The Plaza Food Hall by Todd English

I don't know where to start, and have too much to say about this, so I'll leave it to the photos, but this new Food Hall by Todd English may have just saved The Plaza. I was beyond impressed and excited upon seeing this, and so sad I no longer live upstairs. Not only is there an amazing bakery section with goodies such as cakes, chocolates, and macaroons, but there is a cheese section, a pizza bar, a sushi bar, a dumpling bar among many other sections. It is incredible!

(Click On The Pictures To See Full Size)

Seafood Bar

Fresh Produce

Wine Bar

Cheese Bar

Pizza Bar

Dessert Bar

Curly Cakes Cupcakes

Todd English Chocolate Bars

Candy Bar

Candies

Pantry of Goods

My real live Eloise, and tour guide, Chloe

Sant Ambroeus

I love walking up Madison Avenue in the summer and seeing everyone sitting on benches outside the ice cream shops that are hidden among all the designer stores. Sant Ambroeus is a well known Italian "pasticceria, gelateria and ristorante" on the Upper East Side. I grew up having birthday cakes from here every year that were amazing. Their gelato is equally as good. I got the mint chip, and it was so refreshing it cleared my sinuses. The quality of the gelato is so good, and thick, the chocolate is so rich and the mint was so fresh.

Serafina

Serafina was staple restaurant for my friends and I in high school, so I thought it was the perfect place to meet up with friends the one night I had free in NYC. It's simple Italian food, but SO good. I think it's my ultimate comfort food. After two pizzas and pasta, we ordered three desserts: a tiramisu, an apple pie and dark chocolate Nutella soufflé.







They were all great, but of course I liked the soufflé best.

Moose Tracks

My favorite thing about summer is all the ice cream that's around. Anyone who knows me knows my all time favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip, but if Moose Tracks was more of a common option, I would reconsider. I'm not sure what company makes this flavor, but my beach club in Westhampton has been serving it for years, and it has consistently been incredible. It's a vanilla ice cream with huge slabs of chocolate fudge and mini peanut butter cups. It's perfectly smooth, salty, sweet and crunchy. I love.

Carvel Cake

For my Grandma's 85th birthday we got a Carvel ice cream cake, her favorite. I've been eating this half chocolate half vanilla with cookie crumbles my whole life, and it still amazes me how much I love it. The fluffy white frosting and gel writing on top is my favorite part!

Hampton Popcorn

I've always seen this out in the Hamptons but hadn't tried it until now, and it was pretty good. Caramel popcorn covered with chocolate and peanut butter. The cluster effect going on is amazing, the problem is you don't know when to stop...

La Mousse

Sarah's second birthday cake was from La Mousse, one of her childhood favorites. It was great! It's hard to find a good mousse cake, and this one was incredible. The mousse was thick and sat above a layer of Oreo cookie crumbles, and topped with whipped cream. Since mousse melts, we kept it in the fridge, and the coldness added a great texture to the whole thing. It was quite the cake.

The Yard

For Sarah's birthday we had dinner and watched the Laker game at The Yard in Santa Monica, and the cake they sent over was so good! It was a dense chocolate cake with a thick layer of peanut butter in the middle. It was served with banana ice cream and completely surrounded by fluffy charred marshmallow. The entire combination was fantastic!

My Homemade Oreo Balls

Someone I work with sent these treats to my boss who couldn't stop raving about them. I was so intrigued by the sound of an Oreo Ball, that I had to find out the recipe and try to make them myself. I was very familiar with the Peanut Butter Ball (see Break Fast post) and wondered if these would be anything like them. They are in a whole class of their own... The insides are made of a full pack of Oreos blended into powder, mixed with an entire pack of cream cheese. It's incredible how gooey and cakey the inside is, even when put in the fridge. The cold doesn't effect the softness of the inside whatsoever, its unreal. The outside is a simple white or milk chocolate shell. They are so easy to make, no baking involved!

Half of them were regular Oreos and the other half were the peanut butter Oreos. I liked the regular Oreo best, but they are both SO good. One of the best things I've ever made, and will be making them from now on. Such a good idea for a party treat!

Bouchon

Finally!! I've been wanting to go here ever since it first opened in LA, and it was so worth the wait. All the food was amazing! The first thing I loved about this restaurant was the menu. It was printed discretely on a very thin paper bag-like paper, and wrapped around the napkin. Really cute.



When in France... you have to try profiteroles. So we did, and they were great. The waiter came to pour over some chocolate syrup, and of course, once he turned around we poured on the rest. It was a wonderful ending to an incredible meal.

Baking Whoopie

This Baking Whoopie pie was something I stumbled upon after eating lunch at Cabbage Patch. I haven't had too many Whoopie Pies in my day, but this was pretty good! Super moist caked with a rich mocha filling.



I really like the idea of bring the Whoopie back! Enough with all the cupcakes already...

Lavo

After eating a metric ton worth of pasta and kobe beef at Lavo, the amazing waiter brought us three desserts:


Strawberry shortcake puff pastry with cream..


Malted ice cream...



and Fried Oreos...

There were all amazing!! I've never had fried Oreos before, it was so exciting, but the Strawberry pastry was unreal. Despite being painfully full from dinner, we managed to polish off every bite of the desserts. Yum.

The Cupcakery

While in Vegas walking through the Monte Carlo hotel, we passed The Cupcakery - we had to stop in.


I tried the "Peanut Butter Jammer" which was peanut butter cake and icing filled with grape jelly. It was pretty good, more like a muffin than a cupcake though.

I've never in my life seen cupcakes completely doused in glitter! They were so beautiful, the sparkle hypnotized me..

Crumbs

I'm not sure how I've gone this long without ever talking about Crumbs... It has been one of my favorites for years. I used to go to the one near my house in NY on a weekly basis. Last week was my boss' birthday, and since we always get Sprinkles, I thought I'd go one block over and pick up Crumbs instead.


The four flavors I chose were "Devil's Food" (chocolate with creme filling), "Cosmo" (lime with strawberry filling and icing, in honor of SATC 2), "Good Guy" (vanilla on vanilla) and "Peanut Butter Cup" (chocolate with peanut butter filling and icing). I really liked them all, but I think the Peanut Butter is always my favorite!


They even had some special Lakers cupcakes!!