New York City Dessert Tour – Part 1 February 27, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in cake, chocolate, cookies, information, pancakes.Tags: cafe lalo, cakes, chocolate chip, dessert, dessert tour, fashion, flourless chocolate cake, good enough to eat, ice cream, levain, new york, nizza, pancakes, snow white
12 comments
My trip to New York City was amazing and beyond fun, especially the dessert part! We visited about four dessert places a day and spent most of the week in a sugar coma. It was perfect!
Dessert Stop #1: Good Enough to Eat
Peter Paul Pancakes
the dessert: their famous Peter Paul pancakes made of Belgian chocolate and toasted coconut
our assessment: Overly hyped up – the Belgian chocolate was delicious, but when isn’t Belgian chocolate delicious? These pancakes were pretty generic, and we decided we prefer pancakes from chain restaurants (Mimi’s Cafe) and local Southern California restaurants (Eggs ‘n Things) better. But the restaurant was darling, with a white picket fence in front of the entrance and a restaurant layout that reminded me of the dwarfs’ kitchen when Snow White lived there.
Snow White's Kitchen
Dessert Stop #2: Cafe Lalo
over 100+ desserts
the desserts: Bailey’s Irish Cream and Almond Torte
our assessment: …NOT what we were expecting. The cafe was completely adorable, all decked out French-like, with supercute glasses, cute outfits for the servers, over 100 varieties of desserts, cute napkins… everything was adorable! But taste-wise? Probably the worst desserts of our Dessert Tour. Both cakes were very dry, and tasted like they had been sitting there for a day… or more.
Dessert Stop #3: Levain Bakery
the dessert: those infamous cookies!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip
our assessment: I LOVED THEM! The chocolate chip walnut cookie is, by far, the best cookie there. We had the chocolate peanut butter chip and the chocolate chip walnut cookie. Both cookies were moist, crunchy on the outside, but soft, melty, on the inside – SO delicious! This was the only dessert location I visited twice during my tour. Helen wasn’t as infatuated with these cookies and I was, since she prefers LA’s Diddy Riese cookies (3 for $1) for their value and variety. They also have a Levain Cam, which takes pictures (at 10 second intervals) of the store – so fun! Helen and I had a ball posing for pictures on the Levain Cam.
Dessert Stop #4: Nizza
the dessert: birthday flourless chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream
our assessment: SOOOO GOOD! the flourless chocolate cake was perfect! The vanilla ice cream was generic, but anything could have gone perfectly with this perfect cake. I don’t know if this dessert is actually on the menu, but I got it for my birthday.
Photographs courtesy of Helen, the best photographer I know!
Helen and Dorothy at Cafe Lalo
Congratulations to Two Lucky Chocolate Winners! February 23, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in information.4 comments
I am back from celebrations and NYC, so it is time to announce the winners of the Askinosie chocolate giveaway! I went over to random.org and randomly picked two winners. The first winner is comment #53!
Rosemary says:
Hahaha that’s a great reason to love chocolate!
The second random winner is #36!!
Lindsay says:
I agree, chocolate is a great pick me up!
Congratulations to the winners! The lucky winners will each receive:
- one 3oz Davao , Philippines Dark Chocolate Bar
- one container Roasted Cocoa Nibs from Soconusco (my personal favorite!)
- one container Single Origin Natural Cocoa Powder
So Rosemary and Lindsay, please e-mail me your addresses where you would like your prize package shipped!
Thanks to everyone else for commenting and participating! I will be back soon with a post on my delicious Dessert Tour of New York City!!!
cafe lalo in nyc
Yay, Yay – More Freebies: Chocolate Giveaway! February 7, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in chocolate, information.Tags: askinosie, birthday, chocolate, cocoa, fair trade, free, freebies, giveaway, holiday, new york, president, valentine's, win
75 comments
My birthday is coming up, Valentine’s Day is coming up, President’s Weekend is coming up, so we need to celebrate in style! And what better way than to celebrate with an awesome giveaway with some of my favorite chocolate?!
Enter Askinosie Chocolate. This stuff is amazing – and I’m not just talking about the taste (which is superb!). This chocolate benefits everyone that touches it – not only do the chocolate farmers get a fair share of the net profit (more than even Fair Trade prices!), but the creators of Askinosie personally choose all the chocolate for the best quality, taste, and your health. The bars are made in small batches to ensure they come out perfect. Isn’t that amazing? This chocolate is healthy AND greatly benefits the farmers. Help yourself, and help the world! Does chocolate get better than that?
Askinosie make amazing chocolate bars (nice long slabs of rich, high-quality chocolate – super smooth and not too sweet), cocoa nibs (great for baking!), cocoa powder (also great for baking), and hot chocolate! The cocoa nibs actually have 65 times MORE antioxidants per gram than broccoli! And its so much more delicious!
As a side note, I just want to mention that Askinosie Chocolate also has amazing packaging. Its creative, and perfectly complements the product. I love great packaging! Even the website is well-packaged!
Ok, on to the giveaway! This is what DessertObsessed is giving to TWO winners:
- one 3oz Davao , Philippines Dark Chocolate Bar
- one container Roasted Cocoa Nibs from Soconusco (my personal favorite!)
- one container Single Origin Natural Cocoa Powder
I am choosing TWO lucky winners for this amazing, anti-oxidant rich package so we can all celebrate February in style! To enter, just comment below on why you like birthdays, valentine’s day, president’s weekend, or chocolate! And please leave a blog link or an e-mail address so I can contact you if you win. Your comment will not affect your chances of winning; I will choose the winners randomly. You have until midnight of February 19th to comment for your chance to win!
I will be celebrating by gorging on the best desserts I can find out of state in New York City all next week, so winners will be announced after I come back. Good luck!
And a thank you to Askinosie for celebrating with us!
Yay, Birthdays and Freebies!!! February 5, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in cake, information, sweet eats.Tags: baskin robbins, coldstone, disneyland, free disneyland, free stuff, free stuff on your birthday, freebies, macaroni grill, marie callender, red robin, rubio, sephora
4 comments
My birthday is coming up next week (wednesday, the 11th YAY), so I’ve been receiving lots of birthday offers from around the web. I’ve made up a mini-collection of the good ones I’ve gotten so far; just go to the site and enter your birthday and email and then celebrate!!
Sephora – free gift (lip gloss or shower gel) for your birthday!
Red Robin – free birthday burger!
Coldstone’s Creamery – free ice-cream with 1 mix-in
Baskin Robbins – one free scoop and birthday cake coupon!
Rubio’s – free meal!!!
Macaroni Grill – free dessert
Marie Callender’s – $5 off plus 1 free slice of pie
Mimi’s Cafe - $10 off your $20 purchase (and you get a free breakfast just for signing up for their e-club)!
Black Angus – free steak dinner with purchase
Red Lobster – $5 off 2 adult entrees
Disneyland – free admission, this year only!
Most restaurants will give you free dessert on the actual day of your birthday, but the above places will e-mail you a coupon which you can use within a couple weeks of your birthday.
I will definitely be hitting up Sephora, Red Robin, Coldstone’s, Baskin Robbins, Rubio’s, Mimi’s Cafe and DISNEYLAND this year!
Do you know of any good birthday freebies I missed?
