Tulu’s Bakery [Click the photo above to go to Tulu’s website]
338 E 11th St (between 1st and 2nd Avenue)New York, NY 10003
I’ve had a blog for whatever period of time, and my cousin Jamie has worked for a bakery for a few years, and she’s always bringing her homemade goodies to family events (ok she did it one time, but an elephant never forgets), and I just realized I should blog about the bakery she works for, so disclaimer, it is my cousin’s bakery, but my whole family dies for food, so if we like it you’ll like it.*
Also a disclaimer, we’re not real cousins, we’re cousins of cousins, but like we’re cousins. Get it?
So I brought my other cousin (she’s a real one) Ali to the bakery, because lets just make this a family affair. We went on a Saturday at like 12:30 to have a desserty (not a word) brunch.
I arrive, and the bakery is small, it’s more of a pick-up and go then a sit and eat, but there is seating, so I just start making myself comfortable putting my jacket on another chair, finding a spot for my bag. I order a coffee and a water before I go to town, and I get a text from my cousin:
I walk outside, and there is my awkward cousin just loitering around on 11th Street, and it just cracks me up. Like here I am making myself at home, and she’s acting like a vagabond.
So, what do we order? So, their specialty is the coffee cake, and boyyyy is it.
A red velvet cupcake, because it has cream cheese frosting, so that’s like the sugary version of a bagel with cream cheese for brunch (isn’t it????)
A jalapeno corn muffin just to switch it up.
and last but definitely not least a chocolate chip cookie.
I start attacking each item with a plastic knife so we can divide it up between the two of us.
My cousin Jamie comes out to say hi to us, and she just stays. The bakery can bake itself. We’re more important. Deal with it people.
“You are not going to take a picture of me are you?” says Jamie.
Chef gear ain’t cute. She’s in a bandana, shoes that can be described as orthopedic, make-up free (she does have blemish free skin fyi), and just clothes she wants to destroy in a kitchen (will she hate me for reading this? Possibly).
“Nope, you’re good.”
“Ok good, because some Japanese newspaper said they were just taking a picture of the plate and I saw the article and I was in it. I’m famous in Japan.”
“Totally.”
I’m starting to fill up but I’m digging the coffee cake on all levels, and don’t want to stop.
“You should hear the things people talk about in here.” People really are oblivious. No one censors themselves anymore. I can’t even imagine what the baristas at Starbucks think of me (she’s obsessed with her mom, and is always yelling at her…wait yeah I can).
My cousin proceeds to tell us about how two girls came into the bakery ordered, and then continued to have this “private” conversation:
“I really want to change my name to Tiny, because I’m so tiny.”
“You really are so tiny.”
“But then I looked it up on Twitter, and someone else already had that name.”
That’s when I go, “wait her name, or her twitter name.”
“I wasn’t sure. I hope it was her Twitter name.”
“I should probably get back behind the counter, I’ve been standing here with you for a while.”
“K, bye.”
* So on a health note: this is a gluten free bakery, and for the record gluten is not less caloric, less fattening, or more healthy. A cake is a cake. A cupcake is a cupcake and so on and so forth. It is just made with different ingredients to keep the baked goods together and not fall apart. All the food is good, and if you happen to have a gluten allergy, it’s a fab option. And that is that!
Picture time….
Coffee Cake
GirlyFoodie 