The croissant that thinks it's a pretzel

I don't want you to think I'm fixated by carbs or anything (the truth is I am) but it's hard to avoid them in New York. And my second great find, introduced to me by the wonderful Dorie Greenspan, is the Pretzel croissant at City Bakery.

Actually Dorie's not alone. There are so many people obsessed with this croissant that the City Bakery has a dedicated website for it. (There's also a rather bizarre black and white YouTube video of them making it - or maybe another croissant - inexplicably backed by the soundtrack from My Fair Lady. But persevere through 'The Rain in Spain'. There's a great sequence of them rolling them out.)

Anyway the croissant is just heavenly. Less fatty and flakier than a typical French croissant with salt and sesame seeds sprinkled over the top it has the sweet-salty-crunchy appeal of salted caramels. I also loved their apple sauce cakes with bourbon raisins (below). Dorie and I both felt though that their celebrated chocolate chip cookies were a touch too sweet, an almost heretical view in New York. But Dorie can get away with it because she is a Baking Goddess. You should check out her lovely blog.


City Bakery is at 3 West 18th Street, just off 5th Avenue. If you're visiting New York you must go there for breakfast.

Is this the greatest bread roll in New York?

As those of you who follow me on Twitter will know I've been in New York for the past six days with little time to breathe let alone blog but here's the first of my top New York food finds - the guanciale pecorino rolls at Danny Meyer's new restaurant Maialino in the Gramercy Hotel.

They arrived warm and flaky with something of the consistency of a Bath bun though obviously savoury - dusted with herbs, dotted with bacon and oozing with cheese. (Guanciale is a pancetta-like product made with pigs cheek. You can find a good description on Maialino's rival Babbo's website here)

As former Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl tweeted the other day: "Woke up thinking about Maialino rolls: rich little puffs of guanciale and pecorino. Utterly irresistible. Why didn't I bring some home?" Wish I could have done too . . .

Any other rolls you'd like to champion - in New York, London or anywhere else for that matter?