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

spooked

I may be a little bit obsessed with Halloween right now. Just a little.

Last year I did some marathon Halloween partying; this year, we're making the party come to us. The lovely roomies and I are in Halloween party planning mode so I've got pumpkins and ghouls on the brain 24/7. I had some work to do tonight but instead I found myself perusing some chillingly amazing pumpkin carvings by Ray Villafane, caramel apples and spider cakes at Williams-Sonoma, and boozy pumpkin milkshakes (among TONS of other Halloween-themed cocktails) by those crazy ladies at Fashionably Bombed. I can hardly wait for the trick or treating to begin!

Are you ready to get spooked?

today i'm loving: bergdorf goodman's shoe obsession

I am just loving this campaign, which puts together two things that I love: shoes and the city of New York!

While I normally eschew shopping for traveling and eating well, a change in season inevitably gets my fashion mojo going. But for now, while I chip at my credit card bill, I'll limit my obsession to Bergdorf Goodman's Shoes About Town page, which collects lovely Instagrams that show Louboutins flitting about the farmers market and snakeskin Gucci platforms parked on Park Avenue. Enjoy the shoe porn!

i heart matilda

The weather has been gray and gloomy in New York lately and it's making me crave color. So I'm really digging these chic separates by I Heart Matilda that come in invigorating, poppy hues.

Sadly (for me and everyone else in the US), I Heart Matilda is a Philippine brand and is not yet available on our side of the world. I know of it because my dear friend, Jessica Gallegos, is one of the amazing women behind it. And I swear I will bug Jess relentlessly, on behalf of America, to please get these cute threads across the Pacific and into our closets.

For those of you in Manila, I Heart Matilda will be at A Trendsetter's Bazaar in Rockwell from October 7-9, 2011. To be kept in the loop of their new collections and where to get their awesome stuff, like their Facebook page by clicking here.

mad eats at madison square eats

Have you ever been faced with so many good food choices that your brain shut down and you ended up eating Cheetos for dinner?

Yeah, me neither.

But I did come pretty close to it Thursday night when I dragged the gang to Madison Square Eats for a post-work noshfest. The night prior, I had such a mad craving for the Vinh Asiadog that I looked up Asiadog locations. I've only ever encountered Asiadog at flea markets, concerts and festivals but to my glee, I found out that they have a regular outpost in Nolita. To my even greater delight, I realized there's a mini food fest beside Madison Square Park called Madison Square Eats that's going on until October 21, 2011, and Asiadog was one of its awesome vendors.

So right after work, we made a beeline for Madison Square Eats. I must have wandered around aimlessly for 10 minutes as I racked my brain on what deserved space in my belly the most. While I thought about it, I had the Sydney from Asiadog and some sort of delicious amber ale fresh from the tap at Cannibal. I thought I could figure out what sort of beer it was by looking at their restaurant menu but holy crap! Have you seen that beer menu?! Go take a look. When I'm done gushing over Madison Square Eats, I am so planning my Cannibal invasion.

The Sydney doesn't compare to the Vinh (which deserves a post all its own) but I wanted to try something new. It was pretty yummy, topped with a refreshing relish of mango, red onion, cucumber, cilantro, peanut and fish sauce. A Thai spin on the New York dog.

Mitch picked the Wangding, topped with pork belly and onions, which looked pretty darn awesome. I'm gonna have to try that next time.

I was extremely tempted to get one of the Red Hook Lobster Pound's lobster rolls but $16 for a roll seemed steep (specially when there's a food fair with stuff like $9 pizzas and $4.50 fancy beef dogs). But they looked amazing! Check out that generously buttered roll just overflowing with massive chunks of lobster.

I got the lobster mac n cheese instead, which was pretty awesome. Basically they take some mac n cheese, toss it with a generous helping of the massive chunks of lobster they use for the rolls, cover the whole shebang with cheese, and then blowtorch the cheese into lovely melted goodness. The blurry, terribly lit picture doesn't do it justice but it's a good use of $9 and great for sharing.

Also vying for stomach space at the fair are Fatty Snack's pork buns. For $9 you get two buns overflowing with pork goodness and a soda. De-lish.

To top it all off, dessert! I tried Mitch's waffle from Wafels & Dinges topped with bananas and smothered in Nutella. Amazeballs of course. Bar Suzette is also at the fair whipping out wonderful crepes, as well as Momofuku Milk Bar, which was already closed by then. The lunch crowd must've cleaned them out!

After all that nomming, it would've been prudent to have some lovely tea from Spices & Tease's amazing selection ...

But of course I didn't do that. I had more beer instead. Nobody's perfect.

I have to say that Madison Square Eats is one of the best food fests I've been too. It's small but the selection of vendors is top-notch. The tables and umbrellas are blanketed in Marimekko prints, which ups the cute factor tenfold. And on the day we went, the crowd was small, chic and friendly. I definitely foresee coming back again and again in the next few weeks! Check it out if you haven't gone yet!