pure carbs
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A Crunch Bar Without Any Crunch
I love crushing things with my fingers. I also love chocolate that has been melted and then resolidified. One day, I found a mini Crunch bar in my pocket. I have a particular affinity for Crunch bars, because in high school, my best friend would bring a Crunch bar in her lunch every day, and she’d bite off the C and the H so it just said RUN. And then we’d sing Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills” in as exaggerated a manner as possible. No one considered us normal. Anyway, this Crunch bar had melted in my pocket, so I spent a good 10 minutes of my lunch hour…
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Kellogg’s NYC in Times Square
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Sundaes and Cones – Sweets – East Village
I like ice cream more than any other dessert. I rarely order it in restaurants, because it’s usually not being made in-house, but I lovelovelove to visit ice cream parlors. I wanted to try Sundaes and Cones, I’ll admit, because I read a review that described their scoops as “too big“, and I thought that was idiotic. I tried the corn and the chocolate-peanut butter flavor and would happily go back for both. I thought the corn could use some of the berry swirl you usually see at other gourmet parlors to sweeten it up a bit more, but someone who likes less-sweet desserts would love this one. And, well,…
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Black and White Cookie CAKE
I’ve already told you how much I like the ubiquitous New York black and white cookies. But look what we found at the grocery store!: It’s a black and white cookie cake! I was a little worried that it wouldn’t be as delicious as the cookies, because it’s not like I eat cookies because I like dough; I want icing. And lots of it. So the icing-to-bread ratio had me skeptical. But no! It’s moist, almost sticky with sugar, with a slight lemony flavor. The fact that the bread is so NOT dry made me feel like maybe I could even eat it (gasp!) without the icing at all. But…
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Black and White Cookies
The first time I saw a black and white cookie, it was at my best friend Tracey’s “Seinfeld”-themed bridal shower. Everyone else gushed over the cookies, but I thought they were stupid. The bottom was soft and fluffy like a cake, and if I’m going to eat cake, I want an inch-thick layer of frosting on top; the stuff coating these things was icing, the kind you see on a slice of cinnamon-raisin bread, and I don’t go to bridal showers for bread. The black and white cookie is native to New York, though, so eventually I had to give in and eat one. My boyfriend and I were at…
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My First Gingerbread House (that I didn’t in any way construct)
Right before I left for Christmas break, my boyfriend and I watched a Food Network show about a company known for its pre-decorated gingerbread houses, and all we could talk about was how badly we wanted to rip the roof off of one of those things and go to town on it with our teeth. Well, while we were in an-unnamed-discount-store-that’s-taking-over-the-world in December, my best friend, Tracey, and I spotted shelves loaded with gingerbread house kits for only $10 and decided to go for it, not only to make my boyfriend jealous but as an added benefit. We imagined how hard it’d be to attach the roof to the sides,…
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My First King Cake
My office ordered two king cakes last week under the guise of needing them for a co-worker’s going-away party but actually because I’ve always wanted to try them. The first king cakes were introduced to the southern U.S. by French and Spanish settlers and were originally associated with Christmas but are now traditional in Mardi Gras celebrations. Which makes sense, considering how indulgent they are. A southern co-worker recommended Paul’s Pastry Shop as the source for an authentic king cake, and the going-away girl choose a lemon over cream cheese and a chocolate Bavarian. I spent the week before they arrived telling everyone we were going to have cake made…
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I still basically have no idea what the word crunk means.
When it comes to candy, the Japanese really know how to name their products for maximum American kitsch appeal: Note that I found this on the same day I bought the bacon-flavored jellybeans from the SoHo Pearl River location, because the Japanese also know how I love to eat fattening foods but am too lazy to grill up some actual bacon. The Crunky bars were like Kit Kats but less dense and less sweet, which is basically how all Japanese candy is in my experience. Which is why I’m never leaving the U.S. for it, despite the number of karaoke joints there.
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Financier’s Bûche de Noël
I figured it was too late to post about my first bûche de Noël experience before I left NYC to spend the holidays with my family in Ohio, but since Blondie & Brownie revealed that Financier is still selling them, it looks like I’m good to go. Being from the Midwest and being very much culturally sheltered, I had no idea what a bûche de Noël was until my office decided on a whim to order a couple of cakes from the downtown Financier Patisserie the week before Christmas. When I called at 3 p.m., the order-taker told me that they were down to a couple of roll cakes, one…
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Easy-Baker Microwave-Ready Potato = NOT NORMAL!
When I was home in Ohio last week for Thanksgiving, I found myself not having eaten for 20 whole minutes and went rooting through my best friend’s pantry for something to snack on. This is what I found: She claims this is completely normal thing that completely normal people buy and eat and that it’s totally worth the 2000% markup from what you’d pay for a whole bag of them just to have your potato pre-washed. Another friend tells me that the Easy-Baker comes out of the microwave super-soft and ready for mashing on your plate with some butter. I think they’re crazy, but I still love the lengths we…
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Chowing at the Circleville Pumpkin Show
I grew up ten minutes from Circleville, Ohio, and have such fond memories of going to the Circleville Pumpkin Show as a kid that flying home to Ohio from NYC every year for it just seems natural. And I’m not alone in my venture: millions of people come from all over to world simply to visit “the best free show on Earth”. My friends and I are pretty up front about the fact that there’s nothing to do at the Pumpkin Show but eat. Luckily, we don’t need another reason to go. This year’s feast included: Deep-fried Buckeyes. Buckeyes being Ohio’s state nut. Except that these are peanut butter balls…
