I bought some English muffins from Green Aisle the other day. Ric’s Fruit English Muffins to be exact. I took them home and tried them. The muffins are soft to the touch and will give a little when squeezed. They’re also qute dense. I think they must weigh 24lbs or something.
These went in my belly.
If you’re like me, you enjoy a thoroughly out of season, non-local banana now and then.
If you’re like me, you sometimes buy too many of them and forget you have them.
If you’re like me, you don’t like the taste of a weird, overripe, black banana.
Well boy oh boy do I have some solutions for you.
There are two things that I do with old nanas.
Let’s talk about freezing first.
In what is quite possibly the dopest connection we’ve ever secured, Green Aisle will begin carrying the legendary cookies from David Chang‘s Momofuku Milk Bar. We know. Let’s say it again because it hasn’t really sunk in for us either: Green Aisle will begin carrying the legendary cookies from David Chang’s Momofuku Milk Bar! Pastry Chef Christina Tosi is best know for her Compost Cookie chock full of pretzels, potato chips, ground coffee beans, oats and butterscotch and chocolate chips. We’ll have those, sold by the single and in pretty six-count tins (great gifts!), as well as the rest of Milk Bar’s cookie line: Blueberry and Cream, Chocolate-Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Corn and Cornflake-Marshmallow. It blows our mind even more that we’re the only retail grocer anywhere carrying Milk Bar goodies. They’re traveling down the Turnpike tomorrow, so stay tuned. We’ll let you know when the Compost truck arrives.
[photos courtesy of momofuku.com]
We’ve just finished compiling our list of special-order baked goodies for Thanksgiving! Last year, pies, pumpkin eclairs and dinner rolls from Wild Flour Bakery went over really well, so all that’s back on offer, plus treats from Baker E (working out of her newly captained Flying Monkey kitchen in Reading Terminal) and our neighbor, Jessie Prawlucki, pastry maven and co-owner of Fond. Before we get to the goods, here’s the fine print: We need all orders by the Sunday before Thanksgiving (for pick-up Wednesday) and require a 50 % deposit. Now, onto the menu. Read the rest of this entry »
Photo courtesy of the Today Show
We were stoked to see our girl Elizabeth Halen (AKA Baker E, whose whoopie pies you’ve been eating since we opened) represented on the Today Show by her epic Pumpple Cake. E, who’s been busy since taking over Flying Monkey at Reading Terminal in October, creates the two-layer Pumpple by baking a pumpkin pie inside a chocolate cake (first tier), topping it with an apple pie baked inside a vanilla cake (second tier) and frosting the sweet stack in glorious buttercream icing. Currently, you can only get the Pumpple at Flying Monkey, but now you can also pre-order them from Green Aisle for the holiday season. Pumpples are a foot tall and nine inches across. One will feed 40 and runs $75. Just give us three days notice, please, and drop off a deposit if you wouldn’t mind. For more Pumpple visuals, here’s a link to the Today Show video.
Photo: Beer Radar
Beer Week may have moved to June, but rain or shine (looks like rain), Beer Week(end) is going down Friday through Sunday. Even in the midst of Duvelgate 2010, the snarling hydra that is the PLCB isn’t keeping our pubs and restaurants down. Rare tappings, meet-the-brewers and bus tours are happening all over town. At Green Aisle, we can’t sell beer, but we can give it away, which is exactly what we’ll be doing all weekend. The line-up isn’t locked, but it looks like Flying Fish, Ommegang and Sly Fox will be keeping your favorite neighborhood grocery hydrated Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In addition, we’ll be carrying beer-themed products like Betty’s Buttons cupcakes crafted with Yards Brawler and Victory Storm King Stout and special Wild Flour beer breads including the dark, mysterious Yards Porter Pumpernickel and brioche baked with cardamom, orange, chocolate and Philly Pale Ale. Just don’t tell Phyllis.
We don’t sell any of them! This fact comes contrary to an irate Yelper who’s very upset with the imaginary bread in question. It’s likely the loaf referred to is Ric’s Cinnamon Swirl, which weighs close to three pounds and goes for $7.5. It is the priciest bread we carry, but if you’ve had it, then you know it’s worth every cinnamon-sugar-fingerprinted penny. It’s why we continued to carry it even after Ric’s closed up their Headhouse Square stand in December. It’s why we motor to Kennett Square, halfway between Philly and Ric’s Lancaster HQ, to meet bakers Jim and Michele Stauffer on snowy mornings in the Baltimore Pike WaWa parking lot. It’s why, at a distance, it looks like we’re doing some shady drug deal, only with English muffins and Black Russian loaves instead of crack and dope. By supporting us, you support the Staufers, and many other small, independent local producers just like them. If some people don’t like it, that’s cool. More for the rest of us!
Photo: Luminous Kitchens
Talk about bio-fuel. These dense, chewy, delicious “Bum Bars“ from five-years-old Brooklyn-based Luminous Kitchens pack heat like the Barksdale clan. Owner Doug Cullen–his bro lives right in our hood–makes these bars with loads of natural protein sources like almonds and pepitas and sweetens them delicately with dried fruits and unrefined sugar. Green Aisle is the only spot in Philly you can get these small wonders; we carry the apricot and vegan peanut butter varieties. Stop by for an apres-Sweat workout snack that won’t ruin your new year’s resolution.
It was fate. We’d been hunting for a minute for vegan and gluten-free baked goods when Jaynel and Kyle Hollis of Lansdowne’s Greenwood Kitchen happened into Green Aisle last week with samples of the dairy-and-wheat-free macaroons last week. Dense and pleasantly chewy, the little agave-sweetened domes are formed from unsulfered coconut, organic coconut butter and various natural flavors like garam masala (for the Chai Tea), peppermint oil (for the Mint Chip) and orange zest (for the Orange Ginger). We also snagged a limited supply of their vegan, gluten-free triple corn bread. Can’t say how long they’ll be around for; the kernel studded loaves keep tempting us to pop a pint of Cafe con Chocolate’s epic chili. Photo and prices after the jump Read the rest of this entry »
