The secret ingredient to the recipe that won the Betty Crocker Baking Contest was…chips! Anna Ginsberg of Austin, Texas won the $5,000 grand prize for her Chocolate-Topped Peanut-Toffee Bars, a sweet and salty cookie bar made with a pouch of Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix and potato chips as a “secret” ingredient. It may [...]

The lease is signed and the plans are being filed for Amai’s first retail location! Our store will be located on 3rd avenue between 16th and 17th street - just east of Union Square in the Gramercy area of Manhattan. When I found the space and realized it could be ours, it was one of [...]

Every spring I eat one Cadbury Creme Egg, and this year, I had it fried. During Brooklyn Restaurant Week Andrew and I went to the Chipshop in Park Slope, where they offered a three course meal for $10.55. Choices for each course varied, but most of it was fried. One option was a fried macaroni [...]

I love the name “Amai”. It’s short, sweet and looks nice in print. Saying it to customers is another story, and I often get things addressed to something similar, but never quite right. I’ve collected a few of my favorite misspellings, and I thought I’d share them with you:

Armani (thanks, I wish)
Amai Tea & Baked [...]

On Monday I attended the donut class at Cha An, a small Japanese tea shop on 9th street. (If you haven’t been to Cha An before, I’d highly recommend it. They serve wonderful tea, light food and pastries, all made in-house.) I found out about the class while having tea at the store with my [...]

I received the new Scharffen Berger book, The Essence of Chocolate, last month and have been looking forward to trying a chocolate recipe for Valentine’s Day. The book’s images, stories and selection of great chocolate recipes are quite impressive. It has everything from fondue to three-bean chili (with cocoa, of course), all contributed by well [...]

For Valentine’s Day Amai will be offering a Luscious Lychee Gift Box which includes Lychee Botanical Brownies and loose leaf Lychee Tea. With bright red skin and small heart shapes, lychees are known as the fruit of romance and love. I like to think of them like a secret weapon in our brownies, boosting the [...]

Dutch artist and food designer Katja Gruijters doesn’t feel her work is complete until it’s eaten. Her “Tasty Lace” exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design will be an audience-participation event. “Newly designed tiles in white, bittersweet, and milk chocolate, sugar, genoise, shortbread, winegums, and brownies will be presented as a patchwork installation piece. [...]

Today is the first time in over a year that it feels like a Saturday. Of course I still worked - I delivered an order, reviewed the finances and talked to Andrew about Amai’s new business cards, but it was different. I felt a sense of calm and was actually able to relax and enjoy [...]

Happy new year everyone! I was happy to ring in 2007 with my first ever nomination for a Food Blog Award. Thank you to everyone who nominated us, although I must admit I was surprised by the category. Lovescool is up for Best Chef Food Blog, but I hardly consider myself a chef. Yes, I [...]