Tour of @HotBreadKitchen

Hot Bread Kitchen may be easy to miss when closed. La Marqueta, which serves as a place to purchase and view their freshly baked breads, is shuttered. The black of the evening and the lack of street lights make it an easy miss when going past 115th Street and Park Avenue. Hot Bread Kitchen (HBK) is under the Metro North rails and bookended by apartment complexes on either side. It's a large metal box of a place. But, delve further to the back entrance on 114th. This is the entryway into the behind-the-scenes action. Make sure to wear your cap once you enter and soon you'll be hit with the varying smells and the aromas of the array of goodies being made inside. You'll pass by smaller kitchens, caged racks of ingredients ranging from canned to bottled goods to everyday condiments. There's the rustle, bustle, and hustle of a 24-hour operating machine with staff preparing items for shipments, slicing breads that have cooled, making & packaging of injera or cookies. Pass the ovens and the proofing stations, the heat hitting you like a wall when you walk by the convection ovens, slipping past the tortilla making station hidden in a corner as you make your way to the office. Give a hearty handshake to head chef Ben Hershberger, then into the meeting area with a glass door separating it and the prep station with baking trainees slapping dough onto counters as they knead and shape them. Once in the meeting room, after all your senses have been piqued, you'll be met by the smiling faces of Robin, HBK's business manager, and Twee, HBK's marketing manager, along with fellow food bloggers Maggy, Sara, and Emily.

Founder Jessamyn Rodriguez started Hot Bread Kitchen in her Brooklyn kitchen years ago. Since then it has expanded to Spanish Harlem and has incorporated many women of various backgrounds with knowledge of food preparation (or really foods that are innate to their background) arming them with the opportunity to work in a commercial kitchen to expand on a family dish, learn more about the culinary industry, and move on to create their own business. This model has not just expanded for the baking trainees that have started their own businesses and branched out to become recognized names in NYC, but includes smaller, somewhat established companies with the help of HBK's LIFE program for low income food entrepreneurs initiated through the HBK Incubates Program for those looking to expand their culinary business. These programs provide help on the business/organizational side that may have your brain ready to explode if your main focus is on the product and not so much the administrative and financial aspects of it. HBK's programs are becoming widely known in the foodie community as more businesses start small or solely online and seek to branch out to meet growing demand. In addition to that you can rent a kitchen space should your home not be enough at hourly rates and those who are not as fluent in English can get conversational help onsite from vetted volunteers.

The basis for HBK's beginnings is empowering those with little or no work experience, yet they may have a great knowledge of the foods they've been making since their youth, specifically breads. By fostering this gift of presenting a family dish or item that signifies one's home country provides more diversity in the availability of good, natural, and often healthy, locally made items to the mecca of New York City. Businesses such as Taste of Ethiopia, Broadway Baker, Itizy, and Nina's Empanadas can be found throughout the five boroughs. The originators of these businesses share spaces in Hot Bread Kitchen while HBK staff mills around prepping doughs to be baked and breads for distribution around New York City at hotels like the Waldorf Astoria as well as the chain Chop't, Whole Foods, and farmers markets throughout Manhattan.

After learning Hot Bread Kitchen's mission we sampled some of the bread they had to offer and steadily fell in love with one even more than the next to the point that a grocery list was building in all our minds of what we'd purchase once the tour ended.

M'smen is a flaky Moroccan bread that may, from first sight, make you think of naan but is actually lighter and more buttery. It's a Moroccan pancake of sorts and may best be compared to the lightness of a crepe but with layers. Plain is great with honey or on its own. We also tried a stuffed version with caramelized onions, kale, and cheese that is a wonderful savory treat and good enough to have for dinner. There was also nan-e barbari, a Persian flatbread with a crispy crust and chewy interior that is superb alone (actually everything is superb by itself) or with butter and cheeses as a spread or for flatbread sandwiches. It's more than a foot long so would be ideal for parties. Mexican conchas you may see in different variations in stores. It's a sweet topped bread that is also slightly sweet in the bread itself and super soft. We tried ones with chocolate and vanilla toppings. And last you have the staple of ciabatta often seen in your fancier or chain salad/sandwich shops for sandwiches and as a side for soups and such. All were served right out of the oven. (You're drooling at the thought, aren't you? I figured as much.) In your palm was the warmth of freshly baked bread that was the perfect taste in your mouth melting on your tongue like chocolate. Each had it's own distinct flavor that was enhanced with it's temperature making you roll your eyes with a kind of "Good God is this what heaven is like in bread form?" pleasure.

Our tour included some tasting of pepita multigrain bread that was still hot, so much so that when breaking it in half the steam rose from the bun. The pepita seeds had that crunchy nutty flavor with the multigrain that was a nice hearty treat you'd want to curl up in bed with.

Our last taste, and one we were all anxious for once we heard about the cultural background of this sweet bread, was the pan de muerto (a new item available now until November 3rd at farmer's markets). This bread is reminiscent of challah in look and texture but has sesame seeds and a kind of cross with a ball in the middle marking the bread representing bones and a skull. It's a nice sweet item to eat in the morning with tea or coffee and is absolutely delectable when warm. It also holds heat well. When I warmed mine in the oven and brought it to the office (hour subway ride) and finally delved in there were still traces of heat inside. Delicious meet delicious.

If you'd like your own insider look at Hot Bread Kitchen and La Marqueta see Mike Colameco's segment on them on Real Food. He visits with Jessamyn, Ben, and some of the bakers that utilize the HBK space as well as baking trainees. Everyone is all smiles, which was also the case during my visit. A hard-working and focused staff that does what they love and is making food to not only exert their own creativity but to bring people pleasure and closer together is and has always been the aim of food. Hot Bread Kitchen is helping people to continue this tradition with the understanding that everyone has a specialty, and it may be food-related.

Brooklyn Froyo/Ice Cream Crawl 2013

My friend Bev and I had been talking about our love of various frozen treats. The ranging flavors at places like 16 Handles and the new addiction I had for Pinkberry since it was the closest option near my place of employment. And then it struck us...there are a crapload of frozen yogurt and ice cream eateries in Brooklyn. Since Bev loves her area and I don't get to Brooklyn as much as I'd like we proposed a #froyocrawl. (In the end our crawl was more like an ice cream one than frozen yogurt but you get the idea.) So, "end of summer" being Labor Day weekend seemed like an ideal time. People may be out of town and we could get our grub on. We knew we wanted to go to a handful of places. The way to organize a crawl or tour of any sort in which food is involved is to be realistic. Don't stuff 10 places into a day. Any amount of food may get you full and the last few places will fall by the wayside. And when sweets are involved at some point everyone will want something savory to offset the sweet intake. We picked 5 places. Bev routed it better than I did.

Luckily we had a group of 5 that turned into 6 at our second location, which is ideal for places in terms of seating and also tasting as much as possible without getting too full or too overzealous.

First stop was Blue Marble in Cobble Hill. Our objective was at each stop to get the smallest size possible so we wouldn't overdo it. We got the child size or minis at every location (some got smalls, but hey you get the drift). Each person got a different item and we all tried. There were sampling spoons aplenty.

Our flavors at Blue Marble were: banana split, marcona almond, green tea, mint chocolate chip, and raspberry chip.

My fave was the banana split it had chunks of banana and a chocolate swirl with peanuts. It tasted like banana bread. And the same could be said of the marcona almond which tasted just like an almond cookie. The green tea, we were warned, was like getting a dose of green tea and there was caffeine in it. It was smooth in texture and flavor. I liked. I'm not a fan of mint chocolate chip so wasn't too keen on this in general but again it was definitely better than the mass marketed stuff you may have had. And the raspberry chip was a raspberry swirl ice cream with chocolate chips in it. Good stuff.

The ladies at Blue Marble were super nice and let us sample other items once we told them we were doing a formal crawl of ice cream eateries. Their vanilla is perfection. We enjoyed very much and it seemed that the marcona almond and green tea were big faves of our group. I'd highly recommend Blue Marble's ice cream and wish I could get it in Queens. I'd buy that stuff by the pound, especially the banana split and green tea flavors.

Funny enough the ladies mentioned that Blue Marble would be available at our next stop: Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain a few blocks away.

The feel for Brooklyn Farmacy is old school all the way. One of the waitresses reminded me of Lucille Ball in her polka dot skirt, low heeled shoes, and curls swept up with a handkerchief. Our waitress was absolutely lovely and friendly. The feel of the place is total early 20th century with games, books, typewriters, indexes reminiscent of what libraries relied on for reference before the computer became our main mode for info, and so forth. Wood all over and floats and sundaes and comfort food with lots of carbs in the forms of tasty sandwiches.

You have the option for egg creams, which apparently have NO egg in them (turns out the name is a butchering of the original European name, go figure), and sundaes, ice cream, and floats which are their big thing. I had a chocolate egg cream so I could scratch that off my food bucket list and the rest of the group had floats (Brooklyn Farmacy originals with a scoop of ice cream in a big ole glass). I also got their biscuit with homemade preserves (raspberry) and butter and I was in HEAVEN. They reminded me of my grandma's, just buttery perfection that puts all other biscuits to shame. To shame, y'all. I would travel to this place for the biscuits alone. But I digress, we're hear to talk ice cream.

At Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain the floats were as follows The Kiki x 3 (ginger soda with a scoop of vanilla ice cream), The Flatbush (a vanilla egg cream with a scoop of strawberry ice cream), and The Pink Poodle (hibiscus soda with a scoop of vanilla ice cream). Of the floats the Kiki was a hit hence three people ordering it. I really enjoyed Bev's Pink Poodle. The hibiscus soda was a welcomed taste and is being used more in food items. The egg cream was a bit lackluster to me since I wanted more dairy and creaminess but meh the biscuit more than made up for it.

After that we were getting full. Well those who had big a** floats were. Our next location was a bit of a walk but luckily Bev's friend David had a car and we squeezed in and he drove us over to Park Slope for the last three places.

Next up a fave, Culture! I highly recommended anyone and everyone get the key lime topping and original yogurt. I loves it to death I tell ya. I got original with strawberry balsamic topping. Someone got watermelon with crystallized candied ginger, someone else got mint with crystallized candied ginger (noticing a trend?), someone did get the key lime topping, and someone else got the blueberry pie topping with original yogurt.

While many did not taste the balsamic in the strawberry topping it was still lauded. I did get a hint because it sweetened up the strawberries. What you can say about Culture is that their flavors are subtle. Nothing will overwhelm or overpower making toppings and yogurt work well together and part of it's overall charm. The watermelon yogurt was tangy but not too tangy. The mint was a hint in their yogurt and I being not a fan of mint in frozen items would've gotten it because it was faint but good. The toppings add to it all and I'd suggest getting their pie ones or something beyond the basics of candy or chocolate. Go for their signatures, definitely worth it and a good midpoint spot so you're not too hungover from dairy overload.

At this point some people were wearing down but we were off to SkyIce Sweet & Savory further up the block. This was also the point were savory items were desired. Since SkyIce is also a Thai restaurant some of us got entrees. Luckily for us they also have samplers for ice cream. Huzzah! We got the 12 sampler of mini scoops which was perfect. We each got a couple of bits of each and didn't have to worry about too much being left over while trying a wide variety of items.

Our choices were as follows: Thai tea, Thai coffee, durian, mango, green tea, black sesame seaweed, honey ginger, white miso sliced almond, caramel sea salt, belgian chocolate brownie, lychee rose sorbet, and cucumber lime sorbet.

The sorbets were deliciously refreshing. Everything had a good melting consistency and wasn't too icy or chalky. The ice creams were creamy as well but I was a huge fan of the sorbets, especially the cucumber lime. The other two ladies, Alex and Bev, really dug the rose lychee and I dug it as well. Thai tea is apparently the most popular flavor at SkyIce and we liked it. I was least liking the durian flavor but the black sesame seaweed and white almond miso had an interesting flavor that wasn't too savory but worked well in the combos. The miso upon second tasting wasn't as good but I still liked the taste of the black sesame seaweed because the sesame and seaweed worked well with a slight peppery flavor there. Cool stuff.

At that point people were tapped out and understandably so. More than half of us had entrees at SkyIce but people, I was determined to finish this out. I did not come all this way to Brooklyn to stop now! So we walked to the final place: Ample Hills Creamery.

Unlike the other locations which were relatively tame Ample Hills was a bit of a mad house with families and such. I was the only one who wanted anything since a few people had had it before and informed me of how intense the flavors are there. Damn straight. I hauled myself right inside and went for the salted crack caramel. I'd heard good things. The lady behind the counter strongly suggested that I try it before ordering a small cup. She offered me one and I smacked my lips and said, "Yeah, thanks. Lemme try the honey one." The salted crack caramel had A LOT going on. And to me there was a strong hint of coffee. As someone who does not like coffee I would not have been happy and was highly appreciative for this lady to sway me to try before committing myself to one intense ass ice cream. The sweet as honey flavor was much more my speed, especially after all the dairy we had. The sweet as honey has homemade honey comb in a sweet cream. It was a great sweet item but tame enough to appreciate it too. So I offered some to taste to those who still had the will to do so and finished off my kids cup.

Slamming it into the garbage can on the corner I proclaimed our crawl complete. Success! And time for a nap.

Of all the locations I'd probably say Culture was my fave for the fact it's not too heavy or overwhelming or intense. Next up would be SkyIce for the sorbets. But if I was having people over for ice cream only Blue Marble and for biscuits?!? Brooklyn Farmacy. I'll have to go back to Ample Hills at some point when I have a stronger hankering for ice cream but that sweet as honey was a tasty treat to end things on.

Next up, possibly a mac n' cheese crawl, so stay tuned peeps.

International Chocolate Awards (Americas)

Saying "Americas" makes it seem all fancy like Iron Chef. And in a way, the International Chocolate Awards (ICA) are a bit like Iron Chef. The best of the best within the country vying for a high prize to make it to the next round where the International Awards will take place. Chocolatiers from Spain and Italy and Canada and the UK coming to NYC just to munch and taste what the city has to offer, in the name of Chocolate. Yup, sounds official to me.

As a food blogger I was able to judge one of the preliminary rounds of the International Chocolate Awards at the end of June. After the main series of judging was done those that placed went on to the Grand Jury round and those in the Grand Jury spent the weekend before our Independence Day deciding which chocolates would make the cut in their categories.

I can't get into the specifics of judging and I can't tell you what I tasted as all entrants were anonymous to us so we judged on taste and location alone. What I can say is that this is a particularly interesting type of judging. I always wondered what judges were thinking when they sat down and tasted a variety of items. And how they cleaned their palate in preparation for the next bit or dish. And to experience that within 90 minutes for chocolate, dark, milk, and spreads, was fun and enlightening.

One of the most important things is to ensure that your palate can be distinct for each item and flavors from one aren't interfering with how you judge something else. Especially if the darkest of chocolates, we're talking 00% chocolate, has a chalky taste because there's NO sugar whatsoever. You have to take it in stride. But, like one of the Grand Jury members--one was stationed at each table to help guide us newer judges through the round--just because it's different doesn't mean it's good. So, if you haven't tasted 10% chocolate doesn't mean you'll like it but don't discount it because it's not sweet. You're judging chocolate for things outside of being sweet in something like the ICA and you have to consider a lot of things. Just like on Iron Chef or in any competition. I've done Takedowns I know the criteria. And I love food. And it's not all about taste. It's about construction and smell and texture as well as flavors. And yes, flavors, plural. As in all the ingredients within it should help to make a unified taste that does not disturb or distract.

Chocolate making is hard stuff. As is spread making. So much can go wrong. And as Jackie, a fellow judge, told me "chocolate is fussy." It can't be too cold, it can't be too hot it needs to be perfect. Tempering it requires patience and perhaps a cool machine to help. So everyone who made chocolate going into the categories of dark bars, milk bars, white bars, flavoured bars, spreads, and filled chocolates each has it's own unique listings for what you are looking for and all the while you are continually testing and cleansing your palate to judge a bit more.

It was a great experience. Held at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) this year in Chelsea the space was gorgeous, the weather a bit humid but not gross, the staff and organizers extremely friendly, and fellow judges really serious but cool about the whole thing made it a great time.

The grand jury finalists for the Americas were announced last week on the ICA site. And they will move on to the larger competition to be held in September.

So, that's my gist for the ICAs. A great time and fun to participate to acknowledge the hard work of chocolatiers on a worldwide stage. Keep updated on who wins on the International Chocolate Awards site and stay tuned for next year!

Ice Cream Takedown 2013

Sunday was the perfect day to be eating ice cream. Maybe not so much to take it to Gowanus and serve people though. But what can you do? The annual Takedowns hosted by Matt Timms went down, and it was a grand. Once again Matt organized a lovely event sponsored by PAMA, Il Laboratorio del Gelato, Phin and Phebes, Mikey Likes It, and Enterprise. And as it often is the event was at the Brooklyn gem, The Bell House.

Free cocktails (thanks to PAMA) of PAMA cocktails flowed for the first hour. And even after tasting a bunch of delicious ice cream from participants there was still some to be tasted from Mikey Likes It. Good times.

It is hot and humid on the east coast. Has been for a few weeks and needless to say people can get antsy. But there was dry ice to keep the ice cream chilled and lines to streamline things and people ready to eat and judge and eat some more. Even Tyra Banks, yes ANTM's Tyra Banks, made an appearance and ate and left and maybe she even voted. Who knows? I didn't want to be that person sneaking a picture of her as she tried to enjoy the ice cream, but even Matt Timms was all "Holy crap! A supermodel came to one of the Takedowns."

But yeah, ice cream. And lots of it! Twenty entrants overall and less people in the space because of the heat and precious goods made for a not too packed time with room to roam and slurp and get on lines for more creamy goodness of the frozen variety. There were a lot of great flavors and unique ones at that.

My Standouts

A couple adorable kids and their aunt (Team JujuBeans) presented Coco Cado, a creamy avocado ice cream with toasted coconut that was  a perfect merging of flavors. Each relied on the other and it was in my top 5.

Other faves were cannoli ice cream with a cannoli shell and a kind of icy cream with chocolate bits inside made by Kimberly Stein. The shell really made this one. Kimberly said she spent 22 hours making them and they were perfect.

Then there was Daisy's backwoods blueberry sherbet with buttermilk and moonshine that was quite refreshing after having so much cream based items. And she won not only a judge prize but an audience prize as well. Her's definitely stood out among the crowd.

An apple pie ice cream with sugared apples and crumble made by Angela made me think what she made should be mass produced and available to the world. It really had all the elements of apple pie in ice cream form. Something only Angela could produce.

Other standouts included the 3 PBJ which was peanut butter ice cream with balsamic jam glaze and brown buttered croutons. Flavors in all aspects and the crunch! Fantastic.

Add in some butterscotch (which took the top judge prize) and a lemon meringue pie ice cream by Alice (which took the top audience prize) and you have the contrast of cream flavors filling you up to lighter essences engaging your palate.

There were some entrants that may be a bit icy or too melty to properly get the flavors or badly constructed due to the heat but hey that's what experimentation is all about. Previous Takedown winner Adrian was one of the few to have booze and bacon in his while Steve, a Takedown winner from two years prior, also had alcohol and a great sandwich construction with his cakey sandwich and boozy Irish car bomb ice cream sandwich. There was "A Hot Friend Named Ginger" which combined the overall flavor of ginger with some heat that kicks in soon after it hits your tongue. There was a s'mores ice cream with a marshmallow base and then you also had some Mexican Hot Chocolate (won 3rd place by the judges) in spicy or mild. The texture of the Mexican Hot Chocolate was on par with Haagen Dazs.

And like Matt always says you have to give a HUGE round of applause to those who enter these Takedowns. As someone who did the cookie one I know how much work goes into it and in finding the right consistency and texture for your ice cream as well as balancing flavors AND getting it to another borough in 90+ degree weather? Well hats off to you Takedowners for making it happen and showing us a great time and what "amateur" cooks can produce. Though I feel none of these entrants are amateurs in the least!

Congrats to ALL those who entered and Thanks so much for your delicious treats. I will be there again next year and will probably see some of you at a later Takedown. Off to nap now.

To see a full list of entrants check thetakedowns.com for Matt's follow-up post. 

In Honor of #Chocabaret, Three Amazing Chocolate-Based Recipes!

Well, I certainly feel more myself after a week back home and a weekend of making some deliciously chocolately treats. I'm happy to post about my enlightenment after making Jackie's recipes and also talk about her Kickstarter campaign for her wonderful new show Chocabaret, which is something she's been wanting to delve into for a while now.

First off, Jackie "The Singing Chef" Gordon is awesome. And you may think I throw that word around but for her she encompasses it. I met her because of Pie Party Live a couple years ago and she's an amazingly selfless person who has connected the tri-state foodie community, organizes amazing events, helps a bunch of charities, and is always giving of her time and knowledge to help others. So it was a real blessing to be embraced into this community and I owe that to Jackie.

And I'm more than glad to talk about Chocabaret and also add to the praise that Jackie knows what she is talking about when it comes to chocolate!

Chocabaret is about chocolate, obviously, but also about how to make it, how to recognize decadent chocolates for taste and for baking. It's a show not just for food lovers but for enthusiasts and heck if you like chocolate in and of itself you should be interested.

I'm not quite there yet in regards to making chocolates from scratch, but I did decide to do a few recipes of Jackie's from the reci-tees that have a picture of her original recipe on the front and the recipe on the back. Of the five reci-tees available I did three. And I guarantee you, they were good.

The Recipes

Hot Chocolate

Supposedly it was summer (i.e., humid) upon my return or still in spring technically. That was not so this past weekend and the tail end of last week. So making hot chocolate on what may have been a hot and muggy day turned into making it on a chilly day and then having it on a chilly and rainy day that just got chillier and windier. It was perfect.

I hadn't thought to make hot chocolate myself. I'm a Swiss Miss person or go for steamed cider in the colder months. But it was easy and tasty!

Take unsweetened cocoa powder add in milk and heavy cream, sugar, a cinnamon stick and boil all the ingredients and you have yourself some kick butt hot chocolate. The unsweetened cocoa ups the ante for sure because there's no added processing in it. (I always have unsweetened cocoa powder on hand.) And you can keep it and nuke it and it's still good (and pretty filling as well). I added some caramel--you may want to add 1/4 or more for the liquid ratio of this recipe to taste it. It did kick up the sweetness but still chocolate was first and foremost and it was really great. I don't know if I can go back to Swiss Miss or Land-O-Lakes brand after this. And considering how simple it was there'd be no reason to.

Chocolate Pudding

Again, I do like my store brand stuff. I was raised with Jell-O and it has a deep place in my heart. I grew up with Jell-O brand pudding and gelatin and I hadn't really thought about making pudding from scratch. But again, simple. Just as it was for me to make panna cotta from scratch, it was so with pudding. Don't know why it took me so long to delve in and try doing so.

The taste is not chalky like you'd get from store brand and I'm sure that's part of the process for it to keep for long periods of time. But Jackie's is rich and super chocolatey, just like the hot chocolate. Big flavors come in these recipes and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Sweet? Yes. Too sweet? Not at all. Pair with some homemade whipped cream (heck, I had a bunch of heavy cream available) and it is a really tasty treat and can feed numerous people in the one batch you make.

I think I did over stir or cook mine because it wasn't as soft and malleable. While solid it tended to crack a bit after refrigeration. But the taste was still delicious and I'm eating the whole Tupperware full myself. No help needed, thank-you-very-much.

Triple Chocolate Brownies

Ah, brownies. So simple to make and yet they make everyone happy. Brownies and blondies are go-to desserts but while they may seem easy (thanks to boxes from Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker) doing them from scratch to get the right consistency takes some skill. And yet again, Jackie nails it with this recipe!

You have unsweetened/dark chocolate in the mixture and semi-sweet and milk chocolate morsels added in once the batter is mixed. Bake but don't over bake so that it still remains a bit fudgy and this is chocolate overload. Have your milk ready, people!

I have no shame in saying each of these items served as my dinner or lunch on various occasions throughout the week. And I am eager (read: terrified) to hear what my dentist has to say when I see him next week after this chocolate indulgence.

These are easy recipes, with great and huge chocolate flavors putting it at the forefront but not too overwhelming in the sweet department compared to what you may have gotten from the packet, cup, or box. If you like these (and I'm sure you will) it will change your mind about the store brand stuff. These three are just a few recipes that illustrate Jackie's knowledge of not only food but of chocolate.

Speaking of...

Chocabaret

The Kickstarter campaign started last Tuesday. It's continuing on for another 21 days as of this posting. If you read Jackie's mission and inspiration you will fully understand what she wants to provide to attendees and why it'd be a great addition to New York as well as the food scene.

The gist: You get to taste an array of chocolate, Jackie sings, and you chat about chocolate exploring new flavors and learning more about origins and the differences. This is an interactive chocolate tasting and an intimate gathering as well.

I know, you may have been sold on chocolate alone but hey getting educated about it too?! Bonus. Tasting some of the best chocolate available in NYC? BIG selling point. And being serenaded to. Heck yeah!

I'm sure many of you must know by now (especially for you Veronica Mars fans) if you don't reach the goal for Kickstarter...no money! So it's imperative that we help Jackie hit the $11,500 mark in these next few weeks. She's an instrumental part of the foodie scene and wants to bring more to it. How can you not love that idea. And again, CHOCOLATE!

So I urge you to check out the Kickstarter page, read up more on Chocabaret and Jackie's overall plan and inspiration, donate, and seriously try her reci-tee recipes or any of her recipes. I'm going to be making a vat of hot chocolate and chocolate pudding in my small NYC apartment just in case. For what? I dunno, I just want that chocolatey goodness handy.

Lastly, if you'd like a taste of Chocabaret check out Jackie's video preview Launch Party embedded below via YouTube: