Quick Mention: 12 Corners

 12 Corners

155 E Broadway
New York, NY 10002
Lower East Side

I’m back from the dead!

Ah yes, the lovely incoming warm weather must have brought me back to life. Finally - no more having to tread through inches of snow to get to my destination.

 

Pictured: Relishing the warmth of the sun

 

 What better way to celebrate this amazing weather than by visiting a local coffee shop? Granted, I do wish I had gone when it was still a bit colder, but ordering a hot latte when it was 60 degrees out was definitely worth it, just for the pretty, pretty latte art. 😊☕️

Pictured: Pumpkin Spice Latte

I’m surprised they still sell pumpkin spice lattes in March - I'm gonna guess most coffee joints aren’t going to make it a seasonal flavor like Starbucks.

Of course, coffee is typically accompanied with pastries and the store was not lacking in that department. I noticed the muffins were the exact ones from Blue Sky Bakery - it was actually the sign of the flavor that made me realize this and upon discussion with my friend, yes, they are from Blue Sky Bakery and the other branch has doughnuts from Dough [which I still need to try].

Like most coffee shops, this one had enough seating to accommodate for those that come with their laptops to stay for a couple of hours to study and get work done. I envy those types of people as I was sadly unproductive. Hope I wasn't disruptive to everyone else; I tend to be a loud chatterbox…>___>

Employed with friendly staff, this was a store I'm glad I finally got to try out.

☕️ Happy eating!!! ☕️

Chocolate Muffins Recipe

It's time for another rare recipe post! This one is for all you disbarred lawyers out there who are trying to get your beach bod ready for summer. Or those who are just looking for a delicious choco banalmond muffin recipe.

Let's start with the ingredients.

You'll need the ugliest bananas to mash because those are the best for baking, peanut butter (I usually use almond butter), vinegar, vanilla extract, and a plethora of dry ingredients.

Those dry ingredients would be flour (whole wheat or all-purpose), oats, so we can make oat flour, cocoa powder (or hot cocoa mix for added sweetness), salt and baking soda.

Like I said before, we're going to make oat flour, so whip out your magic bullet and grinding blade, or food processor.

MAGIC.

Of course, mix the goods into one homogenous mixture.

Now, PEANUT BUTTER.

Open it up.

Stick a spoon in it and put it in your mouth.

Measure it in your cool measuring cup that you saw Alton Brown use.

And now, bananas.

MURDER. 

Add ze chocolate peanut butter.

And now add the liquids.

And the dry goods. If you want, you can add chocolate chips like I did for extra goodness.

Scoop the batter into your silicone liners using your handy dandy ice-cream scoop disher.

If you're feeling roasted banana, slice up a banana and put it on the top, before baking of course.

Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes. Also, remember to preheat your oven before hand.

OMG puffy hot chocolate goodness.

Close up shots.

Enjoy!!

Recipe:

"Chocolate Banalmond Muffins" adapted from this recipe.

Makes 12 regular sized muffins.

-1 1/2 cup of flour. (I used a mix of AP and oat flour; use what you want)

-1 cup mashed banana.

-1/3 cup cocoa powder

-1 tsp salt

-1 tsp baking soda

-1 tsp vanilla

-1 tbsp vinegar

-1/2 cup peanut butter or almond butter

May need some water if batter is too thick (depends on moisture in bananas)

Optional: chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Grind oats if needed. Mix ingredients together.

3. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Perform toothpick test.

4. Let cool. EAT.

February in New York

It's time for another "let's see what kitty did recently" post! 

I thoroughly enjoyed my mid-winter vacation break a few weeks back, but if you're not a teacher or a student, you most likely didn't have a vacation that week. I, however, relished every second of it, and accomplished the task of going to new food places.

On Thursday before break, this monstrosity happened.

And I went to school. Yippee. Not relevant to food, but I thought I would share. We can talk about how terrible that terrible experience if you had to go out that day too.

Also a little irrelevant, but on Friday I went to the Samsung Galaxy Studio with my friends, and the employees were so nice ;v; I made myself a Benedict Cumberbatch compact, and got some food items. Above is a spinach and feta pastry, and a juice (that I can't remember the name of, but it had ginger and it was interesting. Sweet greens, a green juice, was good too.).

Later that day, my group and I stopped by The Tea Shoppe so my friend (hi Kaity) could pick up some tea leaves for her friend. 

So many tea options!

After we got the goods, we went to:

Woah fancy crêpes.

Here are all the crêpes my posse and I got. Not going to go too into details because I might make a separate post about it. They were delish.

Some other day, I went to Umami Burger. Again, not going to go too into detail because this also might be an upcoming post.

And after that, I wanted to knock another place off my list, so we went to Mille-Feuille bakery. Their almond chocolate croissants are popular, so I wanted in on the goodness.

Quick aside, but not really because it's what I did over the break. So I've been replaying the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series, and I can't even. Do any of you play it? If you don't, you should.

Back to that day. Afterwards, we headed to the Samsung Galaxy Studio again. This was the cosmetic bag that I customized, and this also shows how that (gay) lawyer game has taken over my life.

Another cool thing this studio has is it its 3D printer.

Right by the studio is the Chobani Store! Once again, I might have a separate review on this. This blueberry walnut yogurt was very good (even if you can't see it).

They handed out this bracelet too! I always forgot to wear it though :(

And now for some random food bits.

Have you tried these new Chips Ahoy cookies? They're pretty good, although I had low expectations for them. If you want an actual review on this, I recommend this blog. Great for junk food reviews.

From my favorite muffin cart, which I've yet to review, a cranberry muffin.

And lastly, I finally found these chips... From months ago. Good thing these have an eternal shelf life. They weren't amazing, and kind of tasted like spicy ketchup chips. I don't think you're missing anything if you didn't find these.

Welp, that wraps it up! Are you looking forward to March? Saint Patrick's Day? Pi Day? Just spring in general? Tell me in the comments what you yearn for! Happy March!!

Van Dam Diner

Van Dam Diner

• 45-55 Van Dam St
• Long Island City, NY 11101
• Sunnyside
• 
  

Although this was my first visit at Van Dam Diner, this was not my first taste of it. My mom works nearby at a jewelry company and would bring back cheesecake for my (and my sisters') birthday. I don't have a picture of it now, but it is quite good (but then again, what cheesecake isn't good?)

Okay, back to the diner. It has that 70s diner feel, with the booth and bar seats and nice waitresses/waiters. If it had been dark and stormy, the scene would have been perfect. 

There were plenty of food options; all of us (Maggie, Saul and I) decided on burgers. 

I decided on the veggie burger. It tasted fine, but there was a lack of lettuce and tomato in the burger. Just bun and patty made it really dry. 

Note about the buns: the sesame seeds are humoungous. And perfectly placed. 

Next burger is Maggie's. I believe it was a Turkey Burger with Swiss Cheese. The burger was fat and juicy and the swiss added a nice flavor.

Saul's burger was just a regular beef burger but with cheese and bacon *gasp*. I am not a fanatic of bacon, so I wasn't overly excited about it. However, I think he liked his burger. 

Finally, we all shared a platter of sweet potato fries which weren't super crispy, not that they usually are or should be. These were one of the better ones that I've had. 

Anyway, that's it for food. If you're stuffed after eating here, you could be like us and walk across 3 neighborhoods after having eaten here.

Also, like I said before, my mom works nearby here. She also has been working on her techy-side, so luckily she's been able to snap a pic of the diner. 

Each season, they paint the outside with the cutest decors :>

Okay, I'm done. Do any of these burgers entice you?

Quick Mention: Mille-Feuille

Mille-Feuille is a super cute bakery that somehow found it's way into my Yelp bookmarks but not my post of places to visit.

They have displays of their delicious pastries...

...a rather large assortment of them. Those macarons are calling my name.

Yelpers seemed to have really liked the Almond Chocolate Croissant, so I decided to trust their word and pick one up.

They were right - it was DELICIOUS. Is it worth $4.50? I want to say yes, only because I don't believe I've had an almond chocolate croissant from anywhere else...so this wouldn't be an accurate opinion. However, it was darn tasty, even if there was a bit too much chocolate for my liking. Chocoholics will be semi-pleased.

Overall, I say try this place if you're wanting to treat yourself to some fancy treats, and get the Almond Chocolate Croissant!!