Got some nostalgia for the good old days when mom would serve you a big glass of milk to make strong bones? David Chang’s Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar will have you wanting to trade college for elementary school.
When I first heard about chef David Chang’s newest addition to his Momofuku empire, Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar, I scoffed. Up until my visit to the bakery, I was a huge Momofuku skeptic. It was only a few weeks ago that I tried Chang’s much raved about pork buns and ramen at Momofuku Noodle Bar only to walk away disappointed. There was nothing wrong with it, but there wasn’t anything great about it either. I felt betrayed by the legions of blogging foodies’ rave reviews of Chang’s “genius.”
But as soon as I took a bite of his marvelously layered pistachio cake, all doubt vanished. The moist, light layers consisted of a pistachio cake, “milk crumbs,” and a tart lemon curd that cut through the cake’s sweetness and its thin layer of pistachio buttercream.
The dulce-de-leche cake, consisting of plain vanilla cake layers, “milk crumbs,” a cream cheese-like mousse, and a thick, dark stripe of dulce de leche, was good but did not impress as much as the pistachio cake.
Perhaps the most intriguing item on the menu was the soft serve, which came in four flavors: cereal milk, fruity cereal milk, marshmallow cereal milk, and sweet-corn cereal milk. As I sampled the creamy sweet-corn cereal milk ice cream, the smell of toasted marshmallows wafted through the air and I was immediately transported to the Saturday mornings of my youth, where I would plop myself in front of the TV with a heaping bowl of sugary cereal. It did indeed taste like cereal milk with subtle overtones of fresh, sweet corn with a sharp, salty finish.
Other options include candy bar pie, an amalgamation of pretzels, chocolate, nougat, and toffee all nestled in a chocolate cookie crust, and “Crack Pie,” a dizzyingly sugary confection that tastes like pecan pie, without the pecans.
Their compost cookie, a mish-mash of pretzels, chocolate and butterscotch chips, and potato chips, is also offered among other more conventional flavors like peanut butter.
Given all the hype surrounding Chang, it’s easy to disregard Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar as just another culinary fad. However, Chang’s whimsical take on dessert is definitely worth a try. Just be sure to bring a friend—because while the large portions are certainly generous, the ensuing sugar high is hard to stomach alone.
Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar is located at 207 Second Ave. at 13th Street.
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