Paris Baguette pumpkin and black sesame bread: Thickly cut bread with a hard, bitter crust full of burnt flavor. Bread itself is faintly sweet and very soft, but pumpkin flavor is difficult to discern. Studded with black sesame, which doesn't actually add anything to the taste. 2.0/5.0
bread parisbaguette pumpkin black sesame 2.0
Paris Baguette whole wheat red bean bun: A sad, generic pastry. Bread is unsubstantial and mostly flavorless, filling is overly sweet. 1.5/5.0
parisbaguette redbean bread bakery pastry asian avoid whole wheat red bean bun 1.5
Sprouted Go Raw Banana Bread Sprouted Bar: Recently, my office has started getting free snacks / advertising from various organic energy bar companies. This one from Sprouted contains four ingredients: flaxseed, banana, coconut, and dates. It appears sizable but is in fact very thin, perhaps giving off an illusion of substance or value. Consistency-wise, it's slightly chewy and sticky. By color, you may not guess it's banana bread flavored, but you can definitely taste it, though the addition of dates gives it a unique sweet flav... (read more) 3.0/5.0
organic sprouted go raw banana bread bar 3.0
Swissbaker's pretzel roll: A surprisingly mediocre pretzel bread. Texture in particular is store-bought quality, and the roll is tough and just not very good. Would never chose to eat again. 1/5. 1.0/5.0
avoid bread swissbakers pretzel roll 1.0
Trader Joe's Pumpkin Brioche Twist: This TJs brioche was in the same section as the pastries, so I was expecting it to taste more like a dessert. In reality, it's definitely more of a flavored bread than a cake, with the same buttery texture as regular TJs brioche but with a faint yet distinct spiced pumpkin flavor. Reading the label more carefully, I saw that they do accurately describe it as "slightly sweet" and "lightly spicy." Overall, I found it a bit too mild to be satisfyingly festive. 3.0/5.0
traderjoes bread pumpkin brioche twist 3.0
Utopia Bagels Mini Everything Bagel with Lox Spread: I never once had a decent bagel when I lived in the Bay Area, so I'm relieved to now have an abundance of options back in NYC. One popular bagel shop I had yet to try was Utopia Bagels, located all the way in Whitestone Queens. Arriving at around 11:30am, the queue to order snaked around the entryway, and for a New York institution, the pace was extremely slow; from getting in line to leaving with food in-hand took about 45 minutes. Not being too hungry, I ordered their snackable mini bag... (read more) 2.5/5.0
bagels nyc bread lox creamcheese queens utopiabagels mini everything bagel spread 2.5