Last June, I happened to walk by the infamous Crumbs in NYC and got a carrot cake cupcake. It was too big and too sweet. The various toppings (candy, cookies, icing decor, sprinkles) made the cupcakes look like the cheap baked goods found in grocery stores rather than a gourmet cupcake worthy of the $3.75 price tag. The majority of the flavors also didn’t appeal to my taste buds (I tend to go for fruit/espresso/spice flavors over nut/chocolate), and I actually had a hard time picking what flavor I wanted due to a lack of enticing choices (which is also how I feel about Ben & Jerry’s). I know, I know - so why even bother buying it? Of course I still had to try it just once. ^w^

Anyhow, today, 8 months after bad experience numero uno, I happened to stroll by the store again, this time at their new location near Metro Center, DC. And of course, I felt compelled to go in and give the store a second shot. After much deliberation, I selected the “pistachio,” a vanilla cake with light green frosting lined with pistachio “crumbs.” The cake was very moist, but again, too sweet. Any pistachio flavor that may have existed never made it past its synthetic green exterior. Not to mention the cupcake is egregiously unhealthy at a whopping 780 calories (click entry title for NPR link), with the fresh, gourmet hostess cupcake caloric total trumping even its fake-ingredient original.

If you like sweeter desserts with a fun flair, Crumbs may be the cupcakery for you. I, however, will reserve my $3.75 for Baked&Wired only in the future.

(Click the title above for list). Thank you to my bf, aka CNN groupie, who sent this to me earlier today (:

The US has the most # of restaurants in this list, at 8, including Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry (CA), Eric Rupert’s Le Bernardin (NY), and David Chang’s Momofuku Ssäm Bar (NY). However, it was a Nordic restaurant in Copenhagen that snagged #1 over Spain’s El Bulli, quite possibly the world’s epicenter of molecular gastronomy. I don’t have much to say b/c I’VE NEVER EATEN AT ANY OF THESE PLACES! ^^;; but it’s definitely refreshing to see a restaurant that embraces food in its natural state trump one that manipulates it to an unrecognizable point. Molecular gastronomy is a technological breakthrough, but how much is the genius of the food due to surprise, and how much to the actual taste? For example, is carrot juice disguised as fish roe better than a natural carrot? They both taste like carrot, only that one taste is unexpected and the other is not. Is it fair to compare traditional and technological restaurants if the latter has an entirely separate dimension?

I also found the comments on British journalist/food critic (better known as Top Chef Masters judge) Jay Rayner’s blog post interesting, esp. @Wong88.

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“How come almost all the best restaurants are in Western Europe and the US. One of the only Asian entries, ie. the Singapore one, has a Western chef.

If Asian food is so rejected by the authors of this guide, why is it globally, with the possible exception of American McDonalds style hamburgers, probably the most ubiquitous kind of food anywhere in the world…

Why does this guide completely ignore this phenomena?

If it’s not racism, then at the very least, I would suggest it is elitism…

I think it’s difficult to deny, that the listings do have a strong Western bias that tends to detract from its claim to being a “world” ranking. And, with no disrespect to those who made the list, I think this bias does seem to make the results look a little silly.

I think it would be nice, and certainly more interesting if, in future, the judges did try to widen the scope of the competition.”

It’s never too late to say a belated goodbye to dear old friend. At least they left w/ a bang: I love restaurant list issues!

http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/restaurants-worth-the-money

(Kind of funny how mean the comments were to Tom Sietsema. However, I agree — his tour of DC w/ $1,000 was disappointingly underwhelming. I could’ve come up w/ a list 3x as long and equally delicious, but then again I am the queen of bargain eating! Maybe the critics are tired of the lists?).

Cutest mom and LUCKIEST KIDS EVER!! Although I don’t know how the kids get full b/c there’s barely any food … but these little ones certainly must be the most popular kids in school :P Can I be yo friend?

Some of my favs:

Lion Ravioli *note the hand-cut nori details
Lion Couple *note the festive toothpicks
Penguin Egg *note the overwhelming cuteness of the rotund and sleepy penguin!

Being merely a n00b of a cook, I am always humbled when I come across food blogs like these. This is one of my favorites — I usually peruse Tastespotting, and then click on pictures that entice me w/o knowing who the blogger is until the link opens — and I’ve landed on this blog several times now. Check out today’s insane post on recreating Momofuku Milk Bar’s addictive “crack pie” ($44), America’s hippest and overpriced pie for spring 2010. I keep coming across it in blogosphere! It should be illegal, not b/c it contains crack, but basically comes close: It’s literally a flat disc consisting of butter, brown sugar and heavy cream, and yet it’s a rare treat even anti-Paula Deens can hardly turn down.

I’m opting to make this first: http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com/2010/02/thomas-kellers-favorite-simple-roast.html

Ask chefs what their last meal would consist of, and most would never fail to include the comforting, yet far from mundane, perfect roast chicken.