of the bag it was still warm, as in just baked 10 minutes ago warm! I’m very happy about this because of the copious amounts of muffins that I have eaten outside of my home, I rarely encounter a warm muffin. Given to this unexpected factor, my initial thoughts about this muffin was going to be something extraordinary or close to greatness. The dark golden brown, orange-hued exterior with the gooey chocolate chips looks very appetizing. When I grabbed a plastic knife and start cutting it in half, I heard the crisp, crunchy exterior sound. I haven’t hear that sound in any muffin that I have tried that isn’t homemade…my anticipation is building. There’s even distribution of chocolate chips to muffin; very good. Moist interior, getting better. After I quartered the muffin (so I could hold and eat it) I took a bite; the crisp, crunchy exterior meshes with the soft, moist crumb (interior) makes it texturally pleasing to my mouth. It tastes like pumpkin, but not the hearty, spice laden pumpkin. It’s more light and floral in flavor, delicately balanced with a hint of cloves and the lightest touch of cinnamon; it’s almost undetectable, which I think is a good thing. My mind is giggling in delight eating this great (not good, great) muffin.
The last but certainly not least, the apricot hazelnut parisienne bread.
After I took a biteIt’s a beautiful batard shaped loaf of bread. It has a very crisp exterior that it also has it’s own song, in reference to a recently published NY Magazine article about baguettes. It smells wonderful; predominantly a sour-yeasty scent with a faint hint of nuts. The interior crumb is moist and it has the irregular holes (a good sign of artisanal bread). The flavor is yeasty, slightly sweet and chewy from the apricots, and the earthy, nutty, crunchiness from the hazelnuts brings an the contrasting flavors and textures to the bread. I love it! As I eat this bread, I’m thinking of pairing it cheese. Mmm…cheese; probably something creamy and light in flavor. A young cheese like brie or a fronage d’affinois (don’t know that cheese? Click here.) would go very well with this bread.
Coming back to Earth (mentally) after spacing out into my own sphere of bread and pastries, I realized people are start packing in this bakery.
Well, that’s pretty much what happened in Silver Moon. I will definitely come back here to try more of their stuff. I wonder how good are their cakes. Hmm…maybe next time. I still have my loaf of bread unfinished.