Can you detect the difference between butter that has 84 percent butterfat and one that has 91 percent butterfat? What do you think of the taste of cultured butter compared with sweet cream butter? These are the kinds of questions I pressed on my ever-patient colleagues in the newsroom during yesterday’s butter smackdown. And just like they always do, they came through with flying colors. This smart, observant and always hungry crowd turned out in surprising numbers for the strangest workp
From West Hollywood, Calif. Porch Pies (at Baby Blues BBQ) Los Angeles CurvyMama managed two pie pilgrimages during a five-day visit to Los Angeles, and one was as breathtakingly good as the other was forgettable. Just the other day, we told you about four slices of pie from Babalu that were simply meh, despite the place’s reputation as a destination for pie lovers. Today, we are here to tell you that one simple slice of buttermilk pie not only restored our faith in Los Angeles pie,
From Santa Monica, Calif. We thought it would be a little slice of heaven: a local eatery that bakes a dozen types of pie in-house. Coconut praline? Banana brownie? How could it disappoint? Well, it did. Babalu Santa Monica, Ca. Babalu is adorable. No doubt about it. It sits fetchingly on a charming little corner of trendy Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, showing off its Caribbean exterior decor, while the cool beach breezes roll by. It’s been there forever, too, or least as far back
This pie wanted to be a housewarming pie, but the move hadn’t quite happened yet. So it became an easing-the-stress-of-moving pie. Even as that was decided, though, CurvyMama had to navigate a more-delicate issue: making two people with different pie tastes equally happy. Here was what we confronted: Michele loves rhubarb pie. But that’s a tad tart for her wife, Tina, who prefers her rhubarb blended with strawberry. What is a baker to do? We certainly don’t want to cause a mari
From New York City Pie Face New York City www.pieface.com It’s been a while since we posted a pie shop review. But thanks to Jess Tonn, an esteemed member of the CurvyMama Pie-Tasting Posse, we have an intriguing review of a pie shop in the Big Apple. Read on for Jess’ report. A 12-Pie Lunch Break I’ll admit it: I went into my visit to Pie Face in Times Square with a bad attitude. An Australian pie chain in Times Square? How good could it possibly be? And if it was good, I’d be in bi
A bunch of my friends got into an animated discussion the other day on Facebook about buttermilk pie and chess pie. Many of us weren’t too familiar with these pies, hailing as we do from some place other than the South. So I decided that this was a great chance to do another CurvyMama Pies smackdown. If you’re not familiar with our smackdowns, you can calm yourself, because there is no violence involved. It’s just my way of putting two kind-of-similar pies before an audience of
There is something particularly tempting, flirtatious even, about those fruits that make a fleeting appearance. Rhubarb is one of those, and it’s here. And it’s calling your name. Go ahead, order a rhubarb pie! Or order a rhubarb-strawberry pie. You know you want one! And you won’t be able to get it for long!
We are so excited! CurvyMama Pies is featured in this month’s Bethesda Magazine! Take a look at this lovely write-up food editor Carole Sugarman gave us! She even dubbed us a “Food Find.” Yaaaayyyy! In addition to the wonderful things she said about our pies, she supplied all my friends and colleagues with a big laugh, too. See that first line that refers to me as a “mild-mannered reporter”? Even with its witty Clark Kent reference, that line got the emails flying a
Have you noticed? CurvyMama’s got a jazzy new website! You’ve GOT to check us out!! When we started a year and a half ago, we set up a humble little do-it-yourself blog on WordPress, because we thought that’s all we’d need. CurvyMama was heading off to New York City to have an adventure in Bubby’s pie kitchen. (Read about that starting here.) My journalist friends told me I’d be crazy not to blog about that. So I set up a blog, but then one thing led to a
In CurvyMama’s quest for the yummiest pie ever, she vowed to use the fruit-scarce winter months to perfect creamy custardy sorts of pies. As spring takes hold, she’s here to declare that she’s pretty darn satisfied with the results. The latest happiness emanates from this banana cream pie. The combination of crisp, flaky crust, just-barely-ripe bananas and a creamy custard makes me swoon. But because I’ve had occasional trouble with the custard in my cream pies being too
