pear william cake

nearly forgot to make note of the wonderful pear william cake, from the much lauded ceci-cela patisserie on spring street. at ceci-cela, you'll see cakes and pastries that are so lovely, part of you can't imagine laying knife to them and wrecking 'em all to pieces...
but then the glorious smell of sweet dough baking will knock you on your heels, and inspire thoughts of a day-long binge. you'll want to try everything. i was so overwhelmed by how good everything looked that i asked for help. i wanted a cake and some pastries, for a special occasion, so i asked the lovely, if slightly distracted, girl behind the counter what her favorite cakes were. without hesitation, she pointed me to the pear william cake.

i'd never tasted pear william cake before, but i can't imagine it being any more delicious than ceci-cela's version. it's a vanilla cake, layered with delicate mousseline custard creme, and fresh pears, poached in poire william liqueur. what i love about this dessert, is that it can be relished in generous portions, yet it's so light, you never feel as though you've overindulged. with the pear william cake, you put your fork down and all you can think is, wow, that was really, really good.

there were two other pastries that we tasted. the first, a raspberry chocolate napoleon, was disappointing to some of us--the raspberry cream was actually a bit sour (no doubt the fruit was fresh though). it could have used a richer, sweeter chocolate filling to balance it out. the opera cakes--topped with flecks of edible gold--is terrific, and best with "brave" coffee.

55 Spring St.between Lafayette and Mulberry Sts.
212-274-9179

166 Chambers St.between Broadway and Greenwich St.
212-566-8933

you know you're old when...

you move to arguably the hippest neighborhood in nyc, and your main "complaint" is that there isn't a grocery store within an 8 block radius! (however--there's a whole foods due to open "sometime" in the fall, and crazily enough, that is one of the things that factored into my decision to move to the LES.)

anyway, i actually DID find a grocery store, just within the 8-block radius, just off prince street, around the corner from mcnally robinson. yipee! it's small, but it seems like it will do the trick for one-stop shopping on the way home from work. i took a quick spin up and down the aisles and spied "premio luganiga" sausage (billed as "dominican sausage" though premio is an italian sausage purveyor, and luganiga is, apparently, a sweet italian sausage). i decided to buy it so that i might compare it to the similarly named filipino sausage, longanisa (which, by the way, cousin joey, taught me to make from scratch, sans casing! deee-lish!). clearly one difference is the fennel seed... anyway, i'm very excited!

angelina's next adoptee?

oh, those gawker folks crack me up. she actually looks really good. that's the crazy thing.

galleria illy

i'm fascinated by pop-up stores. i'm especially excited that illy is opening one in soho on september 15!

the vartan hos

and this is hilarious...

lord knows, i hope it works. (i'm through with alias if they kill him off!)

sugar sweet sunshine

as fate would have it, sister and i are both "freelancing" this month (she with mo' better prospects, at the moment!) so we decided to meet for coffee and "a snack" in my 'hood. i was actually full, and she was not. but could i rightly refuse an opportunity to eat out? nope.

off to sugar sweet sunshine we went! i expected the offerings to be virtually the same as magnolia bakery and billy's bakery (both adored by hipsters and celebs alike). but sugar sweet sunshine's offerings seemed more one-dimensional--on this day, there were 8 varieties of cupcakes available, some mini cheesecakes, and a few breakfast treats, and some cakes, and "piggy puddin'." no jars of cookies. i wanted something small, and basically this meant, i was lookin' at cupcakes.

i know, i know, that's hardly suffering. but i don't fiend for cupcakes the way my sister (and seemingly everyone else in this town) does. and i'm picky picky about frosting. if it's too buttery, i'll scrape it off. if it's too whipped cream-y, it'll sit on the edge of my plate.

anyway. everything but the pumpkin cupcakes seemed to be piled high with buttercream frosting, so i was freaking a bit. sister decided on the "sexy red velvet" (what i would have chosen). i went for the "ooey gooey" (i was intrigued by the idea of chocolate almond buttercream frosting. i thought it might be less buttery than plain old buttercream frosting).

the ooey-gooey was de-lish! moist cake, creamy, chocolate-y frosting, but with nary a trace of that butter taste! it was actually much better than the sexy red velvet, which seemed somewhat stale--it wasn't dry or crumbly, it was just solid, and a bit heavy. and the icing was one massive hunk, and sweet as it was, it lacked the depth of flavor and the texture of the chocolate almond buttercream... to be honest, i have yet to find a red velvet cake or cupcake that comes close to the perfect slice i enjoyed at maroon's (that cake, served warm, was moist and spongy, so light that it seemed fizzy, as if it had coca-cola baked right into it. and then there there was the marshmallow-pecan frosting. sigh. i get a little heady at the memory of it...). billy's bakery's red velvet cupcakes were an absolute disappointment. i'm not sure if we got the red velvet cupcakes at sugar sweet sunshine after they'd spent a long weekend in that glass case, or if that's how they are supposed to taste. i guess we'll have to return to be sure.

and yes, i'd happily go back to sugar sweet sunshine. sure, there's a hipster quotient, it is on rivington street after all, but there are no annoying lines a la magnolia. and there's more charm in the decor than billy's (which has a positively stepford precision to its "homey look"). there's the lime and mandarin floral wall-paper (i think my sister or i had a sundress in that pattern back in the day!) and this huge photo of the late jackie kennedy onassis behind the counter. how hilarious is that?

the only real downer was the inconsistent coffee service. both my sister and i ordered skim lattes, and she thought hers tasted more like a cappuccino, while mine tasted like warm milk.

sad news for fans of "to kill a mockingbird"

as much as i claim to be a fan of the film "to kill a mockingbird," i have to admit that the name brock peters was not a familiar one to me, yet his performace in "mockingbird" is as memorable, powerful, and crucial as gregory peck's, mary badham 's, or any of the other stars of the film. my bad.

there are a number of articles and obits that are enlightening...

mike's graduation party--the spread, part deux

oh, and lest i forget to include photos of the sweets table...most of the desserts were homemade, including the double chocolate cake (with the gooey, finger lickin, to-die-for chocolate ganache icing) and the loveliest, lightest, freshest peach cake--ever.


and they showed off their knife skills with the cute fruit plate!

mike's graduation party--the spread

cousin mike, graduated from hs in june. since most of us had to work that day (aargh!), his folks planned a late summer bash (to properly commemorate the milestone), making it a congratulations/happy-going-off-to-college event. it was billed as a "casual bbq," but my family never does anything half-assed when it comes to food and entertaining. here are a few photos...














so not only can the family cook, they can create the table that the goods are served on. see the photo of the bbq skewers? designed and built by cousin jen, as an anniversary present for her folks! (and the "big -ass burgers" on the grill? also c/o jen! yay!) completely awesome.