Cronuts at Dominique Ansel Bakery

The "cronut," which was released four months ago, is supposed to be a combination of a croissant and a doughnut, and it has taken America by storm. On the Dominique Ansel Bakery website, it says if you start waiting 2.5 hours before the bakery opens, you will have a "good chance" of getting a cronut. Meaning, even if you start waiting at 5:30am, you still may not get one.

I decided to get up bright and early to get in line before 5:30 (or actually, dark and early); I woke up at 4:30, leaving half an hour to wake up and half an hour to get there. I didn't even put on my eyebrows--it would just slow me down. I got there at 5:21 and there were already six people in front of me. The hardest part is waiting; bring an iPad to watch a movie or a fully charged phone, and maybe also a lawn chair if you don't like sitting on the sidewalk or squatting. Around 7:45, a guy will come out with baskets of madeleines and pass them out to everyone who has been waiting in line. Thanks, but when I've been up since 4:30, I need something more substantial than an extremely dry madeleine.

For some reason, I thought the cronut was going to look a lot more refined than this. Dominique Ansel is hailed as a star patissier, and all of his other cakes and pastries are beautiful. But this just looks like a $1 doughnut from a street cart with a fig on top (September's flavor is fig mascarpone). I must admit, I was very skeptical of how good the cronut is, but the texture is really interesting; it's less fluffy, and a little chewier than the interior of regular doughnuts. However, the big mistake that they made was to serve it at room temperature--a fried doughnut that isn't warm tastes a little greasy (but still okay), but then when you fill it with marscapone and cooked figs, the flavor just becomes kind of muddy. Although I like figs, and I like marscapone, I would've preferred a plain cronut because the execution is a little disappointing.

If I'm going to wait for 2.5 hours outside a bakery, I'm not going to walk away with a just croissant shaped like a doughnut. I've been told that the canele and eclairs are good, so I got one of each (I got the salted caramel eclair--they have chocolate as well). The canele is good, but I don't feel like it's a vast improvement from any other good caneles, like the ones at Lafayette--I wouldn't make a special trip here if you have a more convenient location to go to. The eclair's salted caramel flavor was spot-on, but the pastry shell just did not taste fresh--it had this kind of "refrigerated" flavor, kind of like when you leave cake uncovered in the fridge for a while, and then it tastes stale and the texture becomes kind of dry and crumbly.

Overall, I give Dominique Ansel Bakery an average rating. If I'm going to wake up at 4:30am for anything, it better be something that is life-changing and ruins all other food for me. However, cronuts just didn't do it for me. The texture is interesting, but it's not something that I'm going to dream about for the three hours of sleep I get before lining up to get another one. And the other pastries were just kind of eh. Although it was a cool experience, I wouldn't do it ever again.

Dominique Ansel Bakery
189 Spring St.
http://dominiqueansel.com/
For more information on the cronut: http://dominiqueansel.com/cronut-101/

Pies n Thighs

Omg guys, this is literally the third time I've ever eaten in Brooklyn. It's not that I'm a Manhattan snob, but the abundance of ombre hair and visible belly buttons is a little much for me. But I figured, if it's really bad, then I'll have a legitimate reason to hate Brooklyn.

The chocolate cake doughnut is quite large and really heavy. It's not very sweet, which is nice, but it's really not a special or particularly great doughnut. I think it's also important to note that when I took it home, the grease from the doughnut soaked through the wax paper and into my purse--it's like a sponge soaked in oil.

When I saw how small the chicken biscuit was... I almost thought it was a joke--it's pretty much the same size as the doughnut. It's a fried chicken cutlet sandwiched in a biscuit, and then it's all smothered in hot sauce (which is just wing sauce) and honey butter. The chicken is actually really crispy and moist, but there was barely any chicken! The biscuit is so fluffy, but the bottom of it was so hard, I really couldn't saw through it. Overall, it wasn't bad, but I wish the hot sauce came on the side (or maybe just have less of it) because it's so strong and it becomes the only thing you can taste.

Of course it would be illegal to go to a place called Pies n Thighs and not get pie. I got a slice of bourbon pecan to go, and I was really disappointed. Although the filling was quite nice, the crust was really thin--and what little of it there was, was really greasy.

Another thing about this restaurant is that it doesn't feel very clean. I sat right next to the fridge and saw this:

... which is really gross.

Overall, I give this restaurant just an average rating. The pastries are just fine, but I can definitely see the other fried chicken dishes being really good. Get everything to go; after you see the state of the fridge, everything around you starts to feel sticky.

Pies n Thighs
166 S 4th Street
http://piesnthighs.com/

Victoria C. Kitchen: How to make ramen not sad

Shin Ramen is probably the most luxurious instant noodles while you're a student, and we all need a cheap meal sometimes... but for less than two dollars you can make it not so sad!

You need:
One packet of Shin Ramen ($1)
One large handful of baby spinach (or some other vegetable; $0.66)
One large egg ($0.31)
Total: $1.97

Bring three cups of water to a boil, and add the noodles. Meanwhile, beat the egg and add it to the pot, along with the soup base packet (you don't have to beat the egg, but it will cook a lot faster). Put the spinach in a large bowl, and when the noodles and egg are done, pour it on top of the spinach--it will cook instantly.

Also, is Breaking Bad not the best show ever?

Donato Enoteca

I love happy accident discoveries! We were on our way to another restaurant... when we found out it was closed on Sundays (why do restaurants do that? They're just killing their business). We were determined to eat ASAP, so we Yelped furiously and found a place nearby.

Our first appetizer was grilled calamari--remember, if you want fried calamari, it's "calamari fritti" in Italian. I really liked this--it's so tender--but they cooked it so that the calamari's juices stay inside. This makes it taste like the ocean, which I love, but it can be really fishy.

Our second appetizer was braised wild boar bruschetta, which was basically a really gamey pulled pork. The boar was really cooked really simply--with a lot of tomato--and it was very tender, but I wish the bread was thicker and a little bit charred, so it would be a little tougher. The bread was slightly toasted but way too soft, and got really soggy from the boar.

I got the bigoli pasta with oxtail. I love the texture of this pasta--it's like tagliatelle, but thicker and coarser. This super dense texture is so unusual, but I wish more restaurants would use it! The oxtail was really tender, but it was all in shreds, so you get smatterings of its flavor throughout the pasta. Although it might not be as satisfying without big chunks of meat, it makes the dish a lot lighter, but you still get just as much flavor.

My boyfriend got the buckwheat pasta with mushrooms. The pasta is in large ribbons, which really accentuates the grittiness of the buckwheat--it's hard to grind buckwheat very finely, but the grit wouldn't be very apparent in thinner noodles, like soba. The mushroom flavor was good, but I didn't find that it was really different from that of other mushroom pastas.

Apparently this is how my boyfriend takes food photographs.
It's "artistic."

I was really torn between two desserts... the tiramisu and chocolate fondant. I think I made the right choice! All tiramisus are really flavorful, but a big problem I have with a lot of them is that the cake gets really soggy from sitting in the espresso all day and then it all becomes all one moist, too-soft texture. This one, though, wasn't soaked through with espresso, and each layer was nice and separated.

Donato Enoteca
1041 Middlefield Rd
http://www.donatoenoteca.com/

Beef noodles at Queen House

I really have a high standard where beef noodles are concerned--I'm actually Taiwanese, not just born to Taiwanese parents and went to Taipei once for Loveboat--so almost all beef noodles in America have been disappointing :/ However, the one at Queen House is not bad at all! The broth is really nice and rich, the beef is tender, and the noodles are the perfect, dense texture.

So much fat!

However,  the broth is not very clear. I feel like it was a bit of a rushed job. Even though the flavor is really beefy and savory, they really should've strained it. You cook the broth for a pretty long time, so bits of green onion, fat, and other solids from the braising liquid become mushy and cloud the broth. All the particles make the soup really sticky :(

So much grease!

Although this dish is not perfect, this is as close as I've gotten in America. I have to stop having expectations--then I'll never be disappointed!

Queen House
273 Castro Street