A Tour of Germany

The next stop on our food and wine journey brought us to the Germany kiosk. We've really enjoyed German food stemming from our many trips to Hallo Berlin and especially because of our mini-trips to Frankfurt and Munich.

Clearly this photo is from our Monday walkaround and not Saturday when we actually ate there and it was a zoo
Germany had a complete menu filled with savory snacks, dessert, wine and beer:


Between the Germany kiosk and the Brewers Collection kiosk, there was a small grassy area set up with wooden tables like a biergarten. It was cute and it added a nice authentic touch.


We split a table with a nice couple enjoying some beers and talking about working v. loving what you do. The festival spirit was definitely alive in the little biergarten which was nice.

First, the goulash soup ($3.50):


The goulash was full of meat. A wasn't sure what to expect since he really didn't know what goulash was besides some sort of soup. He thought it was very reminiscent of a beef and vegetable soup. It didn't have much seasoning, though. From the look of the soup, M was expecting it to be more like a stew. It was relatively heavy on the meat and didn't have a strong flavor, but it also wasn't as soft and melt-in-your-mouth as a stew. On top of all that, it wasn't that easy to get through a cup of hot soup on a very hot day.

Second, nuernberger sausage in a pretzel roll ($4.50):


We love sausages. M doesn't really eat much red meat or pork, but she certainly loves hot dogs and sausages. The sausage itself was nice and soft and had a mild flavor. The pretzel roll was wonderfully soft, slightly salted, and tasted amazingly like a NYC soft pretzel. The mustard was a little spicy, and it finished the flavors of the dish beautifully. The dish was simple but the flavors were good.

And lastly, the dessert - apple strudel featuring Werther's original karamel and vanilla sauce ($3.25):


The strudel was light on apples, but it was full of sugar. Combine the syrup used to cook the apples, the frosting, and the caramel sauce and the dish is chock full of sweetness. The strudel itself wasn't very crisp on top, and as normal the bottom layer was nice and mushy. It would have been nice to have some crispness on top, though. Another dish that wasn't that easy to eat on a hot day, in M's opinion.

The Germany kiosk also had a selection of beers (not as many as the Brewers Collection kiosk next door) and 4 wines from the Selbach-Oster estate. That is the maker of A's favorite riesling ever and was a really nice surprise! They offered a 2009 vintage of the Selbach-Oster Riesling Spatlese which was a far cry from the 2005 vintage that A loves so much. From what he's read, 2005 and 2007 were extremely good years for rieslings, and 2009 was weaker. From the first taste A could tell the difference. The wine didn't have the vibrance or flavor of the 2005 vintage, but it was still light, sweet, and refreshing.

No photo of the wine by itself but you can see it in the goulash photo and the table photo
We had previously eaten at the Germany Pavilion at their lunch buffet, and outside of the pretzel roll, we thought the food inside at the restaurant was much better than the food at the kiosk. If we had more time at Epcot, we probably wouldn't drop by the kiosk again except for the sausage and pretzel roll (and even then, we might not stop by since it was a little pricey for one sausage roll).

Favorite dishes at the Germany kiosk:
A: Pretzel roll sausage
M: Pretzel roll sausage

Korean BBQ and Raspberry Wine

South Korea was our second stop at the festival. With the aroma of delicious barbecue wafting down the pathway, we were drawn to the kiosk for our next snack.


We eat Korean food fairly regularly, so we were looking forward to trying the dishes here to see how they measured up with the stuff we usually get. There were 2 snacks - a pork lettuce wrap and bulgogi with rice - and 3 drinks to choose from. We got both snacks and a cup of wine.


Lettuce wrap with roast pork and kimchi slaw ($3):


We first tried the lettuce wrap, which came with roast pork and kimchi slaw. M didn't find the slaw very spicy, and thought it was more like the carrot and radish mix you usually get on a banh mi sandwich. The lettuce was a little unwieldy since it was one giant piece that didn't fold that easily like a taco. A thought the slaw had absolutely no kimchi flavoring, but he likes pickled carrots and radishes so he wasn't too upset with that. Overall, though, the lettuce wrap was fine, but not that special.

Bulgogi ($4.25):


We liked the other snack much better - bulgogi (sorry, Epcot, can't spell it "boolgogi" like your menu) bbq beef with steamed white rice and kimchi. The kimchi had a nice spice to it and was very refreshing. The bulgogi also had a nice flavor. It was different because it seemed more like it was covered in a bit of sauce as opposed to just relying on marinade. The rice was nice and fluffy, and it really brought the dish together.

Raspberry wine ($3.75):


The one drink we tried was the raspberry wine called MyungJak Bokbunjajoo. They also had soju and an herbal rice wine, but we were intrigued by the raspberry wine. It was a mildly sweet red wine that didn't actually have a lot of raspberry flavor to it. It was very good, though, and we both really enjoyed it.

We thought about returning to the South Korea kiosk (that scent of barbecue is so tempting!) but ran out of time. We'll just have to go to Koreatown for some bulgogi soon!

Favorite dishes at the South Korea kiosk:
A: Bulgogi
M: Bulgogi

Taste of Scandinavia

The first kiosk we visited at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival was Scandinavia. We had been walking around the lagoon looking for a line that wasn't insanely long and this was one of the first we found.


There were 3 dishes at the Scandinavian kiosk: a seafood assortment called "Taste of Scandinavia", Swedish meatballs and a rice pudding dessert. We're generally fans of Scandinavian food and were looking forward to trying everything.


First up, the Taste of Scandinavia ($4):

Left side: cured salmon with mustard; right side: other side of the plate - herring and shrimp salad (with cracker)
The salmon was good. We love smoked salmon and this one was nice and tender. Mustard is always the perfect accompaniment. The herring was pretty good, but not on the same level as the herring we had in Amsterdam at Frens Haringhandel. A's favorite part was the shrimp salad, which was nice and creamy. M can't decide if the shrimp salad or salmon was her favorite part. The dish as a whole was a nice sampling of seafood and very light and refreshing for a hot day.

Next, Swedish meatballs with lingonberries ($3.50):

3 meatballs with gravy and lingonberries
If you've ever eaten at Ikea, you may have gotten the Swedish meatballs with lingonberries there. This was similar but better. Unlike Ikea, these meatballs were all juicy and tender. (Sometimes the Ikea ones can get dry.) A didn't think the lingonberries had much flavor and that Ikea's has more sugar. M found these to be more sweet and the Ikea ones to be more tart. Maybe we need a trip to Ikea soon for a good comparison. Anyway, we really liked the meatballs. Although it was a heavier dish than the seafood, it was comfort food.

Last was dessert - rice pudding with strawberries ($2.75):

Think that kid wants some rice pudding too?
This was excellent. Unlike a lot of rice puddings, this wasn't that sweet. You could really taste the rice in the rice pudding. It was light and delicious with a nuanced flavor. We were big fans. The strawberries were also so fresh and good. We were hoping to get another one before leaving, but didn't have a chance. This might have been our favorite dessert at the festival (still trying to figure out our faves). So simple but so good.

There were also some drinks there - Carlsberg beer and 2 Xante (a pear spirit) drinks. We ended up not trying any of them. We were more interested in the food at this kiosk.

Favorite dishes at the Scandinavia kiosk:
A: Rice pudding (followed by shrimp salad)
M: Rice pudding (followed by meatballs)

Epcot Food and Wine Overview

Before we start recapping the individual kiosks at this year's Epcot Food and Wine Festival (and yes, we went to all of them), how about an overview? We mentioned the festival and the 29 kiosks in the previous post but didn't provide that much detail about the festival, so here you go.

Couldn't resist posting a photo full of Chef Duffy bears. They're adorable and he's wearing a commemorative apron for the festival, so it's relevant.
Epcot has been hosting this food and wine festival for 16 years. We first heard about it a few years ago (coincidentally, near the time we started working and could actually take vacations during the "school year"). It's been on our list of things to do since then but we never made it there between wedding planning trips and other vacations. This year was the year! Every year the festival is a little different, as they introduce new kiosks and switch others up. It's a good incentive to keep going to see how things change. It goes from the end of September through the beginning of November, so it's a nice off-peak trip.

In addition to the food and drinks, they have demonstrations, book events and special parties and tastings that you have to pay for. We decided to just go for the regular food and not any of the special pay events. There is also a concert every night. While we were there, Starship featuring Mickey Thomas was playing, but the featured act changes every few days.

Check out our passport stamps!
As you make your way around the lagoon trying the different kiosks, you can get a stamp in your passport showing that you visited that country (or region, or state, as the case may be). Once you have a passport full of stamps, there is a completion stamp you can get on the first page of the passport. You don't get anything special for finishing other than the stamp (and self-satisfaction at visiting all the kiosks), but it still adds to the fun.

There are also groups that come to the festival every year to drink around the world, often with team names and matching shirts. I'm not sure how much they actually eat, but there is plenty of drinking going on. We were "lucky" enough to attend on a Saturday, which seems to be not only the most crowded day when the lines are absolutely insane but unofficial drink around the world day. It was amazing how much better the crowds were on Sunday and Monday. If there is one piece of advice we can leave, it would be to avoid Saturday if you can help it. Epcot was open an hour later on Saturday, which was nice, but we would rather avoid the craziness.

We're going to blog about all the different kiosks (in the order we visited them) and tell you our favorites at each kiosk. At the end, we're going to try to pick out our 10 favorites (perhaps ranking them, perhaps not; we haven't decided yet). There may be some overlap similar to our favorite foods of 2010 lists, but we're keeping them secret until then, so you'll have to stay tuned (and we'll have to try to finish!). First stop, Scandinavia!

Epcot Food and Wine Festival

Hello from Orlando, Florida!


We're here celebrating our anniversary by going to the International Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. In addition to special events, there are 29 booths around the World Showcase area of Epcot with food and (alcoholic) drinks from different parts of the world. (Can't really say all over the world as there are large parts of the world that are not represented by the kiosks, such as Russia, India, sub-Saharan Africa other than South Africa, etc...) It's been a fun and tasty (albeit insanely crowded) experience which we're enjoying at our favorite part of Disney. Since we've already written about how we want to eat "around the world", this is definitely our type of fun.

This also gives us something else to recap (adding to our list, which includes the 2010 Europe trip, our Aegean honeymoon, our Babbo pasta feast, the SI food truck festival, the 2011 Vendy Awards, our trip to Portland, and anything else I might be forgetting). Maybe we'll start the FW Festival recaps now while we will still remember what things taste like... and someday maybe we'll finish everything else...

Walnut Pesto

Today I went to Hale and Hearty for some soup even though it was over 80 degrees.  I was originally going for the split pea with turkey but they ran out.  Instead of waiting another 5 minutes, I decided to go for the asparagus, potato and leek. I wrote about that soup once before (just over a year ago!) but the last time I got it the temperature was ~30 degrees cooler.  We're really having a warm spell this October (not complaining).

 

I got the monthly special sandwich - grilled chicken with feta cheese and walnut pesto.  The sandwich description sounded delicious - sliced grilled chicken with "savory walnut pesto, topped with crumbled feta cheese, sliced tomato, red onion and baby arugula" on their signature ciabatta square.

 

It was really good.  I like most of their sandwiches on ciabatta (since the ciabatta is not hard and has just the right chewiness) and find the balance between the meat, cheese and veggies to be good. The only thing that confused me was that I couldn't tell it was walnut pesto.  It just tasted like any other pesto to me.  That was fine, since I'm not a huge nut person, but I had been curious how walnut pesto would be different from regular pesto.  But that was only a fleeting thought as I ate the sandwich.  I really liked it.  Perhaps I should try all the monthly sandwiches to see how good they are.

Lapsang Souchong

If you're familiar with lapsang souchong tea, what is it supposed to smell like?

 

I can't find any of my boxes of tea in my office (despite moving offices months ago, I still have not really unpacked), so I am working on the random assortment of tea in the only box I can find.  Most of it is herbal or caffeine free tea, so the remaining supply is slowly dwindling. I picked out the last bag of lapsang souchong tea this afternoon and the first few whiffs of tea reminded me of what I always think when I make lapsang souchong.

 

It reminds me of Quaker instant grits in country bacon flavor.

 

Crazy, right?  Is it because they're both a little bit smoky? I don't know exactly why it reminds me of grits but it's the first thing I think of every single time I uncover my cup of lapsang souchong tea. I haven't even eaten that flavor of grits since I was a kid and used to get the assorted grits pack at the grocery store. Is this association normal?

Dave's Catch

I have been reliving the delicious fish sandwiches we got in Maui two years ago and as a result, have been really craving a good fish sandwich. I saw this tweet at lunchtime from Tri Tip Grill (I usually go there for salads) and knew I had to go:


The sandwich, according to the wall chalkboard at Tri Tip that usually displays the specials, was called "Dave's Catch." (I liked how it showed up on the receipt as "Dave's Catch!!" The enthusiasm made me smile.) It consisted of the fish sandwich and seasoned waffle fries:

Confession: I ate some of the fries before taking this photo since I was hungry
As I've mentioned before, I'm trying to avoid fries unless they seem like they will be something other than boring and ordinary fries. I would have asked about substitutions but then I saw they were seasoned waffle fries, so I went for it.


I was not unhappy with that choice. The seasoning was good. The fries weren't that crisp but I'm not a stickler for super crisp fries, so it was OK with me. (And the softness of the fries isn't from the transport - I was so hungry that I ate a few before walking back...)

I wasn't sure what steelhead was when I saw the tweet other than a type of fish. (Google informed me that it was a type of rainbow trout. If you want to know more, go here.) After having the sandwich, it seems like it is very similar to salmon.


The sandwich made me happy. It wasn't as good as the fish in Maui, but how do you beat fish that is walked out of the ocean and right into a restaurant (we saw that happen at our wedding brunch)? Two years ago yesterday, we went to Paia Fish Market which has the best fish sandwich I have ever eaten (at least I can't think of a better one right now) - an excellent ono burger. This steelhead sandwich wasn't quite on that level, but it hit the spot for my fish sandwich craving.

A salmon-like fish can be tough because it can easily get dry. This one was not. It came with spicy mayo but the sauce wasn't overwhelming and complemented the fish really well. The lettuce, tomato and onion toppings were all really fresh. And finishing it off was a nice soft white bread roll. I was glad that it wasn't some hard baguette like some other places would use. The fish piece didn't quite fit into the bread since it was more round and the bread was more long. Perhaps a round roll would have made it easier to eat, but if that's my biggest complaint, it must have been a good sandwich!

Although I don't actually eat tri tip, Tri Tip Grill is one of my favorite places to grab lunch. Everything I have gotten there has been of the highest quality. I would definitely get "Dave's Catch" again!

Tri Tip Grill is located in the Rockefeller Center Concourse.

Lahaina Grill Memories

Following in M's train of thought, I thought I would write about our food memories from 2 years ago today. Today, back in 2009, M and I were in Maui preparing for our wedding. And by preparing, we both meant going around and eating at all of our favorite restaurants. It's fairly amusing when we think about it. Most people starve themselves in an effort to avoid gaining weight before their wedding. We went the opposite direction. From our trips to Maui to plan our wedding, we found some favorite restaurants that we knew we had to enjoy during our time there.

One favorite is Lahaina Grill. The food and the service are simply amazing, and they are well deserving of all of the accolades and awards they have received throughout the years. Our first visit to the restaurant back in 2008 we showed up in VERY casual clothes. I was wearing a sleeveless Under Armour shirt with board shorts, and M was wearing gym shorts and a tanktop on top of her bikini. We felt and looked so under-dressed, but the wait staff were perfectly nice, and they didn't make any mention of our attire.

This time around we were dressed much more appropriately. Every meal starts off with their fresh baked rolls and garlic herb butter. We normally don't eat butter, and M usually makes a point to avoid it as much as possible, but the Lahaina Grill garlic herb butter is so good that it is worth the exception.

Bread and Garlic Herb Butter
The warm, fresh rolls melted the butter perfectly. It was infused with so much garlic that you can barely taste regular butter flavor.

After a few rolls each (we always eat too many) we moved on to our appetizers which were a pair of salads. I had the beet salad, and M had their signature toy box tomato salad.

Toy Box Tomato Salad and Beet Salad
Because Maui grows almost all of their fruits and vegetables on the island, there's an amazing freshness to pretty much everything they cook. The Toy Box Tomato Salad was so simple, but it was so unbelievably tasty. Baby tomatoes and Maui onions tossed in extra virgin olive oil and dressed with an organic basil honey vinaigrette served in a martini glass. Simple in its preparation, complex on its flavor. The sweetness and juiciness of the tomatoes were far beyond anything we had ever gotten from the grocery stores in the continental US states, and the light coating of dressing added just enough acidity to complete the dish. The beet salad tasted just as fresh even though the beets were pickled. It was a special of the day so we don't have the exact ingredient list, but we know it contained beets, watercress, a lettuce blend, and goat cheese covered crostinis. Again, these beets tasted so much fresher and better than any beets we'd ever eaten. Pair them with the saltiness of the goat cheese crostinis, and it's another simple yet flavorful dish.

Next we moved on to our main courses. We were in Maui, we got fish. It was not a hard decision. M got the sauteed wild pacific salmon served with local spinach, local tomatoes, local asparagus, and thyme scented wild rice. I got the sauteed mahi mahi with local spinach, herb mashed potatoes, gorgonzola, pancetta, and chardonnay beurre blanc.

M's Salmon and my Mahi Mahi
M's dish was the better of the two, but that's because I didn't follow the golden rule of eating fresh vegetables and seafood. Keep it simple. M's salmon dish did just that. Grilled vegetables, sauteed salmon, and rice. There was no additional sauce, just the oil and liquid released from the vegetables and aromatics. Simple flavors and simple preparation turned into full and rich flavor. My mahi mahi was heavier because of the beurre blanc, but it was still surprisingly light. The mashed potatoes and gorgonzola were very heavy, though. Still, the flavors were big and bold, and it was a very enjoyable dish.

Finally we got to dessert. One of my most favorite desserts in the whole world is key lime pie. Lahaina Grill doesn't offer a key lime pie, though. Instead, they have the Iao Valley Lime Tart.

Iao Valley Lime Tart
We discovered this dessert on our first trip ever to Lahaina Grill. Iao Valley is a fertile valley in the northern, central area of Maui. They apparently grow limes that taste basically the exact same as key limes but just more concentrated in flavor. The crust is also not a traditional graham cracker crust. It's a macadamia nut graham cracker crust. The mac nuts make it even richer in flavor, and the filling is just like an amazing key lime pie but so much fresher and lighter somehow. It's so good that I'm almost 100% certain that it would make my top 10 dishes of all time list if I were to make one.

Lahaina Grill is a fantastic restaurant. The only drawback is that it's not a cheap restaurant. If you're looking for an amazing meal full of fresh, clean flavors then we definitely recommend Lahaina Grill. The food and service will blow you away.

Pineapple Lunch

The Pineapple Grill in Kapalua, Maui will always hold a special place in our hearts. After our wedding ceremony, we held our cocktail hour and wedding dinner at the Pineapple Grill, and it was absolutely wonderful. The food was wonderful, the service was impeccable and the whole dinner just felt really special. We were so happy with how it turned out and I have a feeling that we will return on every future trip to Maui.

We visited the Pineapple Grill on every one of our trips to Maui. Two years ago today, we went there to go over some last minute details for the dinner. We decided to combine it with lunch to make sure we could make it to all of our meetings and tried the lunch menu for the first time (we usually went at dinner). It was great and we would highly recommend it.


We started out with an appetizer - a basket of crispy onion rings with sriracha ketchup. I love onion rings and these were perfectly crispy. The sriracha ketchup was a nice change from regular ketchup.


A got panko crusted island fish & chips. A loves fish & chips and these were good and not too heavily battered. This came with pineapple cole slaw, which was refreshing and light.


I got the fresh island catch sandwich, which was blackened mahi mahi, on a Maui onion roll. The sandwich came with one side and I chose the garden salad instead of fries in an attempt to eat healthy before the wedding (that didn't last as I ate nachos at lunch on the wedding day). I liked the side salad because it wasn't the typical iceberg lettuce salad that you get, but it was full of tasty field greens.


The sandwich was excellent. I love getting fish sandwiches in Maui because the fish is so fresh and you can taste the difference. It was cooked perfectly. The only problem with recapping our meals from Maui is that I wish I could get one of these tomorrow and it would be impossible here. Nowhere here has a fish sandwich this fresh and tasty.


We decided to get some dessert and got the sorbet sampler - pineapple, guava and passion fruit. Flavors that remind me of Hawaii. Fresh fruit from the island can only made sorbet better. And I love sorbet.


We also got the banana bread pudding, which we had tried before and which is rich and delicious. It came with fresh bananas, vanilla ice cream (from Roselani, a Maui company), vanilla anglaise and caramel. Such an indulgence.


It's so hard to remember exactly what we thought of everything since it's been so long, but the one thing I do remember is that it was really, really good. If you find yourself in Maui, we recommend the Pineapple Grill without hesitation and have never had anything there that we didn't like. We can't wait to go back!

No Tacos

Apparently today was National Taco Day. Somehow, despite my taco obsession, I missed that. I even got lunch from a cart called Tacos y Quesadillas Mexico, but didn't get tacos. How is this possible?


There were so many options at the cart that it took me awhile to decide. Did I want a torta? Did I want huaraches? Did I want tacos? Maybe a quesadilla? Chorizo, chicken, tinga, lengua, what to get?


I eventually decided on a chorizo huarache. When I went to El Rey for the first time, I got a huarache and not tacos since I was missing Country Boys (the huarache truck at Red Hook) so much. I figured, why not do the same here and see how the huaraches are? I have loved huaraches since the first one I tried at Country Boys and am always looking for places that make good ones. (Side note: How have we never written about huaraches before?!)


If you've never had a huarache before, it consists of a fried masa base topped with meat (chorizo in this case), beans, cheese, spicy green sauce, lettuce and other good stuff. Here's a closer look:


This huarache was delicious. I wasn't sure how well it would travel and I had a few blocks to go to get back to the office, so I figured it would be a soggy mess that I would have to eat with a fork like the El Rey ones (not that I object that much to that as the flavor is still there). I was pleasantly surprised to find that the huarache had stayed crispy; I could fold it and eat it with my hands without it falling apart. In fact, it didn't fall apart at all. That's a winner in my book. I will definitely be returning to this cart to try out more stuff. I am excited that I finally made it there and want another huarache!

Andale

Two years ago today, we flew to Maui to begin our wedding week! This was such an exciting time in our lives and I remember it as vividly as if it were only a few months ago. I can't wait to relive it all again.

For the first time on our trips to Maui, our journey took us through San Francisco International Airport. The first trip we took together to Maui was through LAX, where we lunched at Baja Fresh, and the second was through Dallas, where we tried out the BBQ at Cousin's. (As a side note, I do not recommend flying through Dallas on the way to Hawaii. It makes for a very, very long trip.) We were curious what SFO would bring, since the food courts there were supposed to be better.

A went for Chinese food (maybe he'll blog about that), but I chose to stop at Andale, the Mexican option in the food court. By now, it shouldn't be at all surprising that I was in the mood for tacos.


I got the two taco combo, but since the crispy tacos are smaller than the soft tacos, they give you 2 crispy tacos which count as one taco. Nice! In addition to the tacos, the platter came with rice and beans. I also went to the salsa bar and picked up some red and green salsas (can't remember what they were) which were good. I couldn't stop taking pictures of the tacos; they were so photogenic.


It's been so long that I don't remember which taco I liked better, but I remember that both were good. The soft taco came with grilled chicken, onion and cilantro. I love simple Mexican tacos which are just meat, onion and cilantro. So tasty. It also helps that I love onion and cilantro a lot. The crispy tacos came with guajillo chicken, guacamole, salsa, sour cream, cotija cheese and lettuce. I also remember these being delicious, and I love the crunch of crispy tacos. I hope that someday taco night will become a dinner tradition!

After indulging in delicious tacos, it was time to head to Maui!

Sam's Falafel

Another nominee for the Vendy Cup was Sam's Falafel, which is usually located in the Financial District. I think that, during the short time I worked downtown, I went there for lunch once but it's been years and I can't remember for sure. I definitely went to a falafel place located in the park where Sam's is located, and it was the one with the long line, so I think that was it.

At the Vendy's, they were offering a large platter of food:


But when we dropped by, they were preparing their platters for the judges:


We were already getting pretty full by the time we got to Sam's cart, so instead we focused on the sample falafel balls on the table:


And tried out the falafel covered in tahini:


It was good. We were getting falafel-ed out because we were so full, so I don't think we would rank this as high as Taim, which we had eaten earlier at the event. I would have been interested in trying the rest of the platter or tasting the falafel in combination with things other than tahini, but we just lacked the stomach space or time. I can't imagine doing a falafel taste test to find the best falafel. I think you would get so incredibly full!

Coffee and Donuts

The September 2011 Friday Shake Shack flavor is Coffee & Donuts. The flavor itself is straightforward. It is coffee flavored custard with Doughnut Plant donuts broken up and mixed in. M and I both knew this would be more my thing because she doesn't like coffee.


The custard itself wasn't bad. M and I both agree that the custard was very coffee flavored. The donuts were much more understated than they are in the Jelly's Last Donut concrete that they offer as well. It was almost as if the donuts themselves were made with less flavor. Still, the coffee custard was very tasty to me. It tasted like a really good, smooth, creamy frozen coffee drink.

A's rank: 7/10
M's rank: 4.5/10

Apple Spice Cake

When I saw apple spice cake as the Sunday custard for October, I was really excited. The custards with the word "cake" in their names usually seem to be better since they mix in cake. I couldn't wait to try it.


To make sure we got to try it, we stopped by our local Shack for dessert tonight. I thought the custard was good - apple and spice, as described - but I was really disappointed to find that there wasn't actually cake in it. That makes it more like the pumpkin pie custard. It has the flavor of the cake/pie but none of the textural difference. A thought it was just OK. He was also expecting actual cake mixed in - or apples - but in the end, felt like it was mostly cinnamon. The flavor itself was pretty good but we expected more. We were hoping this would be another custard to add to our "must get again" list but I don't think it made it.

Apple Spice Cake
A's rating: 7/10
M's rating: 7/10

October Custard Calendar

I went to the Shake Shack site while writing the post on the concretes and was pleasantly surprised to see the October custard calendar already up!


We are really excited about this month's flavors which means we're going to have to go to the gym and/or do some other form of exercise regularly. We love fall flavors and this lineup looks good. We've had Shackenstein, coconut caramel and pumpkin pie before (and maybe s'mores and fluffernutter, but we're not sure about those), and I think they were good (although, since we were at the start of the custard challenge, we were a little generous on the pumpkin pie numerical ratings). We are really excited for ginger pear and apple spice cake. I think I am excited for any custard with the word "cake" in the flavor name. Can't wait to try those out!

Pineapple Upper East Side Cake

Although we have a Shake Shack in our neighborhood, we love visiting other Shacks. One thing we like is that all the Shacks have different concrete menus. They name the concretes to fit with the neighborhood. For example, our local Shack has one called The Great White Way. Tonight we visited the Upper East Side Shack and got to try the Pineapple Upper East Side Cake concrete for the first time.


The 3 concretes at the UES Shack were coffee bean brownie (I was intrigued by the brownie but less by the coffee bean), chocolate peanut butter crunchcrete (chocolate + pb + toffee + sprinkles = probably good) and the pineapple upper east side cake. I had wanted to try the pineapple one since the first time we saw the UES menu, so we got that one. Some of the proceeds also went to a nonprofit so it was for a good cause.

The concrete has vanilla custard, fresh pineapple, shortbread, caramel and maraschino cherries. We thought it was just OK. We did like the pineapples in it, but we felt like the shortbread was too hard. If it's supposed to be similar to a pineapple upside down cake, we were expecting something more "cake-y" like a lot of the things they mix into their custards. It just fell short of our expectations. Next time, we'll try the chocolate peanut butter crunchcrete!