trick or treat: les glaceurs

I'm not usually big on Halloween sweets but I gotta say, these spooky cupcakes that my roommate Mitch brought back from Les Glaceurs in Montreal were a pretty great treat!

Our dessert crazy friend Bads, who seemingly makes it her mission to sample every sweet thing that crosses her path, begged Mitch to bring back these cupcakes—and thereby started an inconvenient addiction. The red velvet cupcake had a lot of fans but I fell in love with the marbré au fudge—that would be the cupcake masquerading as a grave, which is made of marbled chocolate and vanilla cake, and topped with cream cheese frosting and a chunk of homemade fudge.

I love how these cupcakes are both delicious and plain adorable! Les Glaceurs designed these just in time for Halloween and makes a host of other designs from Christmas to Hello Kitty themes.

The Les Glaceurs website boasts more intriguing treats like scrumptious looking s'more cupcake and a sinful sounding moist chocolate cake filled with salted caramel and topped with chocolate ganache.

One day I will come for you, mes chéris ...

Les Glaceurs is located at 453, Saint-Sulpice Street, Montreal, QC H2Y 2V8, Canada and at 1245, University, Montreal, QC H3B 3A8, Canada

midnight snack

I had to do something to make up for the salad that I had for dinner (and that 13-hour workday), so I thought I'd treat myself to some of Asher's almond butter crunch and a tall glass of cold milk. Boy was I glad that I have this tendency to squirrel away sweets for a rainy day. It was over a week ago that I made this delicious treat's acquintance: 

I was stumbling around Milton, PA with Zoe and company, hunting down a coffee shop but we found a candy shop instead. The girl behind the counter gave us a taste of this and we were done for. That's how drug dealers get you too. I wouldn't be surprised if this had crack in it.

The almond butter crunch has a base of homemade English style toffee enveloped in rich milk chocolate then coated with crushed almonds. OH. MY. GOD. So good. For some odd reason, I assumed this was a small-town treat that I couldn't get anywhere else but Milton, PA but of course I was wrong. Though Asher's has its roots in Philadelphia, of course there are many ways to get your grubby hands on them. I'm restraining myself from ordering a pound of almond butter crunch from the website, which of course just happens to be having an online special selling 1 pound for a mere $10.95! Also tempting me wildly at the moment: chocolate covered potato chips, a pound of which is also being sold at the same price. I'm not really a sweet tooth, but when steered into salty-sweet territory, I'm more easily swayed. I've had chocolate covered potato chips before and they are seriously yummy! God help me ...

Ok gulping down the rest of my milk and going to bed. Hopefully I can sleep the cravings off! Night loves!

east village night

Had a fun night with the ladies tonight. It was very much an East Village date night: dinner, dessert, wine and then dancing. But enjoying it with girl friends was exponentially more stress-free and fun.

We kicked the night off at Porchetta, which is much beloved for its sandwich that envelopes unctuous chunks of deep fried pork in a crisp ciabatta roll. We opted for the porchetta plate ($14), which we hoped would be served the way Filipino restaurants serve lechon kawali—a plate overflowing with pieces of pork topped with crispy skin. We didn't expect rice and a little cup with a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar and crushed garlic on the side, but we were expecting loads of pork. So you can imagine our disappointment when we got this:

We were sad to see the plate with a handful of pork and loads of greens and beans. Three pieces of pork skin, really? Sad, sad, sad ... our spirits were lifted a little when we tasted the flavorful pork and each had one piece of crisp fried skin. But alas, this does not hold a candle to the Filipino lechon kawali, unfortunately ... The crispy potato wedges sprinkled with the burnt ends of the porchetta ($6) were very nice though, as was the fresh heirloom cherry tomato salad. A nice meal, but we were still left craving grease-loaded Filipino comfort food. Next time ...

Afterward, we walked over to Momofuku Milk Bar. Ludette and I had been talking about coming here for a long time so we were definitely excited.

Having heard so much about the soft serve ice cream, I had to have some. I picked the cereal milk flavor which uncannily enough tastes like, um, cereal milk (doh). $4.15 is a wee bit pricey for a small cup of soft serve but cereal milk is an unusual flavor to come by so I suppose it's warranted.

The revelation, though, was this cookie which is quite possibly THE best cookie I've had in my entire life:

This is the cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow cookie. Biting into it, you first experience a pleasant crunch, followed by a fun gooeyness of melted marshmallow, capped off with a beautifully chewy cookie. It's not overly sweet, even for one with a very passive sweet tooth like myself. I've never eaten more than 3 cookies in one sitting in my entire life, but if any cookie can push me over the 3-piece mark, it's this one.

For drinks we ended up at Ten Degrees, where we shared a bottle of Montepulciano and eventually this plate of crostinis:

It's a rather unexpected taste, even though you know exactly what's in it: sauteed wild mushrooms splashed with Thai chili and drizzled with coconut milk atop a crisp crostini. I'm always surprised when a non-Asian establishment serves up an Asian-inspired dish with serious heat. Lovely. Might want to have it again.

After wine, it was off to Lava Gina (yeah, we're still arguing about how that's pronounced) to listen to a co-worker's band perform and watch a roomful of couples salsa the evening away. Must definitely come back with a dancing partner next time!

In all a wonderful East Village night. Now off to sleep and *fingers crossed* wake up with no trace of a hangover. Nightey night!

dessert truck

It's not fair. Dessert Truck makes indulgence way too easy. After a delicious late dinner at Yakitori Taisho with Mika, Monkey and Buddha, we were nicely satisfied and not really seeking to stuff ourselves silly. But then Buddha wondered out loud, "I wonder if the Dessert Truck is still there ... " and then there was no turning back. I've been badly wanting to try the sweets served up by former Le Cirque pastry sous-chef Jeremy Chang but I always end up too stuffed for dessert when I'm that area. Today, though, I would not be stopped (well, I also had my boyfriend with me, which meant I wouldn't have to face the guilt of devouring the entire dessert on my own).

We ordered the warm molten dark chocolate cake ($5) with olive oil ganache, hazelnuts, sea salt, and a scoop of chocolate ice cream (they ran out of vanilla, and what's so wrong about chocolate on chocolate anyway?). The dessert was phenomenal. The cake was rich and moist, and the filling wonderfully warm and oozy. The hazelnuts, which were seemingly coated with some sort of brittle, provided a wonderful crunchy contrast to the molten cake. I imagine they'd be addictive even on their own. This dessert is. Worth. Every. Calorie.

Where:
East 55th Street, just off the northeast corner at Lexington from Monday to Friday, 12 noon- 3PM
St. Mark's Place (8th St) and 3rd Avenue from Monday to Sunday, 6PM to 12 midnight

chikalicious

Chikalicious sounds like it would be the name of either a Filipino restaurant or a Filipino gossip website, but it's actually a chic little dessert bar in the East Village named after one of the proprietors, Chika Tillman from Japan. I went there today with Wendy, our dear friend and broker extraordinaire who's been patiently helping me sift through a million and one apartments. We had a lovely time chatting over pretty desserts.

We agreed that this 20-seat dessert bar is more suited to ladies than men due to the tiny portions. According to the website, the 3-course prix fixe menu is composed of American desserts with French presentation and Japanese tasting portions. In plain English, these desserts that will feel like a mere tickle in a grown man's tummy.

I don't really drink coffee anymore but I had to order a latte ($5) for this dessert session, and I was completely charmed by the tea cup they served it in. I think I want some delicate porcelain teacups for my pad now too.

We were served an amuse bouche of vanilla ice cream set on a bed of vanilla lemongrass gelee. It was delish but not very photogenic.

Wendy ordered the lemongrass panna cotta with pineapple sorbet and cilantro agar agar gelee. The panna cotta was really good; it reminded me of the Filipino dessert maja blanca a little bit. It was a very refreshing and almost tropical dessert with the gelee and the sorbet.

I ordered the warm chocolate tart with pink peppercorn ice cream and red wine sauce. I have to say I was quite underwhelmed by the dessert. It's a cross between a molten chocolate cake and a tart, and I think I would've been more satisfied with chocolate cake. Cake would've been easier to dip into the yummy red wine sauce and the pink peppercorn ice cream. The most intriguing part of my plate was definitely the pink peppercorn ice cream. Sweet and spicy, and the taste lingers long after the last bite.

To cap off our meal, we received a plate with three kinds of petite fours. My favorite had to be the marshmallow coated with coconut flakes. So yummy. I'll have to figure out a way to replicate that one.

It was a very nice experience, for sure, but now that I've tried it I might not be too keen to go back. It's simply too little for too much, I feel (or is that just because I was famished from Bikram class? Something to consider). I might swing by Chikalicious' Dessert Club across the street just to give their menu a whirl. But this place left me with a been there, done that kinda feeling. But I'd say it's something to try at least once!

Where: 203 East 10th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues. Strictly on a walk in basis, four guests per party max