NYC - Dolfin Chocolate Bars

Dolfin Chocolate

Gourmet grocer @ Chelsea Market

•           Lavender
•           Hot Masala (& other spiced bars)
•           Dark Chocolate (any %)
•           Green Tea & Jasmin
•           Earl Grey (the only one recommended)

I lump all the Dolfin chocolate bars into one review, because, simply put the chocolate quality and consistency is terrible for Dolfin’s price range. Nothing stands out about this bar, milk chocolate is far too sweet and cheap tasting. At times gritty. I appreciate the creativity and quality of the ingredients, and given a good quality chocolate medium these would make excellent bars. Unfortunately, the chocolate itself is of poor quality. I only recommend the Earl Grey flavor, which despite the average-ness of the chocolate has a wonderful tea flavor. http://www.dolfin.be/

Taste: 6.5/10 $0.30/tasting square

Sunday Comics - Where Old People Go

http://www.invisiblehairsuit.com/old_people.htm

NYC - Portuguese Kale Soup (Hale & Hearty)

Hale & Hearty – Portuguese Kale Soup

Chelsea Market

The best cup of soup I have ever tasted. Calories were posted (<200 per medium cup), remarkably healthy and tastes deliciously healthy, incredible depth of flavor and heartiness. Perfect ingredients to soup ratio: kale, sausage (not the crappy Italian or generic kind but a variety I cannot pinpoint but is undoubtedly of high quality & low fattiness), beans, and a melting pot of other ingredients that enhanced the deliciousness of it all. Well worth the price. http://www.haleandhearty.com/

Taste: 10/10 $5.95/medium cup

 

100% Pure Grapefruit Juice (Manhattan Fruit Exchange)

100% Pure Grapefruit Juice (No sugar or other ingredients added)

Brand: Manhattan Fruit Exchange & Juice Factory @ Chelsea Market

Just as freshly squeezed grapefruit juice should taste. Not your grandma’s bitter Florida Grapefruit juice out of the carton…hell no. This shit tastes natural and might as well have been hand-pressed by yourself with a juicer, with juicy, plump bits of grapefruit pulp floating around in juice with absolutely nothing else added. The perfect amount of sweetness and mild acidity of grapefruit, nothing more, nothing less. Pricey with a humble-looking handmade sticker label from the local Chelsea Market, this is as local/natural as it gets. Absolutely recommended if you're willing to shell the money.

Taste: 10/10 $4

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jugglerpm/sets/72157623044458172/

Maison du Chocolat Truffles & Ganaches

Maison du Chocolat truffles & ganaches

Maison du Chocolate Boutique @ Rockefeller Center

Melt-in-your-mouth smoothness, you can tell immediately that these truffles are worth the price in both quality and craft. The ganache is firm as butter, but soft and silky as a feather. Once bitten into, it bursts into a soft wave of complex notes unlike a feeling I have never experienced with other truffles. On a scale from 1 to 10, Godiva is a 3, Jacques Torres 8, and Maison du Chocolat an 11.  Perfect balance of buttery and bittersweet,  in addition to a deep complexity of flavors beyond ordinary truffles or Jacques Torres. Quality and consistency is remarkable, well worth every penny of the price if you go for the non-plain ones (avoid the mint ones, especially the gooey mint fillings, as minty tastes usually overwhelm the rest of the flavors). P.S. There was one particular piece that was almost orgasmic in taste...I forgot the name but I think the inside was caramel. However, the caramel was not gooey/sticky, but rather incorporated into this buttery, solid ganache. (Looks just like the one in picture above) http://www.lamaisonduchocolat.com/en/

Taste: 10/10 $2.50/piece

Photo credits: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-oneill/an-afternoon-in-la-maison_b_223901.html

http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2008/08/la_maison_du_chocolat_to_open_on_wall_street_with_new_look.html

Shortbread With Stem Ginger (Shortbread House of Edinburgh)

Finest Shortbread With Stem Ginger

Brand: Shortbread House of Edinburgh (Handmade in Scotland)

A step above Walker’s, nice buttery flavor with the perfect crumbly consistency of genuine shortbread. Studded with bits of candied ginger of perfect size and slight sweetness, this is the only ginger product I've ever tasted that does not possess a sickly, overwhelming ginger flavor. Quite the opposite, these tiny ginger bits enhanced the flavor of this shortbread, and I daresay makes it even better than the original. http://www.shortbreadhouse.com

Taste: 9/10 3 packets (2 each) for $2.50 (on sale @ Chelsea Market)

Askonsie – 72% Tenede, Tanzania Dark Chocolate

Askonsie –72% Tenede, Tanzania Dark Chocolate

Semi-sweet, bitter taste with fruity, earthy/bark notes. Slightly acidic, in such a way that makes it slightly sour as well. Not my cup of tea -- utterly unremarkable save for its complexity of flavors that are a step above $3.99 bars, but not justified by the price.

Taste: 8/10 Quality: 9/10 Consistency: 9.5/10

http://www.askinosie.com/

Photo credits: http://drexeliuschocolates.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/askinosie-chocolate-tanzania-review/

Vosges – Oaxaca 75%

Vosges – Oaxaca 75%

Vosges Boutique @ Soho

Chilles ingredients clearly tasted, but does not enhance chocolate taste. Overwhelms the complexity and quality of Vosges chocolate medium that supposedly is justified by the $7.50/bar price tag. Unremarkable, not recommended given the high price.

Taste: 7.5/10 Quality: 9/10 Consistency: 9/10

Spiced dark chocolate is ridiculously overrated. I am pretty sure the idea of peppering bars with spices, with perhaps the best intent, ultimately became a form of generating variety, such that a steady stream of novel flavors could be perpetuated in the overpriced dark chocolate market catering to the wealthy and wannabe connesoiurs. This bar is completely unremarkable, both in complexity and spice taste. It’s a plain chocolate bar, with no particularly obvious flavor notes, that has the taste of plain ole’ spices in it. That is it, and that is all. Although those who adore the spice and dark chocolate combination may like this bar (I have yet to meet such a person), I was completely unimpressed by both the quality and taste of it. The $7.50 price tag did not help, and I am glad I only tasted this via free sampling.

Ingredients: guajillo & pasilla chillies + Tanzanian bittersweet chocolate

http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/

NYC - Fat Witch Brownies

Witch’s Bakery – Original Brownie

Chelsea Market (other location: Hell’s Kitchen)

Consistency and cocoa ratio has room for improvement, but nevertheless this is an amazing brownie. Extraordinarily rich and buttery (and most likely equally dense in calories as well), I highly recommend purchasing at least the $1.50 tasting squares for taste of one of NYC’s best brownies. Soft with the oily smush of a brownie you know has tons of buttery goodness inside - depending on your taste, this may or may not be an ideal consistency. The level of butteri-ness is most likely what has caused Witch's to receive so many accolades. Even if you do not like that smushy consistency, the taste is well worth the purchase. http://www.fatwitch.com/

Taste: 9/10 Quality: 8/10 Consistency: 8/10 $1.50/ tasting square size

NYC Spring Break 2011

Just came back from NYC and had the most amazing range of experiences. Boutiques, gourmet grocers, and sights I've never seen, I could go on and on about everything. While my flight was delayed, decided to write as many reviews as I could about the things I tried. Posts coming up. Everyday this week, at least one post a' day about something I tried in NYC.

Music Review - Malachai: Return to the Ugly Side (2011)

I don’t usually do music reviews, since I find it difficult to put in words the feelings music evokes in me. But I really had to review this, because it is just so damn good. Unpredictable, beautifully complex and varied, I haven’t heard such good shit in so long. Every song in this album reinvigorated my senses, throwing fresh takes on familiar genres and transitioning from song to song in wildly varied styles so that the entire album  in and of itself was an aural canvas of a masterpiece containing an immense density of layers and influences (absolutely must be listened to in order, through and through, especially since some are multi-part tracks). I listened to the entire thing through twice because it blew me away.

First track began as what sounded like an epic journey soundtrack, somehow managing to transition seamlessly into an entirely different style: some strange electronic trip-hoppy reggae. From then on, I knew my ears were in for a treat. You know how after you listen to a song, you can kind of predict what sounds will be thrown at you next? Not true for this beauty, at least upon first listen. Unpredictable twists and turns, an incredible collage of styles and beats, I would probably classify this album as experimental of the most wonderfully genre-bending, hybridizing loveliness your ears for so long have been lacking.

Malachai - Return to the Ugly Side

Myspace, Facebook

Released: Feb 22, 2011

Label: Domino
Genre: Alternative / Psychedelic / Visual / Indie
Location: Bristol, UK

Amazon, Mediafire

Food Review - Dames' Chicken & Waffles

Took a glance at my tag-cloud, realized to my simultaneous horror and amusement that "food" is conspicuously much larger than the rest. Well I guess this is learning towards a foodie blog atm, which it most definitely will be next week when I go to NYC!


Back-story to the chicken and waffles combination. Wikipedia always explains it better than I do. It seems like such an odd, unexpected, and simply Southern combination, and after having my standards set by Bojangles and Duke marketplace waffles, I honestly did not know what to expect (except a severe food coma).


And holy shit was it good! I quickly came to the realization that chicken and waffles were...


List of Cliche Descriptions and Puns:

• A match made in heaven!
• Meant to be!
• Really clucking good!
• What the cluck? Good!

At some point, a couple outside stopped to read the menu taped to the glass window by my seat, and I suddenly had the impulse to hysterically gesture for them to come inside. But for the sake of not making a poor impression on my significant other of the night, and the fact that the restaurant was pretty quiet and my behavior may have been classified as "rowdy", I managed to restrain myself.

The humble appearance of this slice of heaven, hole-in-the-wall joint would suggest otherwise. However, several keys of success of this restaurant immediately come to mind.

1. Quality - obvious, but the few things that Dames' does, it does damn well (ahaha, get it???). Waffles were fluffy, light, buttery, and just so fucking perfect. Didn't have the made-in-a-waffle-iron look, were beautifully imperfect squares of wheat-y soul food mama goodness. Chicken fried to the perfect texture, not overwhelmingly greasy as most fried chicken ends up being. Portion sizes just right, contrary to my belief coming in (not as food-coma inducing as a Chinese buffet). 

The delicious simplicity speaks for itself, and I barely touched the sauce (also fantastic) because the chicken and waffles were just so fucking good on their own and I didn't dare overwhelm the blissful subtleness, not even simultaneously putting chicken and waffles in my mouth as the combo might otherwise suggest.

2. Variety - 7 types of schmears (sweet orgasmic butter creme spread), favorite was peach & apricot. Blueberry, sweet potato, classic waffles. Go w/ the classic first. Classic is classic for a reason.

What I got: recommended for: first-timers, light eaters, sweet simplicity

• Dueling Roosters - Rd. I - four chicken wings on classic waffle, choice of two spreads (try Peach & Apricot)
• 
  

LOCATION: Downtown Durham
317 W. Main St.

http://www.dameschickenwaffles.com