Cupcakes Pt. 2

After an eventful and delicious dinner and dessert at Chris Santos' "Stanton Social" for my mother's birthday (which I will talk about in my next post), we went for second dessert at this place called "Sugar Sweet Sunshine" (I know, it's a really masculine name), however, going past the name I got to try some fantastic cupcakes which I am a huge fan of (which you would know if you have been reading my blog from the beginning).

I was pretty full because a lot of small plates can really fill you up eventually. Having said that, I still had room for two very different cupcakes. The first of the two was a pistachio cupcake. Nothing you would accept from a savory ingredient, a great amount of sugar and incredible icing which lent some more sweetness to the flavor of the pistachio which was as well quite prominent.

The second of the two was a red velvet cupcake. You may be thinking: "how is this unique?" Let me tell you, the Chantilly consistency of the chocolate icing on this cupcake made this the best red velvet I've ever had. Not only that, besides the fact that it was a red cupcake with cocoa flavor, there was a huge burst of almond flavor which made it massively unique.

Yes, I was hesitant going into a store called "Sugar Sweet Sunshine," though, that's not going to keep me from having a second dessert. Even though I felt like my masculinity was depleting every minute I was in there, it was so worth it.

The New York Poutine Pilgrimage

Ultimately, you may be thinking to yourself: "why the hell is he obsessing over poutine all of a sudden?" It's just the fact that I've been thinking about it a lot recently. I miss Quebec, I have a strong draw to Canada for some reason. Anyway poutine is just one of those things that draws me, and even though it's sickly unhealthy, it just tastes so good. I decided since it was more of an effort than I thought to make home-made poutine than I thought, I'd check out the poutine scene in NYC.

It seems that it was much easier than I thought. I just typed in to Google: "Best Poutine in NY." Low and behold, I site something like CitySearch came up with the best places for poutine in the city and a lot of good looking and easy to get to locations came up. I decided I would show four of my findings; two in Manhattan, two in Brooklyn.

Let's start with Brooklyn:

Mile End

I mentioned this place in my last post about making the poutine. It's a Jewish Deli with a Montreal twist on it. Instead of pastrami or corned beef, you have Canadian smoked meat and other deli fare. Though most importantly, they serve poutine! It looks really good and "Quebec authentic" too.

Sheep Station

I've seen pictures of their poutine, and it does look good, however, at little less authentic. I feel that this place is on the bottom of the four. I think it's also a little more out of the way than Mile End too. There of course is always a desire to try it.

Now Manhattan,

T-Poutine

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this store in SoHo. Straight out of Quebec, a model who brought with him his favorite French-Canadian food, poutine. He then opened up this restaurant which looks amazing. Great looking, as well as authentic looking poutine, I'm very eager to try it. However, it's temporarily closed, though when it re-opens, I'm going to be the first on line.

Pommes Frites

I'm going to thank Nimz at her blog "Bothers" for recommending this place to me. I've heard of it before, however, I never really looked into it. It turns out that in addition to their fries and variety of sauces, they have authentic poutine as well. It's served in a Styrofoam cup like street poutine you would see in Quebec City. That'll be the first one I try since it's smack dab in the middle of the village and open.

I'm Not Waiting to go to Canada!

First of all, happy 50th post everyone, it took much longer to get here than I thought. I know now that I have something really good to write about. Let's get started.

I've never really stressed on this blog my love of poutine, which for those of you who don't know is a French Canadian specialty mixing together fries, cheese curd, and brown gravy. It's really something you have to go to Quebec to get. There is one exception however: there is a deli in Brooklyn that has a "Montreal twist" on a Jewish Deli, serving up Canadian smoked meats and deli items and of course, poutine. The place is called "Mile End" and it's not what I'm writing about.

Today I was thinking to myself, I haven't been to Quebec in a long time (since last February), and having poutine once every few months is okay. I just felt the urge to get poutine and going to Brooklyn was too much of an effort and something to do when leaving the city. So, I went out to the farm to pick up some potatoes (I already had the cheese and the stuff to make the gravy), went home and started up the fryer.

I've done homemade fries before, though when making something like poutine, you have more elements than just the fries, it's a balancing act with the other ingredients, the mozzarella being the easiest. I had worked for a good half an hour and my end result was great.

I sat down with my fresh poutine and a coke that I picked up at the store on the way home and was quite satisfied, knowing that I won't have to be craving that again for a few months. My portions were huge... it was really good though, and healthy.

This is my result!