Ever since Saturday, I’ve been having some morning noshings at Bouchon Bakery. I know…you all hate me writing about Thomas Keller’s cafe but really, where can I go that has tasty pastries that doesn’t look and taste like crap and it’s really close to my campus?
Just to blab all about it in one shot instead of breaking it down so much, for Saturday and Monday I had their Chocolate Cherry Scone ($3.25), Caramel Nut Tart ($7.25), and a Chocolate Praline Pound Cake ($4.75). Yeah…it’s all sugary, buttery, carby goodness here.
Chocolate Cherry Scone…glossy
Caramel Nut Tart
Chocolate Praline Pound Cake
The scone was pretty darn good. It had a good ratio of chocolate chips and dried tart cherries to scone. It was buttery, crisp on the edges, tender, and not terribly dry. This is deemed a good scone in my book.
Broken apart
Innards
When it comes to the Caramel Nut Tart that you saw earlier, it was very good. The crisp, buttery crust (a pâte brisée) with the rich, gooey, sweet caramel filling. They really packed in the nuts to try to justify the high price tag, possibly weighing in a good 3 to 4 ounces of mixed nuts: pistachio, hazelnut, almonds, and walnuts. This is practically my favorite tart from ALL of the tarts I’ve eaten from Bouchon, since you’ve got your sweet, crisp, crunchy, and gooey for each delicious bite.
The Chocolate Praline Pound Cake was arguably the biggest disappointment. There wasn’t much praline flavor or texture going on in that pound cake. Yes, the cake was good; a tender, fine textured crumb but a bit too greasy from the extensive amount of butter used. The only praline I got was that chocolate blob on top of that cake. Everything else was dead from there. Eh…
On Monday, it felt like summer. I’m not kidding at all. It was 85 degrees Fahrenheit with the blazing sun beaming down on everyone. As much as I like warm weather, I just don’t like hordes of people eating where I am eating and that was Bryant Park. And boy, did I regret it…
Honestly, I haven’t seen that much midtown office people packed in a park per square inch before. It’s scary.
You may argue that I am agoraphobic but I’m really not. I just don’t like people taking up space where I want to eat. Yes, I may be selfish but is it so much to ask for a small amount of space where I can sit or stand in an area to take a few snapshots of my food and eat it? Anyways, I waited on line at ‘wichcraft for 20 minutes in the hot sun for a darn Grilled Fontina cheese sandwich ($9).
After I gotten my sandwich, the line has gotten even longer…it reminds me of Shake Shack’s but not nearly as bad.
1st part of the line
2nd part of the line
Anyways, my sandwich.
It was gooey and warm when I unwrapped this stinky, cheesy sandwich. The stink isn’t a bad thing since Fontina cheese tend to have a bit of funk even though it is a fresh cheese. Also the added funky smell was the use of truffle oil and possibly the trumpet mushrooms but I really doubt the latter. It’s a good sandwich but I don’t think it warrants $9.75 including tax. I might as well stick with Bouchon’s sandwiches for that price and without facing a near heat stroke.
Speaking of heat stroke, I felt a bit woozy staying out in the sun so long that I was craving for ICE CREAM! Since I remembered that ‘wichcraft does sell ice cream in one of their kiosks, I walked over there and gotten myself a scoop of caramel ice cream ($3; not including tax).
Texture shot
It was good ice cream. The caramel flavor was quite potent that one can taste the burnt sugar flavor that should occur in caramel and it had a touch of saltiness that enriches the flavor further. My only problem with this ice cream is that it had too large ice crystals – either from storage (too cold) or the way they made the ice cream that did not create smaller ice crystals to appeal to the palate. I’m not really complaining when I’m dying in this heat.
That’s what happened for the past half week or so. There’s more to write about but I’m lazy at the moment and I still have to edit those photos. But to give you a clue, it’s about two restaurants’ food.
Addresses:
Bouchon Bakery
10 Columbus Circle, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10019
‘wichcraft
Avenue Of The Americas & W 42nd St
New York, NY 10036