Billy’s Bakery TriBeCa

by Hagan on April 28, 2010

You’ll have to forgive me, here – this was the first time I got my new camera out to play with it, and I set it on ISO 3200 in the middle of the day, so the shots are a little grainy. I’ve since learned that you can’t just walk around with the camera’s highest ISO setting on and expect great pictures.

Yeah, I haven’t taken pictures of food since 93 Plates. I mean, I needed a break, but not that much of a break. I just didn’t have my own camera for that time period and I finally got a Sony CyberShot DSC-TX5. What sold me on this camera was an Australian guy who couchsurfed for a couple days. He told me this Panasonic camera that shot pictures underwater was the most popular camera of all the travelers he’d met. Being the brand snob that I am (and the owner of about 128 GB in Memory Sticks), I found the Sony that could do the same thing. I think the exact sentence of the conversation that got me hooked was “One of my mates took out his camera, hey, dunked it into a pitcher of lager, and took a photo of ‘imself.” Obviously, I had to have one.

OK, so Billy’s Bakery … I was invited down here as part of a blogger outreach program (I love these) from a twitter friend, Beatriz. Her company launched in the US a while back and is right across the street from Billy’s, so she knew what she was getting (the Banana Cream Pie). Whenever I get invited to check out a place, I am never disappointed. It seems that if you write a food blog, no one is going to take you to the place that’s just OK, they’re going to want to show you their favorite place or one that’s high on the list.

Now, let me preface the rest of the review by saying that when I got here, I was in the mood for a salad, and it was clear that wasn’t going to happen. You see from the two pictures above (and they pop up bigger when you click them), that this is a pretty cute little TriBeCa bakery. The girls behind the counter seemed knowledgable, but they were also thin and attractive, which I assumed meant the one I asked for the recommendation was lying to me with her Carrot Cake call or on Madonna’s workout regimen.

Turns out the carrot cake was solid. I was very pleased with the choice. Moist, practically juicy, with a sprinkling of shredded ginger in the cake and a creamy-smooth frosting that had pleasant, perceptible granulation of sugar throughout.

The Banana Cream Pie … hate to say it, but it was just as good as I remember my mother’s to be. I can’t say another word that would make the review better than that, because my mom is a ridiculous chef.

That’s a picture of Beatriz not looking self-conscious. It’s funny how that works, you tell someone to set up for the shot, “OK, one … two … three … say Cheese! Don’t look self-conscious” and they smile and laugh. I’ve also used, “Don’t look at my nutsack,” “OK, one … two … three … say Chhhhhhild Pornography!” That last one gets the most laughs, more than the nutsack line. It’s sometimes a bit uncomfortable after that one, especially if they laugh really hard.