Lavender Moon Cupcakery

A new cupcake shop just opened in Old Town and I was there to investigate :D The shop just opened last Friday, according to the owner, so there was little inside besides a simple case holding the cupcakes and a mini fridge with drinks.

I demanded that the owner describe all the cupcakes to me because they were unlabeled, and she did! It was awesome. Then we each picked a cupcake: I got the banana cream pie cupcake: a banana cupcake, with a pudding filling and whipped cream and a caramelized banana on top! He got a Mexican chocolate cupcake! white cake with a cinnamon chocolate pudding filling and a fluffy chocolate frosting on top!

While we were sitting outside, the cupcake lady brought us another!!! She said she wasn't going to sell them all. It made my day! Chocolate lavender: chocolate cake, and chocolate lavender :D

The cupcakes were all moist, the frosting fluffy! If I had to pick a favorite of my cupcakes in the area, I'd say these were the ones because of the moist cakes and lots of frosting (that's light and not too overpowering). Also, they have unique flavors :)

There's a new stop on Tour de Cupcake next year!! Lavender Moon Cupcakery is at 116 South Royal St in Old Town Alexandria. There's no website, but from what I've read they're closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. I would definitely give this place a try :D

Bittersweet Cafe

Bittersweet Cafe, on King St in Old Town Alexandria, has the biggest, greatest, most delicious cupcakes in the area.

My favorite is the spice cupcake with cream cheese frosting. A friend recommended the PB&J cupcake (white cupcake with strawberry filling and peanut butter buttercream).

Their selection seems to be sporadic - every time I go, they have a different selection, so I wouldn't count on your favorite always being there. This weekend, I had a carrot cake cupcake! Mmmm....



I think one of the biggest reasons I like Bittersweet's cupcakes so much is their size. Most cupcakes are too small, but Bittersweet really does it right.




Bittersweet Cafe, 823 King St, Alexandria. Bittersweet Cafe gets my approval. I recommend this place mostly for: cupcakes!! and other baked goods. They seem do a great lunch business too, mostly sandwiches and they have a small by-the-pound salad bar that looks delicious.

Food Vacation in NYC: Day Two

Day two was the food-packed pinnacle of the vacation, we had lots of eating to do! Unfortunately, the weather was bitterly cold, but I can't think of a better way to warm up than eating!

First stop on our list was Ess-a-bagel, for some New York style bagels. It was right around the corner from our hotel, so we wouldn't have to brave the cold for long :) I got a toasted sesame bagel with scallion cream cheese and tomato slices. It was awesome! Hard bagel-y goodness on the outside and soft bagel-y goodness on the inside. I knew they were freshly made 'cause I could see the ovens and the bagels coming out of them :D We also got a slice of chocolate mousse cake....glorious!! After that we were off to MoMA to work up an appetite before heading to Chelsea Market!

Chelsea Market is fantastic. It was an indoor market with lots of stores and restaurants - all food-centric! When we walked in, I immediately saw two bakeries. The first was Eleni's, which had a bunch of cupcakes! We all got one: a chocolate mocha cupcake, a lemon cupcake, and a yellow cupcake with blue frosting. Matt's mouth was as blue as the frosting by the time he was done! The frosting was fluffy and not too rich. Next door was Fat Witch Bakery. I got a Snow Witch (white chocolate brownie)...it was dense and rich and moist, the ideal brownie! At this point, I was in heaven....
We slowed down a bit and decided to explore our options before eating anymore. There was a dairy shop, a seafood shop, an italian grocery store with prepared foods out front, some FOOD NETWORK stuff (its housed in the same building as the market), a kitchen store, a Thai restaurant, and more bakeries!!! This was definitely the highlight of the trip. We were there for 2 or 3 hours looking, pondering what to eat and then finally eating. I highly recommend this stop to anyone planning their own food vacation. We learned (too late) that they offer food tours of Chelsea market. Can you imagine??

After stuffing ourselves, we spent time browsing the city's retail until dinner. It was cold, and all the cupcakes in the world couldn't change the frigid temperatures outside.....

Finally, it was time for Lupa! Lupa is an Italian restaurant owned by Mario Batali (among others). We made reservations a month in advance and our time had finally come. The atmosphere was casual (though not some place I'd show up in a t-shirt) and bustling loud....so when I drop my fork, the entire restaurant won't turn to stare.
We were served some focaccia and olive oil when seated. The entire menu was in Italian with translations of individual words on the back and very cumbersome to read. We ordered thinly sliced prosciutto, bay scallops with lamb (at least the menu says there was lamb...) and linguine with mussels to start. The proscuitto was thinly sliced and served on a board. The fat was buttery. The scallops were scallops (not a seafood person). And the linguine (I skipped the mussels) was clearly superior to any pasta I had eaten before. It was served al dente and had a good bite and the garlic/olive oil sauce did not taste fishy.
We waited a bit til our second course, but then it arrived: I ordered one of the specials: pasta in a pork ragu.There were also unidentified leafy greens in it. The picture is sketchy because we were trying to be discrete (and classy). Matt ordered diablo chicken, a (black) peppery roasted chicken with some roasted squash on the side and Alan had a meatball dish that was served with beef broth with carmelized scallions and garlic, blanched (maybe?) red cabbage, and lots of cannelini beans. The chicken and squash were great! As for the meatballs, I liked it, but Alan didn't....so I had to help him eat it :D The dessert menu was disappointing (no chocolate!) so we skipped out and headed elsewhere.

By the end of the day, we were tired, cranky, cold and stuffed! It was time for some rest before heading home in the morning. The trip had some unexpected hits (ice cream in Chinatown) and unexpected misses (crappy restaurant in ghetto Chinatown), but I obviously still like the idea of a food vacation :D

Food Vacation in NYC: Day One

Most people plan trips around various sights to see and things to do. Meals are planned because they are convenient to the things you want to see. I always wanted to plan a trip around my next meal and fill it in with things to do until my stomach emptied out a bit so I could eat more. That's where the idea of going to New York for a weekend of eating, dining and snacking came from.

On Saturday, we arrived in NYC and immediately headed to Buttercup Bake Shop. I had a red velvet cupcake, my friend had a german chocolate cupcake :) The red velvet cupcake was everything I imagined: fluffy red cake and dense cream cheese frosting....I was in heaven. I wished it was bigger because I immediately wanted another. But, I was holding out for our next stop....Chinatown!

We got lost on the way to Chinatown and ended up stopping at Rice to Riches, a gimmicky shop of about 20 different rice puddings. We got some tiramisu rice pudding and then went to Chinatown looking for some dumplings at The Dumpling House. Four homemade dumplings for a dollar...sounds fantastic! Unfortunately, we cannot follow directions. We wandered around the ghettos of Chinatown for a very long time....

We couldn't find any restaurants. In Chinatown! There weren't any people, either. After a lot of searching, we came across a group of quiet restaurants and settled on something that was similar to a diner in Hong Kong. The menu had a lot of spam, ramen, french fries, and some random Chinese dishes. We ordered fried wontons with sweet and sour sauce, "Portuguese style" pork (this was actually pieces of pork chop served over rice with cream of chicken soup poured on top), and some flavorless noodle soup with mediocre dumplings. It was awful. The saddest panda in the world....



















Five minutes away from the restaurant was the Chinatown we were looking for. At least 100 awesome looking restaurants. People making homemade noodles behind windows. Homemade dumplings. Bustling streets. Bakeries. And The Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. Too bad we had just filled up on sad food. But, there's always room for ice cream :) I got some mango ice cream and it was delicious but very cold.

Day Two: bagels, Chelsea Market and Lupa!