I met the lovely Leigh Lambert at the last DC Food Blogger Happy Hour , we laughed and talked about anything food and if you can imagine anyone making Brownies sexy, Leigh fits the profile pretty good!

These brownies have a lot of personality my two favorite were the Barista Bar  and Living in Sin.

I don’t drink coffee but I do like it’s flavor on some goodies, and in brownies its probably one of the best! This is how it went:

Me: (opening the box) “Pretty packaging, oh wow these brownies are huge!”

The Boy: (staring at the brownies) “Do I have to share with you?”

Me: (gives him the evil eye) “You know I brought those brownies?!”

The Boy: (takes a deep breathe and finally comes to his senses) “Okey, I’ll bring the milk”

Me: (takes a bite of the Barista Bar) “Ok I can’t tell people anymore I don’t like coffee this is awesome, how the espresso brings out a touch of bitterness in the brownie making me smile”  (Stares at the Boy) “where is the rest of the Espresso brownie?”

If I was going to have either of these brownies I would probably have them with Coffee/whipped cream, almond milk vanilla ice cream, warmed caramel? When trying the Geisha Girl I was craving tasting it with a Spiced Soy Chai Latte!

Visit Naughty Bits brownies on  www.naughtybitsbrownies.com. You can find these goodies also at Society Fair, Zen Tara & Capital City Cheesecake!

“The brownie you can take home to mom, or take home to bed.” Our deliciously bad creations are hand-made in small batches using fresh, natural ingredients. They are individually wrapped in bio-degradable cello and boxed in sets of six. Pick your passion.” 

Leigh Lambert

Dolcezza (Georgetown)

It’s been a while since my last post, ditto, too much procrastinating and way too many excuses, bottom line I’m back.

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The Burger Joint, I tried in the past, not crazy about their fries, shakes are all right (i’m very picky so I recommend just keep it simple with ice cream, no syrups).  My burger has been usually dry but the past 2 times I visited it was phenomenal, I asked for medium and sweet potato fries, delicious! I highly recommend this place, if you still need some sugar rush try either their shakes or be an oldie like me and wash it down w/ a Crush!

Dolcezza, I’m a huge fan of honey-avocado-orange sorbet, not crazy about the hazelnut ice cream but the coconut was certainly a winner.  I miss churros from Manolos in Panama so much, but this place takes care of me when I’m craving them and I’m still not grown up enough to get them from Churreria Madrid, but that’s in my to-do list for my Birthday!

Pete’s New Haven (Clarendon)

Pete’s New Haven Pizza, I admit it when it comes to pizza me and the boy (omg he is such a pizza-snob), and we are big fans of two styles either Neapolitan Style (Pupatella & Two Amys) or greasy NY-Italian style (Italian Store) and Pete’s pizza was good, not great, not tasty neither delicious, it was just “fine” I tried the New England, Vegetarian, Pepperoni and Cheese.  The fact that I can buy pizza by the slice makes the whole difference.. I shall give it a 2nd try an keep you posted. (NOTE for myself: never even give a 2nd try to this place arancini’s I had a bite (I usually finish my meal), I couldn’t, some sort of marinara sauce that tasted bitter and boring, the arancini itself flavourless, funny texture, I would rather have another slice of pizza (taste better and cheaper!).

Buzz Bakery (Ballston)

Just when I thought I was done with pastries, and of course being a cook for Lyon Hall makes me try more often the delicious sweets by Chef Valencia at Northside Social, still I found an excuse to try Buzz (so cute, new, yes I should try it, etc).

Price was I thought it was reasonable, I ordered red velvet cupcake (good) boston cream (i’ll pass next time), turtle brownie (delish).  I also ordered a capuccino, I won’t the next time.

Buzz is lovely, chic, clean, new every single employee will smile and glady explain any item they offer on their menu, I really appreciated that balanced combination of “not pushing you and at the same time willing to answer any questions).  I hate to place it in a only-for-girls spot but it’s so pretty I’m not so sure any of my male friends would go to this bakery (unless of course they were on a date, or they were DCJosie and lovely Andrew!

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Hopefully I will stop thinking about blogging and actually doing it… Just at Churchill said once “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

¡a comer!

While we were in the car we were almost praying “please don’t be like Castro’s Bakery or any of these other bakeries where the dry almost sandy texture and no flavor are king & queen on these pastries” and of course our prayers were in vain, such a shame.

Look at these pictures, you would swear that this is delicious, and trust it does have potential when they are done with love and technique, you know a Tres Leches come on! Or a Vanilla Muffin, or the classic Strawberry Turnover, they also had some sort of Pineapple thick and flaky Palmier that I open at once when I got home, I wonder where did the Pineapple go, but what is worse is that the pastry itself was like a piece of cardboard but light in color and texture, you have a bite and it makes your tongue dry and then greasy, where is the sweetness? flavour?

I am about to give up on Hispanic Bakeries but I will keep looking, and keep trying and spending my little money and hopefully I will find a good one even if i have to dry 50 miles.

On the good side they had a decent Tamarind Juice (better than El Charrito Caminante at least), I wish it had more tamarind and less sugar, but that is a matter of taste and Mom always made it quite strong for us.  Mami makes the best Chicha de Tamarindo in the world, I promise sharing it soon.

Pictures:

I know it looks delish, but it was not, the cream on top tasted rancid and the cake was a some moist but it would seem that they soaked this cake instead of condensed milk in a fat free milk & water solution =(

What seemed like a good a idea, Strawberry turnover, the texture of the pastry itself was ok, not heavy or too greasy, but the strawberry inside tasted worse than the strawberry syrup IHOP serves for their pancakes (yes I have tried IHOP many times), and what is even sadder is that it was really, really dry…

And the Muffin, my favorite Muffin was as dry as a piece of paper =(, it was very heavy, it did have better flavor than Castro’s Bakery one, but was not worthy the drive or calories.

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At least they were pretty cheap, those 4 desserts plus a juice was $14 (I bought a chicken empanada to fry at home, when I opened it I was too disappointed with the cakes already so I just gave up).

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Come on Hispanic Bakeries in Northern Virginia, we want these pastries, but we want them tasty, flaky, sweet and with lots and lots of flavors, for now I won’t give up … for now…

¡a comer!

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