The gold Buddha is a specialty of Bond Street Chocolates

Whenever I post this photo of the gold Buddhas from Bond Street Chocolates I always get 100 emails.  There’s a good reason for that – these Buddhas are beautiful, little works of art.   They’re also unique, reasonably priced and you get to feel good about supporting a small NYC chocolate shop.  At $10 for a small and $20 for a large Buddha – you simply can’t miss with these.

See the entire Bond Street “Divine Collection” here.

Bond Street Chocolates is located on 63 East 4th Street.

PS- Don’t forget if you enrolled in Amex’s “Small Business Saturday“promotion – the deadline has been extended to Dec 31st.

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Ze Cafe in Midtown East has super desserts: Crabapple souffle

It’s always nice to receive a birthday dinner invite to a restaurant that I have never been to.  Besides the obvious pleasure of sharing drinks and food with close friends, there’s usually an opportunity to order, taste and solicit opinions about, many different desserts.   The key difference between a typical dinner out with friends and a “birthday dinner” is the license to order lots of desserts–everybody knows you eat desserts with celebrations.  Only a major Debbie-downer declines a dessert order on a birthday. (more…)

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A Dark chocolate Valrhona Mendiant

Valrhona chocolate mendiants:

This gift is twenty dollars worth of class.  It comes inside a particularly nice looking box and you get a few layers of milk and dark chocolate disks embedded with apricot bits, hazelnuts and pistachios.  These aren’t just any chocolate disks, these are made by Valrhona. What does that mean?  It means they’re damn good.

Milk Chocolate mendiant

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Francois Payard Opera Cake

There are really only one or two bakeries in the city where the pastries in a refrigerated case can match a plated restaurant dessert.  Payard is one of them.  Around the holidays when friends come to NYC from out of town and ask me where to get a “really special” dessert the first thing I ask is whether they are willing to let me  base a restaurant choice on that criteria.  If they don’t have that level of dessert commitment, well, I ridicule them.  Then, I pity them.  And finally, I send them to one of the Payard  locations to score a Verrine, George V or Louvre.

The Payard George V Pastry

On Sunday I was on East Houston St., which to me is “in the neighborhood” of Francpis Payard Bakery” which is on West Houston near Sullivan St.   I noticed in the case they now had smaller-than-normal opera cakes for $4.00.  With spongecake, coffee buttercream, dark chocolate slabs, and a smooth dark chocolate layer on top, it was the perfect thing to warm up with on a blustery and cold day.

Francois Payard Raisin scone

Recommended: opera cake

I agree with the recommendations of Kathy at Serious Eats NY who says to save room for the sweets when visiting FPB.

Go here for the Dessertbuzz interview with Francois Payard.

Francois Payard Bakery is located at 116 West Houston Street near Sullivan.  Payard also has a location in the Plaza Hotel set up just for the holidays.

Best of New York City, Francois Payard Bakery (FPB), Payard | 1 Comment »

Jacques Torres dark chocolate covered pumpkin seed brittle

When Jacques Torres isn’t out fishing or thinking about sex he can still come up with great new chocolate-based treats.  The seasonal pumpkin seed brittle is a perfect example.  It’s really quite different from peanut brittle.  It has a more mild flavor and seems slightly less heavy, which means you can eat more (see below). (more…)

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Bouchon Bakery Pain Aux Trois chocolat

Bouchon Bakery’s Pain Aux Trois Chocolat is here and we are all over it with a write up because DessertBuzz is so on the cutting edge of New York City dessert offerings–what? It’s been out for almost a year?  Oh well, better late then never. (more…)

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Gift for the New York chocolate lover, check!

If you know someone who really likes chocolate, (and who doesn’t?) then I have a slam-dunk sure-fire holiday gift idea for you: Professor Chocolate’s Ultimate Guide to Finding Chocolate in New York City.  The book is half Rough Guide, half Zagat’s for chocolate in NYC.  The guide profiles 40 different shops in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn and also features 11 different walking tours which include a little bit of history about each ‘hood.

The gold Buddha is a specialty of Bond Street Chocolates

There’s space within each tour’s pages to make your own notes and ratings–including five blank stars for you to fill in like a coloring book– about the chocolates and other products you try. (more…)

Great Desserts Books, Holiday Gift Guide 2010 | 4 Comments »