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Pleasant Surprises: Levain Bakery Pumpkin Spice Bread

Pleased to bring you Part 2 of the 3-Part post-Sandy foodapalooza celebration. See Part 1 here and stay tuned for Part 3!

Everybody knows *queue Phaedra voice* that Levain Bakery is famous for their cookies which are as delicious as they are large. However during my recent post-apocalyptic food binge, post-Hurricane Sandy celebration, I decided to go a little nuts at Levain and deviate from my usual Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip cookie. Lo and behold I found my new favorite pumpkin bread:

Levain Bakery’s Pumpkin Spice Bread

Super dense, spicy and everything I wished my own Pumpkin Bread would be, Levain’s version blows everything else out of the water. In true Levain style, each serving could double as a small dumbbell.

Levain’s Pumpkin Spice Bread – it’s at least 1.5 inches thick.

If you google ‘Levain recipes’ you’ll see that zillions of people have spent gazillions of hours trying to reverse-engineer Levain recipes, but it’s like trying to reverse-engineer love, it just can’t be done. So get up and schlep yourself to the UWS and buy some (or all) of their fabulous baked goods.

Yes, I requested the butt piece. It’s the only way to go.

Bonus: their baguette is surprisingly good as well.

Leave your diet at home.

Levain Bakery
167 West 74th Street (btwn Amsterdam and Columbus)
New York, NY 10023
www.levainbakery.com

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Review: BareBurger

This post is dedicated to everybody on the East Coast affected by Hurricane Sandy. I hope you are safe and whatever damage you may have sustained was minimal. To find out how you can help, visit NYC Service. Thanks to BareBurger for also doing their part to help.
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8/10

Following a harrowing experience with Hurricane Sandy and 3 days with no power, water or cell service in my apartment and reports that it could take another 3+ days to restore service in Lower Manhattan, I finally fled to stay with family in an area not quite so affected.

During those almost 3 days of no power and no water, all I did was hallucinate about what hot food sounded good at the moment. Coffee…tea…my mom’s cooking…Indian food…pizza…soup…pasta and of course a big fat juicy BURGER!! So as soon as I got to my family’s place and showered, I jumped on Yelp to see what was nearby.

Turns out, there is a BareBurger  in Forest Hills just a few blocks away. I’d seen the chain in the city before and wanted to try it, so what better occasion than the first meal living like a refugee for 3 days.(Side note: for those of you who have followed this blog for a while, you know that I’m on the eternal quest for the best burger… read all my burger reviews here) I got the beef burger, ‘Classic’ style (no cheese) and my dad got  the elk burger, also ‘Classic’ (no cheese). The first bite was like Christmas, birthday and winning the lotto all at once.

BareBurger beef burger ‘classic’ on a brioche bun: heaven.

After the rush of the the first bite of the warm meal subsided, I realized that outside of the circumstances, this was actually a delicious burger.

How I spent much of my post-Hurricane Sandy days: Candle-lit and bored.

Their meat is all grass-fed, organic and all-natural (they probably make the cows do yoga too) and their ‘Special Sauce’ is just divine.

BareBurger elk burger ‘classic’ on a brioche bun. Survey says: tastes just like beef.

I really like that they allow you to design your burger to your specifications – their menu is wide and varied with meat options like elk, lamb, bison, boar and even ostrich! BareBurger topping styles range from ‘The Classic’ with onions, tomato and lettuce to the more exotic ‘Maui Wowie’ with smoked mozzarella, pineapples, Canadian bacon and ranch dressing. You can choose between a number of bun styles but really when brioche is an option why consider anything else.

Cross section of a BareBurger: anatomy of a delicious burger!

Besides great burgers, BareBurger actually makes pretty mean french fries and onion rings…

BareBurger fries and onion rings: crunch, crispy and fried to perfection!


I’ll be back to BareBurger, hurricane or no hurricane! I’d love to try the other more exotic meats.

BareBurger (various locations)
71-49 Austin Street
Forest Hills, NY 11375
www.bareburger.com/

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Food Tragedy: Emo Pain au Chocolat

Next time you’re about to bite into a delicious pain au chocolat, think about their poor little emo faces:

🙁 Sad pain au chocolat 🙁 

Quite possibly the cutest/saddest food thing I’ve ever seen! Read the full Serious Eats article here, with pictures.

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