Nova Clutch: City Bakery

City Bakery is one of those New York institutions heralded and made famous by Sex in the City. You would have thought that something so lauded and popularized would slide to the naff side of popular. But no. City Bakery still has it.

Walking in there on a boiling hot New York Saturday we were greeted with a full shop. And walking in can be a little disconcerting; City Bakery is extremely large, has two levels and a huge counter in the middle, laden with baked goods. At the back lies a salad bar so varied that I almost didn't know what to do with it (I chose a plate of beautifully blanched black radishes with sunflower sprouts). Having got myself a very good latte – I opted out of the requisite hot chocolate as it was such a hot day – we pondered over the baked goods. I'm a sucker for the miso muffin, but wanted to try something new. Clutching two cookies, one melted chocolate, one coconut we also grabbed a baker's muffin (see image below).

I'm not sure if "baker's muffin" is something found outside of City Bakery or not. As you can see, the muffin looks like the Mad Hatter of muffins, and is bready as opposed to muffiny. It isn't very sweet, and it feels like it is madeup of tiny pieces of bread dough all squished together. The effect leads to a crunchy top and a soft bottom, with the odd piece of fruit thrown in. Although all of us said we would just have a bite, it was gone in minutes. I'm looking forward to returning to City Bakery when it's a bit colder to get some of that hot chocolate.