February 3, 2008
Tristan Week: Day 4 (Bloggers Unite Over Chocolate Covered S'mores and Giant Pancakes)
[This is the last entry of my January "Tristan Week," which took place on January 5th. Yup, I am that behind. Funnily perhaps, today is the last full day of my February "Tristan Week"—he just came back to NYC for mooore! With luck you will hear about this in March. I hope that provides some kind of explanation for why I haven't been able to update recently. I really want to, you know. COS I LOOOVE YOUUU!!!]
- Want a piece?
Here's a pack of Goetze's caramel creams.
- Oops.
And here are the innards of one of those caramels. Next to my shoe.
- Lauren and Jones
Out of our group of four—Lauren and Jones of the excellent fashion blog Fops and Dandies, Tristan and myself—I was the only one who wasn't familiar with this candy. Because I was deprived as a child. The pack I bought from Economy Candy tasted a bit dried out; looking at the photos of the candies on Candy Blog gives me the impression that the fillings should've had a high enough moisture content to plump out and stay inside the caramel ring instead of expel themselves onto the ground. Someone didn't want me to experience the joy of the fillings. And thus fate denied me of the creamy innards.
However, I did get the full effect of the caramel, which as Candy Blog's review says, has a doughy texture. Like...a "dough gone wrong" texture, if I had to continue the description. I probably only think this because I'm not used to Goetze's caramels. I'm partial to the kinds of caramels that are smooth and melt like butter—Goetze's caramels didn't really...melt. Of course, they dissolved at some point because that's the effect saliva tends to have on things you eat, unless you're eating plastic.
- S'MORE!!
We had better luck with Economy Candy's chocolate covered s'more. I didn't even know they made these palm-sized blocks of gelatinous sugar smushed between layers of wheaty sugar encased in cocoa-y sugar until Jones mentioned it as the thing he had to get whenever at Economy Candy. While I'm not even a huge fan of s'mores—not that I'm opposed to the combination of chocolate, graham crackers and marshmallow, because that would be crazy—I thought that if it was that special to Jones, I should be willing to risk forming another layer of body fat to give it a whirl.
- INNARDS
Although s'mores are meant to be eaten in a partially molten state with the marshmallow oozing out between the graham crackers like a popped pustule, the non-molten chocolate covered s'more brought the awesomesauce to the world of s'mores in its own way, its way being, "It'll take you a day or two to completely devour my hugeness." Instead of hugging a chunk of chocolate in the middle with the marshmallow, the thick graham crackers themselves were covered in chocolate and the central chocolate layer was absent. Cover all this in a thick layer of chocolate and you've got yourself a lot of chocolate. But then there was also a lot of cracker and marshmallow, so everything kind of evened itself out.
The combined depths of thick chocolate layer upon thin chocolate layer upon graham cracker upon thin chocolate layer upon marshmallow upon thin chocolate layer upon graham cracker upon thin chocolate layer upon thick chocolate layer required me to open my mouth to large, unsightly proportions if I were to successfully get any of it into my belly. One chomp was disarmingly satisfying. Although I wanted to eat more right there, I didn't get to finish it off until later that night.
- Prune
After we had sufficiently killed enough time roaming around the Lower East Side we headed to Prune for brunch. The popularity of Prune is such that if you get there at 2PM you won't get to sit down until about 3PM. Of course, if you suffer from the "my stomach is a-gurgling" disorder during the wait you can go to Economy Candy and get a hefty, non-nutrition-packed chocolate covered s'more to tide you over.
- steamed almond milk
Although I tend to stick with tap water for 99% of my meals, I had to try the steamed almond milk, aka "almond squeezin's." For some reason I expected the drink to be sweeter and nuttier than its actual level of sweetness and nuttiness, which I would place around, "mildly mild." What does that mean? ...I don't know. I was going to say, "one level below mild," but then I realized that was like a mild mild and now that I've looked at the world "mild" so many times I say it to myself as "milled" and then "mildew" and my brain hurts so I'm going to start a new paragraph.
- GIANT PANCAKE
Lauren and Jones both ordered the Dutch style pancake, a ginormous baked pancake topped with apple slices. If I were allowed to rename this pancake I would call it, "Fat Pillow of Sweet Dough." You'd totally go for it.
- INNARDS?
Maybe it's wrong to call this a pancake. It was more like a round loaf of half-corny cornbread with a crisp outer crust and soft innards disguised as a pancake. Which is fine with me. "Loaf of cornbread" probably isn't very acceptable to order for brunch, but giant pancake (or fat pillow of sweet dough)? Yes.
- Monte Cristo
After reading about the Monte Cristo sandwich on Tina's blog, I couldn't imagine getting anything else. The prospect of eating an egg-battered, deep-fried triple-decker ham, turkey and swiss cheese sandwich screamed a few things: "EAT ME!" and "MM, IMPENDING HEART ATTACK!"
The sandwich was actually not too artery-clogging due to its minute size. You may not be able to tell from the photo, but it was a wee small bugger. Technically since it was a double decker sandwich I guess it provided twice the sandwich in one bite, but I could've eaten this entire sandwich if it had been twice as large, at which point it would've been more of a health hazard.
...So maybe it was a good thing that it was only a little bit larger than my palm. As delicious as it was with its oozing cheese and layers of ham I don't think it was worth $12, even with the accompanying fried egg and red currant jelly.
- huevos rancheros
Tristan devoured his plate of huevos rancheros, baked eggs in tomato, garlic and chilies, with black beans, avocado, cilantro, lime, and tortilla chips. While he liked it, he didn't think it was worth the price ($15) either.
- Interior
- Oo, licorice
At the end of the meal your check is presented with licorice in whimsical shapes, in our case euro coins. I took a bite about the size of 5 grains of rice out of my 5 euro coin, attempted to chew...continued attempting to chew...and failed. It's not Prune's fault that I like eating licorice about as much as I enjoy staring straight at the retina-burning midday sun, but I decided I should at least try it. So I did. Licorice is definitely not compatible with my taste buds. I'm not sure how those Scandinavians do it.
I think our overall impression was that although the food was satisfying and prepared well, it was a little out of the range of "worth it." The prices weren't astronomical or unreasonable, perhaps just a few dollars more than what I'd normally pay (except for the almond milk, which was only $3 for a large glass) , but I wasn't left with that jubilant feeling of, "OH MY GOD, I WISH THE MEAL WOULD NEVER END!" I enjoyed it—I just don't feel any need to go back. Even though I really want another one of those Dutch pancakes. Roebling Tea Room in Brooklyn seems to make the same thing for $8 (as opposed to Prune's $13) according to one of the comments in Lauren's accompanying post.
After browsing around Kinokuniya and H&M in midtown we headed back to Penn Station. And thus "MEET-UP WITH ANOTHER BLOGGER" was a success! For no good reason I was slightly nervous (although I would like to add that for good reason I was excited!) about meeting up another blogger who didn't write about food, even though I know Lauren reads my blog and she knows that I read hers and we've had previous contact and DAMN I AM JUST THAT SELF-CONSCIOUS, I need to work on that (really, despite all the eating out I do and all the friends I may appear to have, I am very shy and hyper-aware of how other people perceive me and zomg, you're judging me right now, I can feeeeel it, stop staring at me). Lauren and Jones were awesome to hang out with and as far as I know I didn't freak them out too much. More eating is already in the works! And at the rate I'm blogging you'll read about it 3 months after it happens!!!
- PIZZA!
- Upskirt!
Back at home Tristan and I got a pizza from Sorrento's. If you look at that webpage you'll see some scary-ass reviews. I don't know what those people were eating; our pizza was perfectly fine. We ordered a pizza made "grandma" style, half topped with vegetables and half topped with tomato, mozzarella, basil, garlic and pepper. It was kind of a deep-dish style pizza that required something like 45 minutes (or possibly more time) to make because the dough needed to proof and...what not. I'm not sure exactly by this point (it's been about a month since I ate it, you know), but we were won over when the pizza maker passionately described the process to us. Aside from the dough being a smidge soggier than we preferred, we were very happy with it and ate it all save for one slice. This pizza should've probably fed at least three people. Oops.
- Champagne!
We popped open the free bottle of Champagne that came with my condo (a "welcome" gift, I suppose), which had been sitting in the fridge since my mum bought it. In May. My mum and I don't really drink, ye see. If I didn't think I liked Reisling, I practically loved it compared to Champagne. Hey, at least I tried it.
And then we watched Superbad. What a glorious movie.
And then the next day Tristan went back to Virginia. How gloriously sad.
Addresses
Economy Candy
108 Rivington St, New York, NY 10002
Prune
54 E 1st St, New York, NY 10003
Sorrento's
100 Triangle Plz, Ramsey, NJ 07446
Posted by roboppy at 11:13 PM
Comments (24)
I actually really like Goetze's caramels but I don't really consider them caramels. There is something about that weird white filling and the floury-caramel that is ADDICTIVE! Can't find them here in Italy, of course :)
Posted by: Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy at February 4, 2008 12:25 AM [#]
Yes, what is it with the medicinal licorice made of something that makes you want to scrub the lining of your mouth after a nibble? The only way I could digest it is when a Swedish friend melted it in vodka (too complicated to explain). The alcohol in the vodka killed the challenging licorice flavor. But I know you're least likely to have vodka so that doesn't help.
I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to see in the second photo of the innards on the floor. But it was a nice contrasting shot of the brown of the shoe and the gravelly stones of the sidewalk.
Posted by: Mila at February 4, 2008 1:27 AM [#]
The s'more kind of reminds me of a moon pie. I like moon pies, except that it's usually very dry and feels like chalky paste in my mouth, causing me to remind myself to never eat it again. I usually do eat it again because I forget. Overall, it has a decent taste.
Now I feel like making Dutch pancakes. I haven't made any in a while and I feel like watching the puffy magic happen in the oven, only to deflate upon plating. It's something I enjoy immensely. And now that I'm thinking of it, maybe it's not a Dutch pancake because it doesn't like like the one in the picture. I like the apple placement on the pancake, it's pretty cool!
Funny that your Dutch pancake doesn't look like a Dutch pancake at all. Anyways I hope for you that it wasn't baked in a Dutch oven :)
How nice of the pizza guys to actually fill the whole pizza box with yummy pizza.
Posted by: G at February 4, 2008 2:40 AM [#]
Julie: Oo, I've had rice milk before and i don't think it tastess like horchata, although you would think...it should? Euh. Let me know how it is!
Yes, it does leave a tongue-scraping sensation. :(
I'm too lazy to even make a regular pancake and I know those barely take any effort. The last time I did it I burned em. ...Still ate them, of course.
Sara: True, if I look at them as something besides caramel, that is, DOUGHY THINGS, then maybe I would appreciate them more. Everyone else like em! :\
Mila: HAHA, I love the idea of killing licorice flavor with another flavor I abhor. Might not work for me...sigh. NO HOPE, no hope whatsoever.
There are some little white blobs next to the tip of my shoe. DEAD...CREAM!!
Christina: I think I've had a moon pie before. Or something like it. But...it was too dry. :( BUT I ATE IT ANYWAY?!
The pancake I had couldn't deflate. It was full of...OF PANCAKE!
G: Maybe it's an American Dutch Pancake of Hugeness! I've also had those super thin giant crepe-like Dutch pancakes. But I prefer the GIANT PILLOW variety.
Haha yes, the pizza fully uses the area of the box. :D
Posted by: roboppy ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.roboppy.net/food/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 4, 2008 3:02 AM [#]
I did thought the Monte Cristo was pretty much screaming at me, "I'm deep fried and fatty! You'll DIE from eating me!" But after post-ingesting, it's a similar thought that you had - it ain't that bad in terms of the body (except gain another layer of lipids) and it is a tad more than I would fork over. But at least you got to experience the legendary Prune brunch! :)
I love Goetz's caramel creams.. you are my soul mate! :)
Posted by: SawSaw at February 4, 2008 7:59 AM [#]
Steamed almond milk reminds me of almond tea I got in KL, almond powder that you mix w hot water. Not mild at all, strong flavour (but maybe I mixed it strong?) Anyhooo I like it.
As far as ze Dutch batter-products go, poffertjes I think are most luverly.
Robyn, I have come to the conclusion that Goetze's caramel creams are in fact a very wierd form of caramel, and never creamy. They have been exactly as you describe them every time I've ever had them since 1973. That is all the product research I care to put in on these caramels.
Posted by: Anniesnyeats at February 4, 2008 11:09 AM [#]
The s'more cookie reminded me a little of an alfajor, a cookie-confection popular in Argentina, although judging from your picture and description, I'll be sticking to alfajores...two "Maria" cookies [a plain biscuit-type cookie] sandwiched together with dulce de leche, and then dipped in dark chocolate. Sometimes it's rolled in shredded coconut. Yummy, yummy, yummy, especially with a nice hot yerba mate!
Posted by: Liz at February 4, 2008 11:31 AM [#]
the goetze's cream filling is so weird and chalky. but in a totally good way. the way stale marshmallows are delicious BECAUSE they are stale.
you shouldn't have felt self-conscious about meeting us! even if one of the first things i said was, "oh. you are short!"
"oozing out between the graham crackers like a popped pustule"
And now I'll never be able to eat s'mores again without wanting to vomit a little.
I do really want to try almond milk, though. Sometimes I really crave something extra mild. So mild I feel like I'm not drinking anything.
Posted by: jessica yen at February 4, 2008 3:40 PM [#]
Tina: Yup, I have gotten the Prune brunch out of the way. I will never have to wait an hour for that again!
SawSaw: Oh no, I actually didn't like the caramels! :[ Don't hate me!
Anne: That almond tea sounds good! I wannnt.
I've never had poffertjes before but they look awesome. TINY PANCAKES YESSS!!
Annie: Perhaps it's an acquired taste. ...LIKE ALCOHOL!
Liz: Oh, I've seen those before! But have never eaten one. :( It's on my list. My housemate in Paris attempted to make em once but they came out wrong. Doh.
Graeme: EGG PORN!
...And with that comment I've probably been banned from a handful more workplaces. (But there's no other way to say it. EGG PORN!)
Lauren: Oh, I've eaten stale marshmallows! Out of desperation. But they are tasty.
Ahh yeah, I gotta work on that self-conscious problem of mine. :( WE ARE BOTH SHORT, WEE!!!
Janet: I didn't eat much chocopie as a kid! I mean, I think I've only eaten it...once or twice in my life. It's tasty though. Not as dry as that caramel I had, hehe.
KETCHUP SANDWICH? EXPLAIN YOURSELF!!
Jessica: YES YES, I have fulfilled my purpose in life!
Water is pretty mild, or so I've heard.
Posted by: roboppy at February 4, 2008 6:48 PM [#]
"How gloriously sad."
for some reason that line had me at hello. I cannot say WHY though.
it took me a while to decipher the sandwich on the monte cristo plate. For a long time I thought they were big burnt steak bones...
Posted by: dana at February 4, 2008 7:07 PM [#]
That pancake does look like one huge-ass poffertje.
Why would one eat licorice after a meal? I'd be too tired after chewing all evening to CHEW SOME MORE! I just wanna suck on a nice refreshing mint, thank you very much.
Posted by: Mikey at February 5, 2008 4:17 AM [#]
Have you ever tried Almond Breeze sweetened vanilla almond milk? My tummy can't handle real milk and I'm sadly allergice to soymilk, so that's all I drink. It's pretty good. You should try it in tea or with cereal. I like it better than rice milk because it isn't very heavy.
I tried those caramel things once, but didn't think they were all that special. The cream part pretty much dissolved the second it hit my tongue, so you're not really missing out on much, haha.
Dana: I need to use "gloriously sad" more often.
Yeah, the sandwich does look a little funny when it's shadowed like that. Waah.
Molly: DAMN I thought the same thing! I love the British candy bars too.
Mikey: Yup, sucking on a mint would be nicer. Cleanse the palate. Licorice tastes as good as...uh...you'd expect a black candy to taste.
Christine: I've never tried that before, but I'll look out for it!
Maybe the candy is something you have to eat as a kid to like? :\ I'LL NEVER KNOW!!
Posted by: roboppy at February 5, 2008 10:43 PM [#]
I didn't know that licorice was a Scandinavian thing! I guess that's because I live in Sweden, so they've always been around. I like them though, but those coins are IMPOSSIBLE to chew.
And now I've got a huge craving for Goetze's Caramels. Sadly, I don't think I can find them here.
Loved this post by the way!
Posted by: Maja at February 6, 2008 10:14 AM [#]
Maja: I had never seen so much licorice stuff in my life until I went to Norway. Also when I went to Dutch store in Connecticut, but mostly Norway. SALTED LICORICE. LICORICE GUM. AHHH.
I'm glad you liked this post so much! NOW I HAVE EXPECTATIONS TO LIVE UP TO!!!
Posted by: roboppy at February 7, 2008 12:05 PM [#]
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: This is the 
I actually tried to buy almond milk today, but the grocery store had only soy and rice milks. I bought the rice milk and hope it tastes like horchata.
I really dislike the taste of black licorice, too. It's one of those "I need to scrape my tongue and plaster it with something yummy like pastry cream" kinda tastes.
Every time I see Dutch apple pancakes, I want to try one, but I've yet to make it. Yet again, I want, but am too tired and lazy to make ... thank goodness for blogs that I can eat vicariously through.
Posted by: Julie at February 3, 2008 11:52 PM [#]