Archive for August, 2010
Four & Twenty Blackbirds: It’s the early bird that gets the pie slice
What else do you do on a Sunday after brunch if you’re a dessert blogger? That’s right, it’s time to find some pie. A friend of mine suggested Four & Twenty Blackbirds, which I had been wanting to check out for awhile. Some of her favorites: pear-apple-rosewater, grapefruit custard (inconceivable!), and Derby pie. She also loves the bread, but who cares? I wanted PIE! F&TB is found on a lonely stretch of 3rd Avenue, in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Its lovely little black and white old-timey storefront is like a desert oasis. A chalkboard sign out front made us panic: peach, salted caramel apple, and apple blackberry were all crossed off, leaving nectarine blueberry and lemon chess. We dashed inside and quickly ordered one of each at $4.50 a slice. No nectarines, by the way, just blueberry:
Now, I have to say that I’m not a big fan of blueberries for much the same reason that I’m not a big fan of raisins– I can’t stand the darn stems that often remain intact in cookies and pies. This slice of blueberry pie was astoundingly good, however. The fruit was vibrantly fresh tasting and not too sweet, and the crust had a lovely raw sugar top that complemented the filling perfectly. And a little dollop of unsweetened whipped cream was just the perfect accompaniment.
I had never had lemon chess pie, so I was very curious. Chess pies are apparently a Southern sugary custard pie made with corn meal. No one seems to know the origin of the name. Perhaps it’s from keeping it in a chest or from saying that it’s “‘jes pie,” as opposed to cake or something. Whatever it is, this slice was quite good, but not as amazing as the blueberry. The lemon flavor was very delicate and it wasn’t overly sweet at all. My only problem with it was that it was a bit soggy, but that was really probably due to the fact that it was 80 degrees in there. I guess they don’t have AC?
While we were eating our spoils, a huge group of tourists/vultures came in and snapped up the rest of the lemon chess pie, and under “PIES:,” the in-store chalkboard soon read “♥ Blueberry.” It was only about 4pm, and they were almost out of everything. But that’s really the way every bakery should be. The fact that they run out of stuff means that their stock is always fresh. Well done, proprietresses Melissa and Emily Elsen, now that my G-train is running all the way to 4th Ave., I’ll be visiting your shop again soon!
Four & Twenty Blackbirds439 3rd Avenue Brooklyn NY 11215
718-499-2917 http://birdsblack.com/
Note: you can’t buy whole pies on the spot– you have to call ahead and place an order with 48 hours’ notice.
Sugarcane Juice: Not as good as it sounds
On a recent 100+ degree day here, I decided to go on a 10 mile walking tour down the length of Bedford Ave. in Brooklyn. Did “Hot times, summer in the city, back of my neck gettin’ dirty and gritty…” run through my head relentlessly all day? Did the search for water or any other refreshingly cold drink occupy the rest of my brain space? Yes to both questions. And so, when my fellow walkers and I stumbled upon a Rastafarian juice place somewhere along the way, we oozed in the door… and were utterly devastated by the total lack of AC. As we stood in our pools of sweat, we saw an interesting sight. The proprietress was busy funneling sugarcane into a juicing device that had a feed hole that looked specifically designed for sugarcane, um, canes. We had to try it!
The juice had a kind of yellowish-green appearance, and tasted of slightly sweet vegetable matter. Not so good. No one in my group could bear to finish the bottle. I wonder how sugar itself is so yummy, then. Also rum. And the billions of other things that are made with sugar. Other countries apparently add ginger, lemon, or mint to their sugarcane juices– that’s a really good idea. The proprietress claimed that this juice would be very good for us on our hike, since it’s similar to an energy drink. She also said it helps with digestion. I did at least find that I had more energy for a bit and I did not notice any stomach demons, so I guess it worked?
William Greenberg Desserts: UES Fanciness
It was after work, I had an annoying errand to run on the Upper East Side, and my blood sugar was low. Â Under the best of times, it is difficult for me to pass a bakery without checking it out. Â But in my state, I caught a glimpse of a decent-looking cookie in a window out of the corner of my eye, and I fell upon the place like a vampire at a hemophiliacs convention. Â
The place was William Greenberg Desserts. Â I was delighted to discover that this was a Jewish specialty bakery, vending such delights as hamantaschen, black and white cookies, and rugelach. Â Still dreadfully missing the hamantaschen from Gertel’s, an amazing Jewish bakery that closed up shop on the LES a few years ago, I figured I’d try three varieties here: cherry, apricot, and poppy seed. Â Now, at most bakeries, when you buy some cookies, they just throw them into a white paper bag, you pay a couple of bucks, and off you go. Â But, I guess since I was on the UES, they had to go the fancy box and store sticker route. Â I got a bad feeling that the $10 bill I had ready would maybe not quite be enough. Â The final bill for three cookies was $10.50 — yeesh. Â And, since I really needed one to eat immediately, the whole box and sticker sitch wasn’t good. Â I managed to wrestle out the cherry one and was surprised by how soft it was. Â It was so soft, in fact, that its own weight on either side of my fingers made it crack in half, and almost $1.75-worth of precious merchandise nearly fell to the ground! Â But my lightning quick dessert-saving reflexes kicked in, and my cookie escaped a wretched fate. Â A passerby who must have witnessed my fumble called out, “Wow! Â You really dodged a bullet with that one!” Â That’s true, dude, I really did.
So, the cherry hamantasch was a-ite.  Kinda “cherry pie filling,” if you know what I mean.  And its cookie portion was actually the only really soft one– the other two were the more traditional (?) “short,” or buttery-crusty kind.  The apricot one was very sour and sort of acrid-tasting.  But the poppy seed was quite good– a nice balance of sweet and bitter.  I’ll probably give WGD another try if I’m in the area.  I think I did the world a disservice by not trying the black and white cookie, so that will have to be remedied.
William Greenberg Desserts1100 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10028-0327
212-744-0304 www.wmgreenbergdesserts.com