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Food Happenings of Last Wednesday…

I’m still waaay behind on posting my fooding since I’m still stuck with last week and this week is ended…eh. I’m sorry. It’s just my day job is killing me with stress and I’m tired therefore the lack of writing. Moving on…

Last Wednesday, I went to the Financial District for Dine Around Downtown.

Dine Around Downtown Flyer/map


What this event basically is (or was) that a bunch of local restaurants within the Financial District would set up booths to these hungry finance people who work near Wall Street, as well as tourists or local residents. Honestly, I didn’t have high expectations from reading the list of what restaurants were there. I just hoped that Bouley’s food would be good or at least worthwhile to go for. So, here’s my first stop at Bouley Market & Bakery.

Bouley Bakery's Stand Bouley Bakery’s stand

I thought my heart stopped when I saw them…macarons! I just went straight for them since you know how obsessed I am with macarons.

Rainbow of maccies

I ended up choosing four macarons just for the sake of not killing myself with sugar…and it’s the first thing I’m eating for lunch.

Bouley Bakery's Maccies I've bought My maccies

Macaron Mosaic Innards of all of ’em; left to right: fresh mint, peach saffron, rose, and peanut butter

These four babies cost me $6…which isn’t so bad. The fresh mint macaron was terribly dry when I bit into it and the flavor just diminished within mere moments. Ugh…it’s like a stale macaron. I’m disappointed. The peach saffron macaron fared a lot better. It’s moist, good bold, apricot flavor with slight hints of bitterness and aroma of saffron; it was pretty darn good. The rose macaron was moist as well. I’ve heard bad things about Bouley’s ishpan (basically a rose flavored pastry with tiny cubes of lychee; sounds weird but so good when it’s done correctly) but this particular macaron came out pretty well; the rose flavor wasn’t too overbearing but you can taste the rose. The peanut butter macaron had the same texture as the fresh mint macaron: it’s dry but the peanut butter flavor was good and it lingered longer on the palate than the mint. So, it’s a mixed result of the macarons.

As I walked all around Chase Manhattan Plaza for some savory food, I was terribly disappointed in what was offered. Either the food is too expensive for what one gets (e.g. Bouley, the restaurant, gives you an endive leaf topped with a tablespoon of tuna tartare for $6) or it’s just unappealing to me (e.g. sandwiches or burgers). I was tempted to get some of Moksha‘s food but the line is building up.

Being the impatient person that I am, I just went for Financier‘s booth for another round of dessert. It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten their stuff…the last time I went there was the time I’ve written about their scones, croissants, and macarons (about last October or so).

Financier Patisserie

Cheesecake Domes Cheesecake Domes

Fruit Tarts Fruit tartlets

Riz Au Lait Apricot Mousses Riz Au Lait Apricot Mousses

The pastry that really tempted me was the chocolate mousse cake. Oh, the seduction of chocolate…

Chocolate Mousse Cakes

So, I ended up buying a slice of that cake…and here’s the photo session obsession. (Note: these photos were taken with a 50mm f/1.8 prime lens)

Angled shot of Chocolate Mousse Cake

Top view of Chocolate Mousse Cake

Side shot of the Chocolate Mousse Cake

Chocolate Mousse Cake...eaten

Yeah, it’s pretty and I’m amused with it. Anyways, the cake was very chocolatey but not something you would die with an overdose of chocolate. It’s very light and creamy in texture, the chocolate was of good quality ranging from a milk chocolate to dark chocolate (~50% to 62%). It’s good for what it is and where this place is located. Honestly, this is the better bakeries/patisseries in the Financial/Wall Street district.

I left there around 1:30, where almost everyone from the nearby offices and Chase employees themselves left for lunch. It’s too crowded to walk or eat around that I can’t stand it anymore.

Too many people...

Eventually towards the late afternoon, I went to the Upper West Side to Grom. Yess…I love Grom. In hopes they no longer leveling their cups like they had on my previous visit, since I’ve complained to them via email (and got a reply) a while ago.

Grom

Flavors and Prices

After standing on line for a while, it seemed like the serving was inconsistent; some were leveled like I had last time and some were decent.

Server handling the cup of gelato Looks decent to me…

Dear lord, that thing looks completely leveled! Oh jeez, it’s practically leveled!

So it really depends upon who is scooping your lovely gelato. Just hope that you won’t end up with a server who is a leveler. Mine came out to be the decent scooper.

Grom's Gelato

I had a small cup of cappuccino and pistachio gelato. It tasted awesome as usual but I’m still a bit disappointed that it wasn’t as generous of plop as it was on my very first visit. While I was taking photos of this cup of gelato, the manager, Luigi Ferraris, approached me and inquired about my photos. Eventually, he left me alone for a bit and came back with a torrone and mentioned that they’re creating a new gelato flavor incorporating this particular confection.

Torrone

Bitten Torrone

The torrone is very good. It’s basically an Italian nougat made with almonds. It would be interesting to eat a torrone gelato.

That’s the end of the daytime events of Wednesday, while you already know what had happened on Wednesday evening with the party at Martha Stewart and the PDT bar.

Address:
Grom

2165 Broadway
New York, NY 10024

Tina

I shoot, eat, and drink. My full time job is a hospital administrator. Moonlighting as a freelance photographer and food and travel writer.

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