Little Buddy Biscuit Company

The Apple just turned four in August, and I think that's the amount of times I've accepted free gifts and promised to write about them.

The first was Snapple's equivalent to Vitamin Water. I think the overall consensus was, in the words of The New York Times' new restaurant critic Sam Sifton, "meh." Next up were several boxes of Lipton PureLeaf Iced Teas. I even helped Lipton host an event which was fun, though it didn't launch me into blogging stardom.

About a month ago I received a bag of goodies from Duane Reade's new line of DR delish snacks which I have managed to share with the entire third floor newsroom. Two (times 10) thumbs up for Duane Reade! I believe one coworker exclaimed, "Wow! This s*** is good!"

Last, but not least, I recently received an e-mail asking if I'd like some samples from the Little Buddy Biscuit Company in Brooklyn. Are you serious?! I had low hopes for this delivery -- I half expected to get a box of Keebler Sandies in the mail. I thought it was a great big hoax. No legitimate bakery or restaurant has ever sent me samples to date.

I was sitting at my desk when the phone rang and I could see "SECURITY" pop up on the screen. This meant one of two things: I was being stalked by some reader who didn't like my article about Michael Phelps, I was receiving a J. Crew wear package from mom or a surprise from the Little Buddy Biscuit Company. Thank god for surprises!

I ran upstairs in a flash (or rather I took the elevator jumping up and down and pressing the "close doors" button like a lunatic). I was so excited to share my booty with my co-workers.

"What'd you get?" Desk chairs were swiveling and heads kept popping up over the dividers.

I didn't respond and began furiously foraging for a pair of scissors to cut the ribbon off this adorable pink box that sat in front of me. I felt like Alice in Wonderland.

"I rec-fjsdflkj cook-sf;ljdl from Brook-fklsdjf!"

"Huh?"

"Cookies?"

"Did someone say cookies?"

My coworkers are worse than sharks in a feeding frenzy. Anytime anyone opens anything that crinkles and could be food the world stops, news stops and we go into attack mode.


"Wait. One. Second!" MomoManiac's hands were already messing up the bounty.

"You can't take an ENTIRE cookie. You have to take a piece and pass it around. I need to taste everyone of them," I said.

"But what is this for?!"

I then go on to explain that I'm kind of not a big deal, but once in a blue moon I get a package from a foodie who wants me to try his or her product.

Meanwhile I dug into the peanut butter chip one. I was worried when I saw them wrapped in plastic. I assumed they'd be crispy pieces of bark. Instead I bit into a moist, luscious, chewy cookie and my heart melted.

"WOW!" "MMMM!" "WOW!" "MMMMMM!" erupted from my neighbors.

Come on, @Nedpotterabc. I know you have a sweet tooth. Bite off a piece of this cookie chunk.

I barely had time to check off which one I was eating from the trusty paper they left me inside. I had about eight different kinds in front of me to try: from macadamia nut and peanut butter chocolate chunk to oatmeal and ginger cookies.

The box included the following: chocolate chunk, molasses spice with crystallized ginger chunks, double chocolate almond cherry, orange cardamom cocount with currants and macadamia nuts, peanut peanut butter with chocolate chunks (not a typo peanut times TWO), and deep chocolate chunk with ground chile and spice.

"Am I tasting some sort of Mexican spice in here?!" Somebody whined with a mouthful.

"Yes E-, that is correct."

Holy moly. If you live in Brooklyn you must must MUST get to Little Buddy's. They were some of the best store-bought cookies I've ever tasted. And the plastic coverings kept them fresh and chewy for a solid week. The chef and owner may as well have been making them in ovens in the control rooms behind my desk. They were so fresh and delicious I can't wait to order a box, or better yet, journey out to Brooklyn so I can meet the owner face to face and thank him for a special post-Yankees win treat.

635 5th Avenue, bt 17th & 18th Sts, Brooklyn
(718) 369-6355

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Au Pied de Cochon

I rarely post other people's reviews on my Site for fear of Mona's Apple turning into Yelp or Chowhound. Yet when I hear a great story about dining out, and think others could benefit from reading it, I encourage friends to send me reviews. They understand I will edit and I will probably take months to post their words, but in the end their experience will add a little bit of diversity and color to the Apple. SirDatesALot, Fashionista, JB, BYOWino and TheDude have all contributed their five cents' worth on dining spots. I have spent a large amount of time with each of them and know they have impeccable taste. Without further ado, here's a postcard from TheDude from Montreal.

TheDude writes:

A few months ago my boss got back from Montreal and spoke of a restaurant that sounded so perfect, I planned a surprise trip for my fiancé and I to go and see for ourselves. Having gone to school in upstate New York, Montreal was a place she used to visit for her and her friends’ birthdays before they turned 21. What can I say? The girl loves Super Sex.

We arrived at Au Pied De Cochon a little bit before our reservation. I knew it was going to be popular, but the place was jammed like I’ve never seen. The space between their interior and exterior door -- that should probably fit four people waiting for a table -- kept about 12 people dry from the rain. I hoped these were hopeful diners without reservations, because I wasn’t looking forward to joining them. I squeezed my way through to the hostess.

“Name?”

“Bond."

No, just kidding, “Raymond..?”

“One moment.”

And just as quickly as she came, she was gone. She returned about eight seconds later and lead us directly to our table.

The restaurant's decor was not at all what we had expected. We expected white table clothes, candlelight and background sound representative of the rustle and bustle of a steakhouse combined with some unpretentious refinement. What we got was very casual, bare hardwood tables, busy servers and a hot kitchen open to the restaurant. It put Momofuku (all of them) to shame. I’m sorry, it did, and I truly LOVE Momofuku (all of them). There was quiet Euro lounge music in the background, everything from mild rocker to somewhat electronic groove, just light enough to hear under the voices of extremely happy diners. There wasn't a single sad face in the place. In the bathroom, a television set played a video on loop. The portion I was lucky enough to see documented l’arrivee du thon (the arrival of the tuna). It showed four or five manly Quebecois unloading a fish the size of a… 300 pound fish and carting it away into the resto. Amazing…


Back to dinner.

The menu was fantastic for a true appreciator of meat. So many options, but so little in the description of each. It was like we knew what everything was, but didn’t know what anything was. There were eight preparations of foie gras in a section of the menu titled “Foie Gras”! Heaven! Questions, questions, questions. Where is our waiter? Ah... the maitre d’ notices my look of despair and quickly approaches.

“How is everything tonight?”

“Everything is great, however, we are overwhelmed with excitement. We have so many questions and we’re not sure who our waiter is.”

“Well then, I will answer your questions,” said Gail (our evening’s heroine).

What is this? What is that? What are your favorites?

“Well, something very special... today we were brought a 300-pound thon from that man at the bar right there.”

Enter a man wearing a “Pied de Cochon” hockey jersey signed by each staff member in the restaurant happily drinking and chatting away at the bar with the head chef, Martin Picard (our evening’s hero, no, sadly this time it is not me…).

“The thon was caught just yesterday and it was brought directly to the restaurant. It is very, very fresh and we are trying some special things with it. One option is to have it as a tuna steak, just lightly seared, or you can have it as a tartar, both are fantastic.”

My fiancé and I would have been happy to have had a seared tuna steak from a tuna that fresh, but we had traveled all this way to see the amazing things this man does with meats.

“We’ll have the tartar.”

“Excellent. My favorite item on the menu is the Plogue a Champlain.” (one of the eight preparations of foie)

We were having difficulty deciding which foie gras we wanted so this made life much easier.

“We’ll have one of those then! I think we also wanted to have the lange de bison a l’estragon (bison tongue -- a very random choice of my fiancé's that I was very excited about) and the Pied De Cochon farci au foie gras.”

“No.”

“Wha..?”

“It is too much.”

“But it’s just four things! We wanted to get so much more!”

“Have you seen the portions!? Wait here.”

I don’t know where we would have gone to, we were seated at our table. Gail returns with a platter, about one foot by two feet with the entire leg of a pig stitched up with something stuffed inside (she described the stuffing and preparation, I wish I remembered, but alas, I forgot) and a huge piece of seared foie gras resting right on top! She disappeared again. She returns empty handed, but my stupid expression of shock is still all over my face.

“Get the Duck In A Can, it’s fantastic. Come back in the winter when it’s very cold outside and get the Cochon.”

The Duck In A Can is what my boss raved about when he returned earlier in the year. It sounded like a good recommendation, because I had no idea what to expect. N- looked at me in a way that said, “I trust these people.”

“We’ll have the Duck In A Can.” With that we order a fantastic bottle of wine that had the words "Premier Cru" in it. Cheers!

First, bison tongue and tuna sashimi. The bison tongue was amazing. It was very succulent, tender, not overly rich as tongue can be. It was great. The sashimi wasn't at all what we expected. It came in a giant stuffed sushi-style hand roll cone with rice and seaweed. The tuna was cut into cubes and topped with a quail egg and caviar with duck fat French fries tucked down the side. It was upright in a stand and wrapped in heavy butcher paper to make it badass (a nice touch). N- and I fought at length over it, grabbing it back and forth, screaming "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" We bit at it simultaneously while it was pulled in four directions by all hands at the table until it was gone like Keyser Soze.

Next was the seared foie gras. Oh my god. I have to say on behalf of both of us, it was the best foie gras either of us have ever had, and we’ve had a lot of it, at some of the nicest restaurants all around the word. Foie is a favorite of both of ours. It’s almost sexual and I don’t care what PETA has to say about it. We’re with you David Chang. I never remember exactly how anything was prepared the day after I eat it, but I can say that it was lightly seared, placed delicately on a buckwheat pancake, topped with shredded potato, bacon and cheese (but the hard cheese that you’d find on the bottom of a fondue pot, I don’t know how they did it). Finally, it’s drizzled with maple syrup. I was shocked by the syrup, but it’s amazing. No joke. Go get some.

I don’t do it justice:



Once finished, we sipped wine and told each other how lucky we are and how much we love each other, we had a cigarette and eagerly anticipated the final dish to come. Duck In A Can, it’s here, and it’s… a can? The waiter comes with an over-sized soup can wrapped in a homemade label, “Canard en Conserve,” with the Pied de Cochon pig dancing on it.

Please watch this movie.

In the can was a breast of succulent duck in a stew-like cabbage broth (what you saw drizzled all over the bread in the clip), and oh yeah, another chunk of foie gras! They blew us away again. The best way I could describe our experience at this restaurant is to say that it was like being a child trying so many things for the first time. Au Pied de Cochon turned delicacies into beautifully crafted comfort food. What I also loved was that it made each dish local, adding maple syrup to the foie made my evening.

For dessert we had the pouding chomeur, which isn’t really a pudding as much as it is a piece of soft white cake with crème, maple syrup, and cheese in a ramekin that you’d normally see used for French onion soup. It was amazing as well. Sweet and savory.

Gail came back to our table and saw we were extremely happy. She told us we need to come back at the end of March when their Cabane a Sucre reopens for the Sugar Season in Quebec. Wondering where we should stay I asked, “Is there a cute little boutique hotel or a bed and breakfast nearby where we should stay!?”

“NO! You come and stay in a motel, get a real sense for Quebec!”

I can’t wait.

Neither can Mona. Thanks, TheDude!

APDC info:
514.281.1114
536 Duluth Est, Montréal
aupieddecochon@qc.aira.com

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Where to Watch the Yankees Tonight in New York

I'm so nervous, I can barely think. I'm so jittery, I can barely write. I'm so excited, I can barely talk. Must be the Yankees!

For the past five games of this very special World Series, I have watched the hits and steals from the comfort of my warm couch, flannel blanket, glass of wine and over-sized pillow. Cliff Lee's nine-inning pitching marathon stunned me, Chase Utley's home runs irked me, Johnny Damon earned his stripes and my jersey's namesake Hideki Matsui hit a home run in game two that made us Yanks fans and all of Japan proud.

In the end, my strategy worked. I am trying to save money and couldn't afford to go out for every single game. I wanted to save going out for when it got down to the wire. And tonight we are there. As I reached out to a few friends to see if they were interested in joining me for game 6, I started looking up sports bars with World Series specials. The results? "Your search did not match any documents."

Are you kidding me? Nothing on New York Mag. Yelp had a useless strand that only offered Blondies as an option. I thought Urban Daddy would come to my rescue, but when I called their recently-praised, new sports bar The Ainsworth they weren't having any World Series specials. Gotta love team spirit!

I've compiled my own list of a few favorite sports bars if you're organizing a late Yankees rally for tonight.

The Village Tavern - Whether it's college football or March Madness, there's always a rowdy crew at VT. It's a solid spot if you don't mind standing to watch the games. The best thing about VT is Daddy-O's across the street. VT doesn't serve food so you can order in pizza or go get the best darn sandwich in the world with tater tots from Daddy-O's.

Bleecker Heights Tavern - It's small, though never crowded and it has big TVs. Head into Five Guys and follow the chalkboard directing you up the stairs. BHT has friendly bartenders and seats and tables surrounding the bar area.

The Australian - This is hands down my favorite spot above all. You can't beat the openness, number of TVs and huge long bar with plenty of spots to plop down right in front of your favorite team. The bartenders always throw in shots when the local teams do well. They even have a signature World Series shot "The Bronx Bomber."

The Bravest - I will always have a soft spot for this little dumpy dive in Murray Hill. They have greasy food and New York pride that's hard to beat anywhere in the city.

Phebe's - This is kind of like your non-sports bar sports bar. It boasts a huge open area for piling in lots of standing room for fans, tons of tables if you want to eat and a couple of big TVs above the bar. This spot is best for big groups.

Bar 108 - I laughed when my friend told me he was going here because their tagline is: "A sports bar for those who appreciate a good Pinot." Not really feeling a glass of Pinot when I'm watching sports, but hey, there's something for everyone on this list. And their Web site is pretty cool.

George Keeley's - For those Upper Westers, GK has great beers and great burgers to boot.

123 Burger Shot Beer is where I'm headed tonight. It doesn't really get better than this. $1 for a great sloppy slider, $2 for shots and you guessed it, $3 for beer that's not Schlitz. For a girl on a tight budget? Sign me up, please. And the owner's a riot. He will try to hook you up with anything and everything in the bar.

Warren 77 is a newly discovered favorite and the food is tremendous. My only concern going there on a night like tonight is it is small and if you're claustrophobic and need your room for screaming and throwing your arms up in the air, you may get a few raised eyebrows.

For a little swankier vibe, The Blue Seats is a Lower East Side hot spot. The private room upstairs is hard to beat, though you probably have to reserve it months in advance. The cool thing about this place is no matter what booth you're sitting at downstairs, there's a TV not three feet from you.

And for the un-creative or the old dog who doesn't like new tricks, there are always the Blondies or Brother Jimmy's options throughout the city. Nothing goes together like buckets of wings and a baseball game.

Got a favorite that's not here? Send it along.

I'm not jinxing tonight's game with cockiness. Anything can happen. If Joe Girardi is the great manager I think he is, though not without his flaws, he reminded the team that the score tonight is 0-0. The defending champions, as we saw on Monday, are not going down without a fight. There were talks of an MVP nod going to A.J. Burnett -- and we all saw what happens when we get ahead of ourselves. The game wasn't lost solely because of Burnett's pitching, however, and tonight's game won't be won or lost with Andy Pettitte. We are the Yankees, not the Yankee. In the words of Herb Brooks, "This is your time." Let's get it done, boys. End this like Mo.

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