After months – nay, years – of wishing and hoping I’d get to go to this New York City hidden gem, it happened. My friend and I had a few free hours at the end of a NYC work trip, so I made her promise to accompany me to the East Village for some crack pie at Momofuku Milk Bar.
Momofuku is ridiculously hard to find. The cab driver was like, “You’re looking for a restaurant? This address is a neighborhood.” Then we arrived (indeed, in a neighborhood) and there was no sign – just the number on the door.
Then, we had to walk down this discreet passageway beside the dining room before we got to our goal: the milk bar. I don’t know much about milk bars – except to say that they sell really good milk. The whole idea confuses me. Here are some reasons why:
- Their milkshakes have alcohol in them. What kind? How much? How does it taste? These are questions for my next visit.
- Their milk is flavored. With things like “pumpkin pie” and “cereal.”
- The cute girl behind the bar said to not mind any lumps in the milk, as that is just the whole-milk solids or something.
- They have black sesame croissants. (this is just cool)
- They sell Stumptown coffee!!! (Yay Oregon!)
Our “lunch” consisted of one cereal and one strawberry milk, the notorious “compost cookie” and the legendary crack pie.
First, on the milk. OMG. Mine was strawberry, and it tasted like a smooth, cool strawberry milkshake. But better.
Next, the compost cookie. Here are just some of the ingredients: chocolate, butterscotch, coffee grounds, peanuts, oats, pretzels, POTATO CHIPS. Okay, Momofuku has mastered the salty-and-sweet technique. The cookie tasted like, well, the best cookie I’ve ever had. I can’t wait to bring home more.
Finally, the crack pie. As you’ll remember, when I made it, it was yummy, but had issues. The pie was super sticky on the bottom and the texture seemed a bit off. I know these things because Momofuku’s crack pie corrected all these problems. The crust was homogeneous in texture and perfectly contained the custard. However, it tasted the same as mine. Mostly. I think the crusts were the most different – mine maybe needed to be more finely crumbled. Observe:
Momofuku's crack pie
My crack pie
Crack pie is something I hope you all can experience in your life. As is this weird thing called a milk bar and the difficult-to-pronounce Momofuku.
xoxo
Seasoned to Taste 