food comas

When my sister Jen told me that I needed to try some crack pie, I looked at her like she was crazy. Wait, what kind of pie? You’re kidding, right? Then I took a bite… and another ..and now I’m hooked.

Momofuku Milk Bar

Chef/Owner: David Chang
Pastry Chef: Christina Tosi
Cuisine: Bakery, Dessert
Price: small items can range from $2 to $6, larger items range from $9 to $44

There are currently three locations in New York:

Neighborhood: East Village
Address: 251 East 13th St., NYC 10003
Hours: Daily 9 am – 12 am

Neighborhood: Midtown West
Address: 15 West 56th St. NYC 10019
Hours: Mon – Sat 8 am – 11 pm; Sun 8am – 10pm

Neighborhood: Brooklyn
Address: 382 Metropolitan Ave., NYC 11211
Hours: Mon – Thurs 9 am – 11 pm;  Fri – Sun 9 am – midnight

I visited Jen in NYC and was so excited to try out some good food, especially desserts. Milk Bar is one of five Momofuku restaurants/bakeries from Chef David Chang.  The original Milk Bar openedin East Village in November 2008, which was then followed up by Milk Bar Midtown in April 2010 as a complement to the beef-tastic Má Pêche restaurant.  The most recent Milk Bar opened in Brooklyn in April 2011, and I am sure more will follow!  (Other Momofuku restaurants include Momofuku Ko, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, and Momofuku Noodle Bar.)

For my visit, we went to the Midtown Milk Bar. According to their website, Momofuku Milk Bar is the “home of cereal milk™, compost cookies® and crack pie®.” How awesome is that? I just love when stores get creative with naming food.

The inside of the bakery is fairly small, with a huge chalkboard taking up one side of the wall displaying the menu. There are no seats, so plan on eating while standing or taking it to-go, which we did. It’s pretty dark in there, but with enough light to see some of the yummy cakes on display. We bought a slice of crack pie ®, some birthday cake truffles, and soft served cereal milk ice cream.

These are the birthday cake truffles, with rainbow sprinkles in them. These cake truffles were very sweet.

Remember when you were a kid eating sugary cereals for breakfast and the best part was drinking the sugar infused milk at the end?  Well, momofuku has turned that glorious flavor into soft serve!  The cereal milk soft serve is wildly popular, and you can even add a bit of crunch by sprinkling some crushed cornflakes on it.  Also pictured is a new flavor: blueberry miso.

Here’s the famous crack pie ®! It is a very thin looking pie but very dense. Just a right amount of salty-sweet. The crust is made from oatmeal cookie and the filling is a mix of butter, sugar, heavy whipping cream and other goodies.. but mostly butter! Just one bite and you realize why it’s named Crack Pie. At $44 a pie or $5.25 a slice it better be that good!

When I returned home from NYC I attempted to recreate this pie, which was a big hit!  Recipe here

Top left: Very cool, design-y packaging for the crack pie and cake truffles. Bottom left: Ma peche sign outside the bakery/restaurant. Right: Jen enjoying her cereal milk ice cream. It really tasted like leftover cereal milk!