Last Saturday I was signed up for a cake making class at Momofuku Milk Bar, Brooklyn! While that alone is reason enough for me to jump on the train to NYC, hurriedly hop on the subway to Brooklyn and then run the rest of the way on foot to Momofuku Milk Bar - I decided to make a whole day’s adventure out of it.

A gorgeous day in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn - with so much to explore and experience at every turn, it truly is an adventure-seeker’s dream come true.

My first stop was at Mast Brothers chocolate factory and store. Can’t tell you how long I had been waiting to visit this gem. I had read so many articles about this business. I also read that a lot of high-end restaurants are using the Mast Brothers product on their restaurant’s dessert menus. Then I tried one such dessert at Craft Butchery’s Pi dinner in Westport… and I instantly fell in love with this deeply luxurious and rich flavored chocolate. To my delight, Mast Brothers have just opened another store that sells chocolate based drinks…. just a few doors down from their chocolate factory and store. And on this particular day - free samples of their drinks and their chocolate chip cookies were being handed out to visitors. Jackpot!!!

Lunchtime was calling my name… and I wanted to experience something new. I have already done the Smorgasburg thing… and also The Meatball Shop. Hmm…. what to do? Luckily, the answer became crystal clear to me as I approached Momofuku Milk Bar for my class a little later that day. Saltie! A cute little sandwich shop just next to Milk Bar. With a smallish menu which is rather biggish in flavors and creativity… it turned out to be a great choice! I had the Balmy sandwich (chicken liver pate, ham, jalapenos mayo, pickled veg and sesame seeds on a housemade foccacia.. WOW!)

The cake making class at Momofuku Milk Bar was a super-fun experience. Walking through the factory where all the yummy goodness is baked and shipped from, seeing sheets after sheets of cakes lined up and ready for assembly - it was quite the scene! The whole vibe in the classroom as well as the factory was so fun and friendly - just as you would expect from a Momofuku establishment. Our class was focused on the chocolate chip cake with passion fruit cream. Have you tried it? It has dynamite flavors! We also used all the scraps of unused cakes and made cake truffles out of them. The multi-tiered cake and the truffles were ours to take home and show-off to friends and family…. which I did dutifully. Ha! Ha!

Finally, it was dinnertime and I could not resist dining at The Gorbals - a brand new addition to Williamsburg. Top Chef season 2 winner, Ilan Hall brings super creative menu with delightfully unexpected flavors to this really cool space inside the Urban Outfitters store! I was dining by myself (love doing that because it tends to get me the best seats in the house) and got seated right at the counter looking into the kitchen. Since the restaurants is only a few days young, chef Ilan Hall was there interacting and working with the chefs and making sure dinner-service went smoothly. It was so cool to get such an up-close and personal experience of this chef whom I had known so well and admired only on the TV screen up until now. Seated right by the kitchen gave me an exceptional opportunity to enjoy foodie-chats between chef Hall and his staff as he guided them on the correct way to execute dishes. Everything that came out to my table was perfection - in textures, temperatures and flavors. The Bacon Wrapped Matzoh Balls and the Beef Marrow are a must try! The complimentary Crispy Pork Skins were out of this world and dangerously addictive! The flavors and textures of the Banh Mi Poutine is sure to make you do a double-take! But the highlight of my evening was when Chef Ilan prepared my dessert (Toffee Pudding) from scratch ….. and then he came to my table personally- to serve me! Talk about dreams coming true!

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