Archive | 4:57 pm

Soho Eats: Crepes and Cupcakes

14 Dec

One day while running all over SoHo looking for new office space, I decided to take a side road until I found a place for lunch.  I have a soft spot for crepes, so once I saw a little place that specialized in crepes, I couldn’t help but go in.  I was confused about the name since there were little stickers that covered part of it on their crepe cones, so I decided not to photograph the ugly side.  Turns out it’s in the news! I guess I will refer to this as the crepe place formerly known as La Crepe Parisienne.  Turns out I had also left SoHo for NoHo.  Who knew!

I ordered the prosciutto, raclette cheese, and sliced potato crepe since potato just sounded splendid. It was… fair.  Kinda boring actually.  The potatoes should be a wee bit crisped or something… it just tasted like mushy nothing really.  The cheese and prosciutto wasn’t anything special either.  Disappointing.  I did enjoy the handy holder though.

I left the creperie feeling as though I really wanted something sweet but was too full to get a sweet crepe.  That’s when I happened on just the right thing…

I’ve read about these a few times, but the Baked by Melissa miniature cupcakes being sold out of a “store” the size of a closet was too amusing to pass up.

When they say miniature… they mean it.  They were about the diameter of a quarter.  Three for $3 sounded worthwhile and I went with PB&J, S’Mores, and Peanut Butter Cup.  The chocolate cakes were excellent, though the PB&J one was somehow lackluster.  A great little snack if you’re in the area (Spring between Mercer and Broadway).

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Krispy Krack Kale

14 Dec

I had heard rumors about kale that it was bitter.  As someone who will eat any veggie EXCEPT the bitter ones, I have avoided it at all costs.  Then came a review from Lori (a fellow kale skeptic) and the recipe, and I decided to give it a shot.  A few weeks later, I found a recipe for short ribs that included kale in its winter veggies assortment so I bought some from Fresh Direct.  One bored night I decided to refer back to Lori’s blog and crisp up one of the three bundles I had. 

It could not possibly be easier.  You wash kale, dry it off, toss it with olive oil and sea salt (not too much salt! it get concentrated as the kale roasts).

Then you stick it on a baker’s rack (or a pizza stone or a cookie cooling rack).  Then you put it in the oven at 250 degrees for about 25 minutes.

When you pull it out it doesn’t quite look like it should be crispy and when I reached in to grab a single one to try (figuring it needed more time or something) it was over.  I was in love.  It was perfectly crisp, salty, and a totally unique, milk flavor. 

I ate the entire tray on the left before trying to have some self control and put the rack on the right into a bowl… then proceeded to eat all but a small handful that I left for poor Mike when he got home.

The one problem I would advise about is that as it roasted, it curled around the little bars in the cooling rack, making it a bit harder to come off and causing more crumbling than you might want if you were serving this to guests.  I, however, had no problem collecting those crumbs and gobbling them all up.

I have made it TWICE since then (this was less than a week ago) and just ordered more kale from Fresh Direct for next week.  It’s THAT good. 

Run… do not walk… run to your nearest grocery store and buy some.  You’ll thank me later.

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