chokladboll close-up

chokladboll close-up

Originally uploaded by ann gav

i was torn when i first made chokladboll. i thought it was just okay, but then i let it sit in the fridge overnight, and it got rave reviews at work.
i tried it again and played with the original recipe (which i found here), adding more coffee and butter and tossing in a handful of chocolate chips for good measure.
and this time, i got the appeal.

two other things which I love about chokladboll?
1. it’s got an awesome name, and ends up being much tastier than it sounds.
2. it’s super easy to make with ingredients i typically have on hand. woot! no more long lines http://pievcake.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/chokladboll-close-up/at the subpar safeway!

(also, please note interesting wikipedia entry.)

comics bakery delivers

okay, so i went to spx, and cooked up a storm, and forgot* to take pictures of anything i baked, with one exception:

but there were still some awesomely delicious desserts there, including these made by the fantastic comics bakery guys – marian vitus, thank you!

*by “forgot” i mean that i spilled butter and sugar in the oven, ran out of dessert transport mechanisms, and spent too much time choosing an ironic tee shirt to actually take photos of anything.

hello, hello cupcake!

so last week, i finally got to try the lovely hello cupcakes, which just opened in dupont circle. and it is delicious!
when we got there (6:30 pm on friday) most of the cupcakes were gone. mimi managed to snag one of each of the remaining flavors that they had:

here’s the de lime and de coconut that i purchased. i love lime and coconut, so i was looking forward to devouring this:

however, i found it to be slightly dry, although the icing was good.
amit had a coconut cupcake, which was much tastier. it was moist and the icing made me happy. look at him biting his lip in anticipation:

and the vegan? well, while hello cupcake does have vegan flavors, they were all out by the time we got there. so this is how the vegan felt:

we’ll go back to get vegan reviews soon! i promise!

olympic dessert

mimi and i had been avidly following the olympics, and were discussing the sports related drama while enjoying brunch at mark’s kitchen.
and then we noticed the dessert menu, where there was a dessert called “the magic cube”.
“it’s like the dessert version of the water cube!” mimi yelled.
“it’s a sign that the best way to celebrate michael phelps’ 8-gold achievement is to eat dessert!” i exclaimed.
and so we ordered it.
here’s what it looked like – magical indeed:

and here’s a picture of it, mid-devouring:

well worth it! (and the rest of the food at mark’s is pretty good too.)

new mr. yogato stamps

okay, THIS is serious.

i still can’t resist a discount on dessert, however.

lemon-lime cake

purchased at curly’s luncheonette on the very lucky day of August 8, 2008.
the cake was a little dry, and not as packed with citrus zing as i would have liked, but the icing was top notch. buttery, yet vegan. HOW DO THEY DO THAT???

baltimore’s greatest contribution to cuisine

berger cookie

Originally uploaded by ann gav

a lot of people think it’s crab cakes, but they would be wrong.
it’s the berger cookie – the “anytime cookie,” as it’s touted by the company that makes them.
they should call them the “everytime cookie.”
this is the cookie for people who hate cake like i hate cake.
it’s got lots of icing – delicious fudgy icing – but without dry, mealy cake underneath.
instead, the icing is on a soft, vanilla-y cookie.
in short: lots of icing, lots of moistness, no extra cake to choke down.
brilliant.

ackc chocolate pie

earlier today, as i was sweating on a ride through dc in a quest to buy some paint, i passed by the ackc cocoa gallery on 14th street, and decided to stop in to see what they had. here’s what i found:

oh yes.
that chocolate hazelnut pie was as delicious as it looks. it was so rich i almost couldn’t finish the whole thing.
i will have to go back to try some of the chocolate drinks, including one named after charo!
indeed, i may even end up here on thursday night, when ackc is doing a chocolate tasting night for free. FREE CHOCOLATE TASTING? hell yeah. sign me up.
see you there at 6:30.

domo arigato, mr. yogato!

this weekend, mimi and i continued our serious investigation into dc’s yogurt places by visting the newly opened mr. yogato, located on 1515 17th street (right off p street) in dupont circle. the store bills itself as “the funnest yogurt experience you’ll ever have” which is a pretty accurate description. it’s hard to beat the fun at any yogurt shop with rules like these.
mimi and i both scooped up a 20% discount by getting our foreheads stamped:


we immediately liked the fact that mr. yogato had more variety than the other yogurt chains. it has four flavors – soft, tangy, mango, and mojito – and a huge variety of toppings, including many that aren’t on the menu, but just happen to be on hand. (if anyone does end up trying the olive oil topping, please let me know.) unlike other yogurt places, it also has a sliding scale for toppings, so that you don’t have to get more than one if you don’t want to.
mimi tried a small mango with strawberries:

while i tried an original tangy with coconut, reese’s peanut butter cups, and cookie crisp:

the mango flavor actually tasted like mango in a firm, but not overpowering way – unlike some other yogurt we’ve had. the tangy flavor was less tangy than expected. both of us were slightly turned off by the texture of the yogurt, which was more granular and watery than other places. it melted rather quickly. still, it tasted good.
in the end, both of us thought that tangysweet has a better base product. i, however, like the variety in toppings and flavors at mr. yogato, and am a total sucker for the cute factor, so i’d recommend it more highly than tangysweet. mimi, however, is remaining with her original favorite.

we just heard a rumor that pinkberry is going to be opening in georgetown soon, so we hope we can continue this series!

dessert tour: the bay area!

just got back from a week in the bay area, and i had a great dessert time!
here’s how it went down:

day #1, after a delicious vietnamese pho blowout, we stop at a nondescript place called “bud’s” so that people can get milkshakes. i walk in and discover FROYO! it was delicious – this was like tangysweet, for the dc readers, except cheap. this was the child-sized portion. don’t ask me how child-sized gets to be so huge. i couldn’t finish it all myself.

day #3, we stop for a late-night snack at au coqolet, a french diner in berkeley. i am intrigued by the corn and coconut cake on the menu. it is very, very thick. it is also not as moist as i would like it to be. i should have learned to just stay with desserts that sound good, not desserts that sound intriguing.

day #5, i have the best dessert of the trip – the raw chocolate hazelnut cake at cafe gratitude. yes, a raw organic vegan restaurant managed to kill on the bay area desserts. this cake was a little piece of heaven, and has made me crave creamy, mousse-y cakes ever since it crossed my lips. the dessert is officially called “i am bliss.” there was never a better description for anything i’ve eaten.

day #7, i had eaten a huge breakfast at rudy’s can’t fail cafe. so i wasn’t that hungry when we stopped into a cafe for some coffee before going to see TRON on the big screen. but boy oh boy, when you have a dessert named “luscious chocolate cake,” i’m going to have to try it. it was pretty luscious, i have to admit.

and while this picture of coffee isn’t dessert, i feel a need to link to it here because i was woefully delinquent in taking photos of what accompanied it – a fantastic waffle. we went to blue bottle coffeeto try out their siphon coffee made on a japanese machine. it was strong stuff, but the waffle that accompanied it was pitch perfect.

so that was my trip! i did have a few other desserts (great bubble milk tea, a yummy elephant ear) here and there, and a few other desserts that i missed out on (like the veggie treats at millennium), but i was overall pretty impressed. for a land where people are supposedly super healthy, there was certainly no shoddiness with the sweets.