Category Archives: food

King Cake From Sucre

[Sponsored Post.] A few weeks ago, I got an email from Andy at FSC Interactive asking if I wanted a King Cake from Sucre, a bakery based in New Orleans. A King Cake is a Mardi Gras Cake that is a coffee cake. It is usually a ring of twisted bread similar to that used in brioche topped with icing or sugar usually colored purple, green, and gold.

king cake 005
The cake was delivered via UPS on Thursday in a special King Cake box.

king cake with mardi gras beads
The King Cake came Mardi Gras Beads, and they were the good ones not like the cheap one from 99cents store.

king cake
I brought the cake over to my friend Anita’s place. She is from New Orleans, so would be a perfect person to share the cake with. She heated up the cake for 10 minutes, and we ate with tea. The cake was delicious with a cream cheese filling. If you want to order a King Cake from Sucre, then you can order it online. The cake is $19 and the shipping is $9.95.

Niche List: The Collander For Your Calendar

Years ago, I had an email newsletter, then a blog named “Nichelle Newsletter”. Both of those extinct vehicles were used to spread the word about cool stuff and promote events that I love.  It seems that a list is needed again, if only so that I can keep up with events I may be going to.  Hopefully I will run this weekly on Tuesday nights/Wednesday mornings since that is the best time for me and I will only post up to five things.  So here goes!

Friday October 16 Royal Flush party at Crash Mansion. Open Bar. 4 bands. (Sounds like a clusterf#@k, but I am a sucker for parties thrown by obscure magazines.) Topic? Animal? Anyone?!

Tuesday October 20 Emily Farris’ 5th Annual Casserole Crazy Party at Brooklyn Label. I will be judging the casserole contest along with Tom Mylan and Rachel Wharton.  6:30PM

Tuesday October 20 Erin and Her Cello performing at Googie’s (Upstairs at Living Room) at part of CMJ 11:30PM [Client]

Wednesday October 21 #140Conf Meetup at MSNBC Digital Cafe. I will be speaking. 5PM.

Friday October 23 New Work City First Anniversary Party. 200 Varick is my second home. 8PM

If you know me, then you may know Matt, so check out his Consortium List which usually comes out on Sunday nights.

The Week In Links (World Record, Going Home)

August 021

It’s Sunday, and I can’t wait until the season premiere of “Mad Men”. I just ate homemade pound cake with butter pecan ice cream at my parent’s house. When I get back to NYC, I am going to work on losing weight and making lifestyle changes to get rid of my spare tire. But first, I am going to recap all the food I ate this week.

August 023

Saturday, I went to Birmingham for a big family fish fry. My dad and uncle fried fish (tilapia and whitening) as well as shrimp. It was delicious.

August 002

Friday, I had a little sweetup at Sweet Pockets in Atlanta, and I really enjoyed our small group. My mom and her friends came.

cupcake kebab closeups

Rachel, Nora and I set a world record building the longest cupcake kebab for URDB. BTW, I highly recommend watching Food Party, Thu Tran’s show on IFC. She’s hilarious.

The Week In Links: Zines, UnFancy Food and RIP

NYC Zine Fest

What a crazy week was last week! First off, I want to send my condolences out to the families of Neda, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Billy Mays.

Sunday, I went to the Unfancy Food Show at East River Bar in Williamsburg. It was so much good food. I ate pickles, beef jerky, ice cream and a shepherd’s pie-like beef pattie. UPDATE: I was quoted in the New York Times.

Saturday, I stopped by the NYC Zine Fest at the Brooklyn Lyceum and was amazed at all the cool zines. It was nice chatting with Ayun Halliday who is the founder of the zine East Village Inky.

Thursday, I drank jargaritas at Obliterati.

Wednesday, I listened to David Carr read from his memoir, The Night of The Gun.

Tuesday, I attended the Microsoft Preview party. The HTC Snap is the phone I would love to get and the “Inner Circle” button is cool.

Salty Caramel Yumminess

June 021

First you know this fact: salt plus caramel is a wonderful thing! When I walked around Design Within Reach in Soho sampling the desserts created by Oceana Pastry Chef Jansen Chen, I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the plate of salty caramel mini donuts. I took a bite and it was love. It was so delicious that I even licked a litle caramel off my pinky finger. There were also cookies, little blueberry cakes, panna cotta and fruit foccacia, but that salty caramel filled donut is the reason I will venture up to Midtown. BTW, Oceana is moving later this summer, September 1st, in a new location at 1221 Avenue of the Americas.

My Cupcakes Bring All The Boys To The Yard

my cupcakes, originally uploaded by nichellest.

Sunday, Cupcakes Take The Cake had a bake sale at the Brooklyn Flea and raise $700 for Cupcakes For A Cause. If you want to contribute, go buy a cupcake today at either Baked, Crumbs, or one of the many bakeries across the country.

Tuesday I ate well thanks to Foodbuzz, learned how to make risotto thanks to Chef Brad Steelman from River Cafe and learned about induction cooking thanks to Electrolux.

Wednesday, I drank champagne, got some free Jo Malone performe samples and listened to jazz musician Marcus Goldhaber.

Baked Book Party and FreshDirect Event

Nato, Matt, Niche and RKB, originally uploaded by nichellest.

Tonight, I went to the book party for Baked at PowerHouse Arena in DUMBO. Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, the owners of Baked in Red Hook, have written their first cookbook,  Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, which is full of delicious recipes for cakes, brownies, whoopie pies and cupcakes. The Chocolate Malted cupcakes pictured above are so yummy!

Artisanal Cheese and Wine At USQ

Before going to the Baked event, I stopped by the FreshDirect event at Union Square Wine and Spirits.  The event was to promote the FreshDirect’s new online wine store partnership With USQ Wine Store.  There was cheese and wine pairings, sake with edamame,  a few Spanish wines and a really spicy ginger cocktail made with Canton.  I especially liked the Llopart Rose Brut Cava so I may get some for the holidays since they will be here soon.  At the event, I met a couple of writers from Crain’s,  a very cool former model who is a foodie, and actress Robin Mattson who played Heather on General Hospital back in the day. Plus, I talked to fellow foodbuzz blogger Miss Ginsu and the very nice publicists at MWW.

Comfort @ O At Home

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Last night I went to the O at Home event at the Hearst Tower. The theme was comfort and the speakers were Thom Filicia, Personal Finance Expert Jean Chatzky and Chef Art Smith.

Thom Filicia formerly of Queer Eye and current host of Dress My Next advises the audience about to bring more comfort into your home with interior design. He highly recommends personalizing your home with a mix of textures. He emphasized having a plan for the space and find furnishings, colors, pillows that fit how you will use the space.

Jean Chatzky spoke to the audience about financial comfort. She has a great book, Make Money Not Excuses, and she talked about how to stop using excuses and deal with your personal finances. As an entrepreneur, you need to look at both business and personal finances to succeed in your goals.

She outlined four simple steps to be richer.

1. Make a decent living.
2. Spend less than what you make.
3. Invest. Have your money work for you.
4. Protect yourself from the unexpected. Sock away money for emergencies.

Chef Art Smith prepared the delicious food which included shots of gazpacho, mini crab burgers with bacon and tiny cups of macaroni and cheese.
I hung out with MediaPost’s Kelly Samardak and talked to some cool women including Shannon from Krupp and Danica Lo from the New York Post.

I only wish there was more food and more opportunity to talk with the crowd. Name tags would have been good because people are likely to introduce themselves when they see your name. It was a very informative event.

Bones, [no] Thugs and Harmony

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Saturday, originally uploaded by nichellest.

I’m in Atlanta visiting the fam. My sister has this adorable little dog named Star who is 10 weeks old.

My dad made the most tasty BBQ ribs on Saturday. They were bone-sucking good. 🙂 Sunday, my family and I went for brunch at The Pecan, a delicious soul food restaurant in downtown College Park. The pepperjack grits are so good.

I got a copy of this new eco-magazine, Boho.