Taste of New York: Momofuku Milk Bar
A trip to America wouldn’t be complete without visiting one of the most famous cities in the world, New York. After much consideration we decided to make the Big Apple the first stop of our American adventure, meaning we would spend our first winter Christmas in one of the most festive places in the world.
I was so excited to visit New York – as a lover of Christmas, musicals, shopping, museums and good food there was a lot to look forward to! Thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed. While the streets were a little grimier than I’d imagined (I don’t know why I thought such a crowded city would be tidy!), New York not only lived up to my expectations but shattered through them.
We were only in the city for six days but managed to pack in everything we wanted to do – Wicked and The Book of Mormon on Broadway; 30 Rockefeller Plaza; Times Square; Natural History Museum; Metropolitian Museum of Art; Central Park; Squirrel tracking; Fifth Avenue; Statue of Liberty; 9/11 Memorial; Les Miserables; Outlet shopping; Radio City Christmas Spectacular… everything!
But one of the things I was really excited to do was visit some of the world’s best bakeries – luckily since food was involved, Kevin was more than happy to come along and taste test while I ogled my way around the stores. The first one – and possibly my favourite – of the two we went to was Momofuku Milk Bar. Founded in 2008 as the bakery/dessert branch of David Chang’s legendary Momofuku restaurant, these bakeries have made quite the name for themselves both in New York and around the world (you might remember reading about it in Viva a few months ago). I’d only heard great things, so couldn’t wait to try it for myself.
After arriving at the Natural History Museum ahead of opening time, we headed into “suburban” New York to visit the Colombus Avenue branch of Momofuku. We loved it straight away – it had a clean, contemporary, relaxed feel to it with plenty of chairs scattered around so we could work our way through our treats without needing to venture back into the cold.
One of the things Iiked was the way they laid out their cabinets – instead of displaying all their stock in the glass cabinets, they had a “display” versions of each item adorned with a name tag. You then ordered what you liked the look of and they grabbed a fresh one for you from large metal fridges behind the counter.
As for the food, it was brilliant. Realising we wouldn’t be visiting again for a long, long time Kevin and I decided the best thing to do was buy one of everything we liked the look of. Which was a lot. At nine in the morning we were sitting down with cookies, pie, milk shakes and croissants… we went a little crazy!
Momofuku is known for their unusual yet amazing flavours, so we ended up with quite the collection of unique treats – blueberry and cream cookies, compost cookies (complete with chocolate and butterscotch chips, ground coffee and rolled oats), cornflake-marshmallow cookies, crack pie (a chilled pie with a sweet, crème brulee-esque taste that was seriously addictive) and, my personal favourite, lemon-poppy seed and cream cheese croissants.
We slowly worked our way through each item, stashing some away for later in the day, exchanging notes as we went. The verdict? Amazing. I fell in love with the crack pie and croissant – the flavour combinations were insanely good and perfectly indulgent without being overwhelming. As for Kevin, he devoured the cookies like they were going out of fashion, throwing me a piece every now and then out of courtesy.
However, there was one thing we weren’t completely sold on – cereal milk milkshakes. I’d read rave reviews about them online so couldn’t wait to try them, but… they weren’t really my cup of tea. Rather than being the sweet, creamy drink I’d read about they had a lumpy, oaty flavour – not the best thing to accompany delicious sweet treats! They were literally made from crushed cereal, so I can totally understand why they tasted how they did, but they were nothing like the reviews I’d read! Neither of us could stomach them, so they ended up being trashed while mostly full. C’est la vie.
If you’re ever in New York, definitely visit one of Momofuku’s stores for a bit of a sugar fix – you won’t regret it!
Kirsten
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PS – The head baker of Momofuku Milk Bar has shared the recipe for Compost Cookies with the Cooking Channel! Check it out here – let me know what you think if you make them.
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