In the land of Brooklyn, just a few blocks from The Music Hall of Williamsburg lies The Mast Brothers Chocolate Factory. Of course, to call it a factory is a bit of a stretch. What’s closer to the truth is calling it a brick enclosed love nest for cacao nibs and beard aficionados. They’re the 21st century version of Willy Wonka, with the cane swapped out for a fixed gear bike and the Loompa diddy upgraded to an iPhone stocked with Phoenix and The XX.
I first heard about the Brothers Mast a few months back after perusing a photo essay over at The Selby, but to be honest I thought they’re were full of it. Sure, they had the swag down to a T. And sure, maybe I was more than a little jealous that they could pull off the Iron & Wine Beard/Vest combo so well. But at $9.99-$11.99 a bar, was their chocolate actually that good?
Well, yesterday I stopped in Murray’s Cheese Shop in The Village and finally bought a bar. It was their Dark Chocolate/Coffee bar, a tag team done with Portland based roasters Stumptown Coffee. And. It. Was. Amazing. For real. It’s the real deal. Fuck that Hershey’s nonsense. Or anything else, for that matter. I finally get how chocolate could be an aphrodisiac. It was sexy. A sexy bar of chocolate. Unctuous and unreal.
So, without working myself up into another froth, let me just leave it at this: BUY MAST BROTHERS CHOCOLATE. Support them in any way, shape, or form. Grow a solidarity beard, if need be. But better tasting (and less itchy) is to just buy the bars. They use Fleur de Sel and Sea Salt. We need them.
For those of you who haven’t reviewed the history of Antarctic explorations for a while, you might not be familiar with the Irish adventurer Ernest Shackleton, who spent a great deal of time en route to the bottom of the world. For those of you who haven’t seen the light of day since your 10th birthday, you might not be familiar with Scotch, a whisky caramel in color and tasting of the spirited combination of love and magic it was distilled from. Guess who kept two cases of Mackinlay’s finest in the snowy tundra to warm his spirits? That’s right: and now historians and Scotch aficionados alike are kicking off their own expeditions to bring this adventure fuel back to civilization and into our glasses. (More…)
I kind of always forget about Heston Blumenthal. Even though he’s a molecular gastronomist, he just doesn’t seem to get the same kind of press that the other guys do. And as the perpetual second fiddle to Ferran Adrià (that Nitro Caipirinha looks amazing), at least in terms of world rankings, he just sort of…hangs in limbo. Or maybe it’s just me. Anyway, I caught his Christmas special last night and it was quite interesting. The basic concept is that he mixes molecular gastronomy and Christmas dinner. But the real star is that intro…boy is it catchy. So, if you’ve got an hour to spare, Heston’s definitely worth watching.
I had recently written what I thought would be the only post I would ever do on gingerbread houses, but I stand corrected. Apparently, there’s a whole gingerbread subculture that I had, until recently, been blissfully unaware of. But here it is: new frontiers in gingerbread grottos. Designs were created by architects and auctioned off to charity, with some going for as much as $600. More photos after the jump. See all of the designs here.
“Clever” and “Gingerbread” are not two words I would expect to go together. But…this is pretty clever. Definitely a good idea for a home or coffee shop. Get the pattern here. Read the rest of the story here.
From the fine folks over at The Pancake Project, comes this flour and jelly masterpiece. Wicked. Check out the rest of their pancake fueled creations here.
