Recchiuti Confections

If you've ever been to the Ferry Building, you've probably seen Recchiuti Confections.  It is a chocolate shop, offering up an assortment of truffles, bars, and other treats.  If you are lucky, as you pass by, they'll offer a sample of their chocolate fudge or caramel sauces.  When they ask, "chocolate or caramel?" the correct answer is "yes".  Their goods are also sold all over town.

Their products certainly aren't bad, but they also just aren't that great.  I know some of my friends will seriously disagree with me here, as they love the place.  The chocolate is quality, sourced from E. Guittard, El Rey, and Valrhona.  Their combinations range from really creative, to higher quality takes on classics like Whoppers and York Peppermint Patties.  I always really want to like their stuff, but somehow, it never impresses, certainly not worth the cost.

Truffles

Star Anise & Pink Peppercorn.

“Fragrant star anise and crushed pink peppercorn infused in semi-sweet chocolate ganache. Enrobed in pure milk chocolate and tipped with Venezuelan white chocolate.”

Yup, this tasted like pink peppercorn.  Different for sure, but really just not what I want in my chocolate.

Spring Jasmine Tea.

“Delicate jasmine blossoms and green tea leaves infused in extra-bitter chocolate ganache. Enrobed in pure milk chocolate and marbleized with 65% bittersweet chocolate.”

This one was really interesting. The dark chocolate ganache was creamy and intense, yet it was balanced by a very lovely jasmine flavor. I didn’t taste the green tea, but the jasmine was most certainly present.  Not overbearing.  A very fascinating, successful, combination.

Burnt Caramel.

"Michael Recchiuti’s signature piece. Dark, smoky caramel blended with 70% dark chocolate ganache. Enrobed in our semisweet chocolate."

This is their signature item, but to me, it is just another dark chocolate with caramel ganache.  Nothing stood out in particular - the dark chocolate coating is fine, but not particularly flavorful or bitter.  The filling is smooth, but the burnt caramel flavor is pretty subtle, particularly the “burnt” part.  Would not purchase.  

Update Reviews: [ Again, do not really taste the caramel.  Chocolate is nice and smooth. ] [ Again, unremarkable.  Not bad, not good. ]

Burnt Caramel.

"Michael Recchiuti’s signature piece. Dark, smoky caramel blended with 70% dark chocolate ganache. Enrobed in our semisweet chocolate."

I've had this chocolate many times, as it is their signature piece, and I never quite know how to feel about it.

On one hand, its not a bad piece.  The chocolate shell is really quite smooth, dark, although a touch sweet.

But the filling is never what I expect it to be.  Because the caramel is a dark caramel, and it is blended with the 70% dark chocolate ganache, it is hard to recognize it as what I think of as "caramel".  That doesn't mean it is bad, just, that my brain never quite understands what is going on.  The filling is very, very smooth, it is thick, and it is sweet, but not in a caramel way, if that makes sense.

So it is fine, fairly unique I guess, but I don't find myself wanting more of these.

Burnt Caramel.

"Michael Recchiuti’s signature piece. Dark, smoky caramel blended with 70% dark chocolate ganache. Enrobed in our semisweet chocolate."

I've had this chocolate many times, as it is their signature piece, and I never quite know how to feel about it.

On one hand, its not a bad piece.  The chocolate shell is really quite smooth, dark, although a touch sweet.

But the filling is never what I expect it to be.  Because the caramel is a dark caramel, and it is blended with the 70% dark chocolate ganache, it is hard to recognize it as what I think of as "caramel".  That doesn't mean it is bad, just, that my brain never quite understands what is going on.  The filling is very, very smooth, it is thick, and it is sweet, but not in a caramel way, if that makes sense.

So it is fine, fairly unique I guess, but I don't find myself wanting more of these.

Cacao Nib and Fleur de Sel Mendiant.

"A little salty, a little sweet and a whole lot of crunch and snap! We've reinvented a traditional European confection with our Cacao Nib and Fleur de Sel Mendiants. Our custom semisweet chocolate blend is topped with crunchy caramelized cacao nibs and finished with a touch of fleur de sel."

This is simple piece, but actually my favorite.

Very smooth dark chocolate.  Touch of crunch from the nibs on top.  Hint of sea salt to amp it up.

Simple, classic, but well executed.

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• Honeycomb Malt: “Organic barley malt infusion, blended in a white chocolate ganache and highlighted with the sweet smokiness of house-made honeycomb. “ Tasting notes: The white chocolate was not too sweet at all (often a problem with white chocolates, they tend to just be sweet and have nothing more to them).  The honeycomb was a good flavor and left a very enjoyable honey flavored sweet aftertaste.  I wouldn’t purchase this, but it was good for what it was.
• Lemon Verbena: “Fresh lemon verbena infusion blended in extra-bitter chocolate ganache. Enrobed in pure bittersweet chocolate.”  Tasting notes: The chocolate was decently dark, but I didn’t taste the lemon verbena infusion.
• Force Noir: “Silky 70% extra-bitter chocolate ganache infused with whole vanilla bean. Enrobed in pure bittersweet chocolate.”  Tasting notes: Very creamy filling, quite good.

Bars

• Semisweet: Tasting notes: just dark chocolate, nothing standout.

Fruits

Key Lime Pear.

"Delicately tart Key lime juice kisses each pear crisp bathed in smooth, dark chocolate."

I didn't really taste the lime in here.  The pear was super thinly sliced, and I loved the crunch.  High quality dark chocolate.  I liked this quite a bit and easily polished off the box.

Candied Orange Peel.

"Fresh orange peel is candied in-house and painstakingly cut by hand before being enrobed in smooth semisweet chocolate."

Unlike the limes, this had a very strong orange flavor.  It was also soft, rather than crispy.  I think would pair beautifully with a glass of scotch!

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Chocolate Covered Dried Cherry

"Dried Michigan tart cherries drenched in dark chocolate with a light dusting of cocoa powder. "

Very flavorful tart cherry inside.  Good quality bitter dark chocolate.  Both the cherry and chocolate flavors come through really nicely, neither overpowers, really good ratio of chocolate/fruit. Yum yum yum!

My favorite of their pieces.

Snacks

• Malted Revolution: "Crunchy malted cookie center, hand coated with layers of our custom dark milk chocolate blend. An accent of Fleur de Sel is added before a final revolution of chocolate." Tasting notes: The center is much more crisp than a Whooper.  Likewise, it didn't dissolve on the tongue in the fun way a Whooper does.  The center was far more malty than a Whooper.  The dark chocolate is obviously higher quality than the chocolate on a Whooper, but it actually doesn’t work as well.  I didn’t pick up on the fluer de sel at all.  This piece was lost on me, even though I really wanted to like it.
• Peppermint Thin: “Organic Willamette Valley peppermint drenched in our custom blend of 64% semisweet chocolate.”.  Tasting notes: This was very thin, with about an equal amount of chocolate as filling.  As a result, it wasn’t minty enough for me.  The majority flavor was the chocolate, with the filling giving a nice creaminess  but not much more.  I haven’t had a York peppermint patty in years, so I can’t compare, but I remember them having much more filling and being more minty.
• Peanut Butter Pearls: “Pearls of creamy organic peanut butter and dark milk chocolate with a crispy center. ”. Tasting notes: The milk chocolate was nice and creamy, but there wasn’t much peanut butter flavor.  Or at least, not nearly enough for me!

Sweets

• Pear-Lime Pâtes de Fruits: Covered in large amount of sugar.  Decent flavor, nice consistency.  I don’t love pâtes de fruits in general, but this was good for what it was.

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Sirabella Cheesecake

Cheesecake.  Not exactly the item that comes to mind when you think "vegan", yet, vegan cheesecake has become more and more of a thing lately, like that made by Sirabella.  

“We taste tested non-vegan and non-lactose intolerant consumers.  They could not tell the difference between our dairy free cheesecake and regular cheesecake.  Our Italian bakery will still provide that rich creamy filling with the golden brown graham cracker bottom.”

I was told by members of our catering team, who had tried this cheesecake before, that it was good.  I didn't really believe them, and never ordered it for my team.  And then one day, the vendor was doing a pop-up event at my office, and had samples.  Now that I was willing to try,  As a dessert lover, I'll admit that I was kinda a jerk and did not believe the claim, and just wanted to "prove it".

Sirabella makes many flavors, mostly based on a classic New York, with assorted fruity toppings.  They don't have a bakery storefront, but ship nationwide, and are found at many grocery stores and the like, available wholesale as well.  We only had the classic New York.

Vegan New York.

"Vegan, Dairy Free, New York cheesecake, direct from New York."

I was really, really pleasantly surprised.  Did it taste like standard cheesecake?  No, not at all.  But, it was a good product.

The texture and consistency were right - smooth, creamy but firm.  The crust was not a throwaway, not mush nor too hard, rather, a slightly caramely soft-firm base, better than most cheesecakes.  And the cheesecake itself?  It had a interesting flavor, a bit hard to describe, not soy forward, not plastic-y ... just, different.

If you wanted classic cream cheese flavor, you wouldn't' find it here, but for a nice, sweet, creamy, vegan treat, this truly was tasty.

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Joe's Steam Rice Roll, NYC

When one is in New York, there are obviously countless options for dining, from high end to hot dogs from a cart, and everything in-between.  While I certainly have sought out well known higher end and mid-range restaurants, sometimes I just want something simple, tasty, and convenient, so when I was traveling, and worn out my first night in town, I consulted my handy list and Joe's Steam Rice Roll jumped out at me.  Ok, perhaps because it was literally right around the corner from my hotel, but, my notes promised me that people adore the place.

Don't expect to learn much about Joe's Steam Rice Roll though - they have no website, no phone number even.

Tasty Meal.

Joe's Steam Rice Roll is known mostly for one item: the namesake rice noodle rolls, Cantonese-style cheong fun, which, uh, I didn't get.  I like rice noodle rolls, usually something I get at dim sum, but the crepe-like jianbing is what drew me in, even though it was a new item to me.

I enjoyed the entire experience, and was pleased with my pick.

Setting

Joe's Rice Noodle Rolls has two locations, one in Queens, and then the one I visited, located inside the Canal Street Market.

Simplicity.

I appreciated the simplicity of the signage for Canal Street Market. 

Joe's Stand.

Inside is a food court basically, with multiple vendors around the edges of the area.

Standing Table.

There are some standing tables, for quick consumption, but most people seemed to grab their items to-go.

Menu

Menu.

The Joe's menu isn't large, but it had more items than I expected, obviously the rice rolls in several varieties, but also things like curry fish balls.

Crepe Menu.

And then of course, what I got, the Chinese crepe-like pancakes - jianbing.

Crepe Making.

Every item is made to order, and although each one doesn't take that long to prepare, the constant flow of people did result in a bit of a wait, since the crepe making space only fits one at a time.  I enjoyed watching all the action.

Food

As I mentioned, the jianbing was an entirely new food item for me.  Which, was quite exciting.  It also meant I had no idea what to expect.

The wait was agonizing.  Partially because I was starving, but also, because it took far longer than I expected.  Crepes were made one by one, so, well, it took a while, as there were many orders ahead of me (I wasn't the only one not getting the signature rice noodle rolls, although, those were certainly more common).  Most people seemed to be in groups, sharing some of each.

My order came handed over with a set of ... plastic gloves.  Huh?  And, unlike the people I saw picking up rice noodle rolls, I wasn't given containers for sauces.  Utensils only consisted of forks and spoons (or chopsticks), so, clearly I wasn't supposed to coat this in sauce and cut it up with a knife.  Was I supposed to go sauceless?  Should I dunk it?  Why did I need gloves? I had no idea what I was doing, clearly.

Sauce Station: Peanut butter and sesame sauce, chili oil, hoisin, soy, siracha.

I had read so much about Joe's sauces though, particularly the spicy chili oil (in the plastic bucket in back) and the peanut sesame sauce.  I really wanted to try them, so I asked for containers anyway, and filled them with the spicy chile, the hoisin, and the peanut sauce.  Just in case.

The spicy chile oil was indeed spicy, and I loved the heat it added, although it was oily (it is oil after all ...).

The peanut sauce was thick and rich, nutty, and something I'd certainly love in some context, but it didn't go great with my crepe.

The hoisin was fairly standard hoisin.

Joe's Crepe (crab stick and pork floss). Spicy mayo version. $7. 

"Lettuce, egg, scallion, cilantro, spicy sauce."

For my crepe, I had the choice of crab stick, pork floss, or sausage.  I couldn't decide between the two, as I love crab stick (yes, really) but pork floss also has its place.  I asked the server which he recommended, and he said that the pork floss was definitely the most popular.  I asked if I could do a combo of both, and he said that was no problem.  I was not charged extra.

The next decision I had to make was spicy or not.  I said spicy.  And then I had to decide between a spicy mayo, or sriracha.  Duh.  Of course I wanted spicy mayo.

The crepe shell was fascinating to me, very unlike anything I've had before.  It was much thinner than it looked, and softer.  For some reason, I thought it would be thicker and crispier.  It was quite pliable, and had a nice flavor from the sesame seeds sprinkled in.  It was rather oily, which, if I was picking it up as street food, which I think I was supposed to be doing, it would have been messy.  Hence the gloves?

Some bites tasted more eggy than I liked, but that is just me not really liking eggs.

Oh, it was also quite large.  I expected something half this size.  No wonder most people were splitting them.

Joe's Crepe: Side View.

The inside though was even more fascinating, here you can see a cross section, with the crepe folds on the outside.

I knew it would have crab stick, pork floss, and mayo, since I selected those.  I knew from the description that all crepes have lettuce, scallion, and parsley.  But ... when I bit in, something crunchy came falling out.

Crunch?!  This turns out to be normal in Chinese style crepes, it was a baocui, a fried cracker.  Super thin, crispy, and I loved the crunch.

Joe's Crepe: Inside.

I pulled back the crepe to get a glimpse of the rest of the fillings.  I had no idea what other surprises lie inside.  Spoiler: no other surprises.

The lettuce was juicy and slightly wilty, and something I do like.  Cooked lettuce has its place.  I would have even liked more, to cut the oil a bit.  The crab stick was pretty average, and didn't have much flavor.  It was nice with the spicy mayo, but there was barely any of that.  I was sad by how little spicy mayo I found.  The pork floss was salty and tasty, and I'm glad I selected it too.

Overall, this took a little getting used to.  I couldn't decide how I felt about it at first, picking it up as a sandwich, then tasting components individually.  But in teh end, I did cut it up, and I did add tons of hoisin and chile oil, and really enjoyed it.  It grew on me, quickly.  But I think I wasn't supposed to add sauces, and certainly wasn't supposed to be cutting it up (I had to get a knife from another vendor).

I enjoyed this, but I'm not sure I'd get another.  It was unique to me, and fun, but maybe I should go for the signature item next time?

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