Breakfast Club at Buvette

In case there was any doubt, I absolutely love Buvette. Love, love it. 

Breakfast is usually a good time to go. No crowds. Inspiration everywhere you look. 

And the food...

Amazingly delicious and decadent scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on country grilled bread, oozing butter. (And look at the size of that caper!)

Et voila... Nutella crepes for breakfast.

Pourquoi pas??

Heaven is a Nutella crepe

It doesn't start with much at all.

Just a little nondescript batter...

...that quickly heats to a golden brown.

Then... the Nutella.

Beautiful, beautiful Nutella.

Folded once,

folded, twice.

Sigh.

Savoring each bite, until those final few uber rich and melty mouthfuls.

Heaven is a Nutella crepe.

Cupcakes from Brussels

Maybe the world needs to take its cupcake cues from Brussels?

Have you ever seen such beautiful confections?

Or witnessed such creative concoctions?


Lilicup's Stracciatella: vanilla cake with vanilla icing, hiding a chocolate ganache center, as teased by the shards of chocolate shavings…

Lovely carrot cake, and simple vanilla.


Naturally, I got Le Parrain. It had me at “Nutella.”

But the creamy vanilla frosting and chocolaty rice krispie topping sealed the deal.

I can tell you very few cupcakes from New York or Paris stack up…

The chocolate was awesome, but I dream about these cupcakes.

My top 10 all-time favorite sweets in Paris

Though, I think you’d agree, this is an unfair list. An impossible task. There is no limit to the to-die-for deliciousness on every block in Paris. To try to select only 10 is a cruel challenge. But if I had to choose… 10 sweets I wouldn’t want anyone to miss… I would start with:

• A good, ole piping-hot oozing Nutella and banana street crepe.

• La Folie at La Patisserie des Reves: The heft and texture are pure magic. The doughy, whipped brioche is piped full of vanilla pastry cream that has a hint of rum raisin. Topped with praliné crumble and a touch of confectioner’s sugar. Unbelievable.

• The obscenely addictive Praluline from Pralus. Buttery, chewy, crunchy, sweet but a titch savory, caramelized—what doesn’t this beauty have?

• The sweet little strawberry Coeur from Coquelicot. Relatively modest in size—just 4-5 bites—it’s also sweet and fruity and has a pitch-perfect texture that’s both spongy and moist.

• A chocolate éclair from Stohrer. The crisp pastry shell envelopes an uber generous chocolaty custard filling and is slapped with a sweet chocolate glacage. It’s a serious sugar rush in the best way.

• Angelina’s stick-to-your-ribs chocolat chaud. It’s like sipping melted truffles. In a tearoom that Coco Chanel used to frequent.

• Speaking of truffles, Jean-Paul Hevin’s truffles are le mieux. And his mendiants. And his cakes. Hevin = heaven.

• The rice pudding at Chez l’Ami Jean. I never would have thought I’d care a lick about rice pudding. Last year’s dinner at Café Constant made me reconsider. And a later dinner at Chez l’Ami Jean changed everything. Served in a massive bowl with sides of candied granola and salted caramel cream, this is an unforgettable dessert.

• The Plenitude Individuel from Pierre Hermé. While his macarons are, oui, divine, this little cake is transporting. Fluffy chocolate mousse under a dark chocolate shell. Kissed by salted caramel. Adorned with tiles of more chocolate. It’s gorgeous, exquisite and delicious.

• The almond croissant from Boulangerie Julian. When Bennie and I split this, we were giggling in the middle of rue Saint-Honoré. Fresh and flaky, slightly chewy and caramelized at the edges, heavy with almond paste and lightly dusted with powdered sugar and slivered almond. I mean, how can something taste so good??

One bite, and I was in love

Cowgirl’s Baking is only one-week-old, but it’s already one of my favorite bakeries.

With flavors like Rocky Road—chocolate chocolate-chip cake with marshmallow filling, caramel frosting and chocolate-caramel drizzles—and Tres Leches, vanilla cake soaked in vanilla bean creme anglaise with dulce de leche and vanilla frosting, well…I was pretty certain without even ordering that I was going to love this place.

I wasn’t sure what flavor to get. The Coffee & Donuts, a vanilla cupcake soaked in coffee, topped not only with coffee frosting but also a mini doughnut?

The Midnight, a chocolate chocolate chip cake with chocolate frosting? Or the aptly named Heaven: vanilla on vanilla with rainbow sprinkles?


After my Nutella-banana French toast at the Brindle Room, I was pretty sure I shouldn’t be getting anything.

(At least I didn’t also have a doughnut at the Brindle Room.)

But I figured it was too auspicious that Cowgirl was just a few doors down from the scene of my gluttonous breakfast. I knew my day wouldn’t be complete without sampling something.

So I ordered the Chocolate French Toast cupcake.

Where to begin? Creamy frosting with a cinnamon-spicy kick. Uber rich chocolate cake, flecked with chocolate chips. It was moist. Delicious. Pitch-perfect.

It wasn't just a fluke, was it? Would a different flavor also send me over the moon? In a word, yeessssss.

I can’t even describe to you how delicious the Peanut Butter Bomb is.
Chocolate chocolate chip cake with peanut butter frosting.


Oh yeah. All of these are VEGAN. Which makes me think that maybe everyone in Manhattan should start baking vegan?

With cookies, doughnuts, tarts and other pastries on the Cowgirl menu, just blocks from home, I am in trouble. I am in heaven—but I am in trouble.

Spot on cupcakes and dessert

I flew 3600 miles for one of Pichet’s cupcakes. And was richly rewarded with cheesecake, chocolate ganache and semifreddo.

I was crushed when Batch and p*ong closed. Crushed. My favorite cupcake in the world, the carrot salted caramel cupcake, gone. Ovaltine, lychee and huckleberry surprises on the dessert menu, no more.

But say hallelujah. Pichet opened a new dessert bar in the East Village, Spot, and I was so happy to catch him there when I was home in New York.

I dragged Bennie along with me; my perfect partner in crime. As soon as we sunk our teeth into the cupcakes, he said, “Forget the flavors—the cupcake itself is so much better than a Magnolia cupcake.”
Of course he’s right. We sampled the mocha maldon salt caramel and the vanilla caramel Vietnamese coffee cupcakes (along with the coconut macaroon nutella almond bar, just for kicks. Anything with Nutella is a must-try).


The cake was so moist, the flavors were potent and the frosting was super generous. Pichet’s cupcakes never disappoint.

But he wouldn’t let it rest there; he sent out other goodies to try.

The soft cheesecake, elegantly spilling out of a highball, with huckleberry compote, crushed walnuts and lemon foam.


The white miso semifreddo, a surprising, sweet-savory plate of moist cake, flavorful olive oil, raspberry sorbet and almonds.

And lastly, the uber rich chocolate ganache cake, served with green tea ice cream, crackly caramel crunches and Pichet’s patented malted chocolate (also on the cupcake) bits.

Maybe I’ll have to fly back again for the imminent opening of Village Tart.

There are many beautiful things in Paris

The making (and obliteration) of a Nutella street crepe is just one of them.