Milkin' It: Sweet Dreams Fulfilled at Milk Bar in NYC

by Chuck P


As a self-proclaimed “fat kid”, it’s very hard for me to turn away from pretty much any food filled with sugar and or covered in icing; Cakes, pies, cookies...you name it. I once read a quote that sums up how I feel on the matter, “Life is short. Eat dessert first.”

Recently the whole Bite & Booze team went on a road trip to New York City where we cooked an amazing Louisiana tailgate themed dinner at the prestigious James Beard House. On the day before the dinner we had time to explore the city and Jay had organized a day of eating and drinking at a couple of Chef David Chang’s Momofuku restaurants. Having read about but never eaten at these places, I was super excited. One stop on the list had my candy coated heart ready to explode: Milk Bar.

What can I say about Milk Bar that hasn’t been said before? Pastry Chef & Owner Christina Tosi’s world famous bakery was very high on my list of places to visit while in NYC. Known for their amazing cookies like the Compost (packed with pretzels, potato chips, graham cracker, butterscotch and chocolate chips), the Blueberry & Cream and Confetti cookies, insanely delicious truffle balls (No icing needed for these bad boys. It’s just straight cake!) and the infamous Crack Pie, people pile into their super tiny shops to fill their sweet tooth cravings.

A birthday cake truffle a pint of fruity cereal milk ice cream.

I ended up buying four of each of their five cookies on the menu and a few packs of birthday truffle balls! Let’s not forget the huge variety of amazing cakes available like their whimsical take on a traditional birthday cake, chocolate malt, strawberry lemon cake and what I can only imagine has to be the best tasting flavor ever, the salted pretzel cake.

Not just content with delivering tasty baked goods to the masses, they also make their own soft serve ice cream and shakes. But this ain’t your granny’s homemade ice cream, folks. This is cereal milk ice cream.


CEREAL. MILK. ICE. CREAM.

Just let those four mind blowing words sink in for a second. Take corn flakes, steep them in cold milk for 20 minutes, freeze (for up to a week, but seriously who can wait that long?) and then enjoy. Sure, that recipe sounds simple enough but there is no way it would taste as (insert expletive here) delicious as it did when I had it. After racking my brain over whether to get soft serve or a shake, I decided to go with the latter. A creamy cup of heaven mixed with corn flake pieces, I never wanted this brain freezing delight to end. There were so many emotions. A few nights later, I actually returned to a location that was closer to where we were staying and bought more cookies and got a pint of the fruity cereal milk ice cream which tasted exactly, I repeat, EXACTLY like Fruity Pebbles.

Hi, my name is Chuck P and I am a Milk Bar addict.


If you’d like to sample the deliciousness of Milk Bar you don’t have to head to NYC to get your fix. Visit their website where you can order cookies and cakes as well as their cereal milk mix so you can make your own ice cream treats!

Peanut Butter, Oatmeal, and Olive Oil Cookies with Whole Wheat Flour

I haven't had much time to experiment with baking lately, and since I'm in the middle of filming a documentary about trying to make healthier lifestyle choices despite my occupation as a south Louisiana food writer and radio host, I couldn't think of what to make for dessert in the Bob's Red Mill/California Olive Ranch promotion for Virtual Potluck.  Fortunately Donna Currie from Cookistry came to my rescue.  As a fellow Virtual Potluck blogger, she graciously offered to make me a batch of virtual (not fair, put some in the mail!!) peanut butter cookies using the Hard White Whole Wheat Flour from Bob's Red Mill and some fine olive oil from the California Olive Ranch.

You really should check out Donna's blog when you get a chance.  She cooks up some fantastic food and shares the recipes with her readers.  Make sure to also follow her on Twitter and Facebook!!  Here's the recipe for Donna's cookies.  They look absolutely amazing.  Thanks Donna!



Peanut Butter, Oatmeal, and Olive Oil Cookies
Recipe by Donna Currie at Cookistry

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Everyday Fresh olive oil
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the sugars, oil, and peanut butter together. Add the egg and beat well.

In a separate bowl, combine the salt, baking powder, pastry flour, and oats. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet until well combined.

Using a small scoop or spoon, form small balls from the dough. Place them on the baking sheets and flatten them with the palm of your hand or the bottom of a glass to about 1/2 inch thick.

Bake until the cookies are just beginning to brown, about 14 minutes.

Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool completely on a rack.

Donna  Currie from Cookistry's Peanut Butter, Oatmeal, and Olive Oil Cookies

Want some Bob's Red Mill grains and olive oil from the California Olive Ranch?  Read blow for the details about how you could win some!

• Visit either Bob's Red Mill or California Olive Ranch's Facebook pages and retrieve this week's Virtual Potluck code word. Then use that code word in a sentence, when commenting on this blog post. 

Additional Entries:

• For an extra entry: Follow BRM, COR and VirtualPotluck's Twitter profiles and tweet about the contest linking to this blog post and using the #virtualpotluck hashtag. Then comment again, letting me know you've done so, by providing the link to your tweet.

• More Blogs, More Ways to Win: Get additional entries in each week's giveaways by visiting our host blog and finding other participating VP bloggers sites to comment on.

BR Foodies experience Le Creole

On a mission for our BR Foodies group to experience a new restaurant all at the same time, I arranged a trip for the group to dine at Le Creole on Highland Road.  Nobody had been before so other than some word of mouth, none of us knew what to expect.  

Le Creole is reasonably new to the Baton Rouge fine dining scene.  It is the latest creation of seafood lover, caterer, and restaurateur Wayne Stabiler.  His other restaurants include both Little Village locations and the City Cafe.  Wanting to get back to his Louisiana seafood distribution roots, he opened up Le Creole.  Chef Ryan Andre, who had previously be on board at Commander's Palace in New Orleans, took the reigns of the kitchen of the while Clark T. Ellis assumed the General Manager position.  

Upon arrival at Le Creole our group gathered in the bar with some cocktails while we caught up and chatted.  Clark greeted us and offered a little tour of the kitchen where we could meet Chef Andre.  The kitchen bustled with activity of chefs at their stations. 

GM Clark T. Ellis gives the BR Foodies a tour of the kitchen (left); Chef Ryan Andre poses for a picture at Le Creole (right)

My evening began with a Maker's 46 Old Fashioned.  The bartender muddled a maraschino cherry and a wedge of orange before adding the bitters, simple syrup, and bourbon.  The beverage got my taste buds kick-started as I prepared myself for a tasty meal.  I don't drink too many Old Fashioneds, but this this one could get me to change that.  I thoroughly enjoyed the beverage.  I had a whiskey sour later in the meal that did not impress me nearly as much.  I wished I had ordered a second Old Fashioned!  Before I got started eating, I first had to do some tweeting and posting which Kelly Spell happened to capture on camera!  Good times with the BR Foodies gang!

Le Creole started us out with their fresh-baked bread and some lemon herb butter from Plaquemines Parish.  The bread had a thick crust with a soft center and the butter had a tremendous flavor.  Following the bread came a cochon de lait bruschetta for each of us.  As a sampling portion of the their cochon de lait flatbread, the bruschetta featured tender pulled pork with goat cheese and provolone melted on top.  While I actually liked the flatbread version better, the pork and goat cheese combination stood out as a delicious combination.  The fork-tender pig mixed beautifully with the creamy cheese.  I could have eaten nothing other than that and been happy.  Come to think of it, I need to make a cochon de lait style pulled pork and goat cheese sandwich!

I continued my meal with tastes of Le Creole's boudin spring rolls with a raspberry sauce and a delightful watermelon, spinach and goat cheese salad.  The salad impressed me with its refreshing nature while still offering some great flavor combinations.  The sweetness of the watermelon played off of the goat cheese tang as the two danced in my mouth.  After the salad I opted for the turtle soup with sherry.  It was not the most memorable turtle soup I've had but it still satisfied my craving for more booze in food!

The true highlight on the night came in the form of the above pictured crab cake.  Chef Andre took jumbo lump crab meat and formed cakes that were held together by just a small amount of spicy mayo.  The cakes were then broiled in a hot oven instead of fried.  Served with a spicy remoulade sauce, the crab cake exploded with flavor.  Sweet crab and spicy sauce filled every bite and the texture of the lump meat with crispiness and creaminess gave a great mouth feel to each additional taste after taste.

My entree, pictured at the top of this post, featured a whole deep fried mangrove snapper served with sauteed squash, zucchini and red onion.  The whole fish presented an awe-inspiring spectacle of a dish.  Our wonderful server Erica placed it in front of me and I actually wanted to photograph the fish slightly more than I wanted to eat it.  Perhaps that is because I started to get full a course or two before the main entree, but still, it looked pretty amazing.  Once I dug into the fish and veggies I became just slightly underwhelmed.  As great as the fish looked, the flavor didn't quite deliver upon the visual expectations.  I enjoyed picking the fried flesh off the bones, but the taste failed to blow me away like some of the appetizers did.  The vegetables added nothing special to the dish and really forced the snapper to attempt to stand on its own.

We wrapped up our meal by passing around a trio of desserts.  We had a banana cake, a bread pudding and my personal favorite, a homemade cookie with ice cream.  The vanilla bean ice cream melted rapidly over a oven-hot chocolate chip cookie in an individual cast iron skillet.  Simply put, this dessert capped the meal right back up at the top of the delicious scale.

Overall I had a wonderful meal and a great experience at Le Creole.  Clark, the General Manager, and his staff took great care of us all evening long.  Erica, our waitress, delivered amazing service and it seemed like everyone else in the restaurant received plenty of attention as well.  The food belonged among Baton Rouge's upscale dining elite.  While my entree didn't amaze me, the snapper still tasted quite good, and rest of the courses certainly made the entire experience into a memorable meal.  On the way out of the dimly lit and intimate dining area I realized that the music I had been hearing all evening was coming from a live pianist.  Yet another fun touch to make me want to go back for more from Le Creole!

Thanks to Kelly Spell of the BR Foodies for most of the pictures from a great evening!

Downtown Baton Rouge's The BUZZ Cafe

A Pastrami Panini of some sort at BUZZ Cafe

The BUZZ Cafe in downtown Baton Rouge was one of my favorite lunch spots back when I used to work in the area.  It opens up early for breakfast and coffee but I always showed up around the noon hour to grab a sandwich, soup, or an occasional salad if I was feeling particularly rabbit-like that day.  Most of the time I stuck with the hot grilled Italian panini sandwiches, of which they had multiple to choose from.  All sandwiches come served with some of their "gourmet" potato chips and a pickle wedge.  I typically throw the pickle on the ground, go wash my hands, then enjoy the chips and sandwich.

BUZZ Cafe offers a rather friendly environment to enjoy your breakfast, lunch, coffee, or snacks.  They've got some comfortable tables fit for meeting colleagues, wi-fi for people trying to surf the web or get some work done, and a coffee bar where you can read the paper and chit-chat with the baristas.  Good times!

As I said before, the panini's are usually my go-to item on the menu.  Priced around $8, the sandwiches aren't a bargain, but they aren't ridiculous either.  Many offer grilled chicken with various cheeses like bleu cheese crumbles, melted mozzarella, and cheddar.  I'm not usually a big mayo fan, but their garlic mayo is certainly worth getting on your sandwich.  They also had other sandwich toppings like Roma tomatoes, fresh basil, and hickory smoked bacon.  Hard to go wrong there! And, of course, you could always go with a bowl of soup, one of their pretty good salads, some quesadillas, a deli sandwich, or a wrap.  Pictured above is a bowl of BUZZ cafe's vegetable soup and and a turkey panini.  Naturally, no meal is complete without a little something sweet.  This fresh baked chocolate chip cookie sure hit the spot!  It is places like this that make me miss working downtown.  There's something great about being a brisk walk away from multiple dining or hang-out establishments.  The BUZZ Cafe certainly made my list for its casual, relaxed atmosphere and pretty decent sandwiches!