your weekly digestion of food news to consume...NOW THIS IS A COOKIE REVIEW!!

                                          double chocolate with white chocolate chips cookie

I don't get downtown much these days since I don't work down there anymore :( but every now and then I venture through, usually on my way to Target. On one such recent occasion, I decided to stop into an old haunt and one of the places I first reviewed, Cafe Madeleine on New Montgomery. Actually, it is their cookies I was initially drawn to, duh. I've been a fan of their regular chocolate chip one for its price, taste, size and overall cookieness. This time around I decided to branch out to try another flavor with the double chocolate with white chocolate chips cookie. Yep, still big. The double chocolate gives it a dark not too sweet flavor that is balanced out with the white chocolate chips. Though, white chocolate is not for everyone as some folks may find it too sweet. For me, it works and I liked this cookie.

And by the way, white chocolate is a derivative of chocolate. Or more precisely cocoa butter which does come from the cocoa bean from which chocolate is also made. The beans are fermented and roasted then separated from their husks and about half of the liquid that comes from the process is what forms the basis for cocoa butter, once you add sugar and milk that is. Doesn't necessarily have the health benefits of dark chocolate but it is a variation of chocolate, for the most part. That is your food science lesson for the day kids!

Back to the cookie. Even for being so large, it is just ever so slightly crisp around the edges and soft on the inside. Yet not so soft it will fall apart on you. There are also plenty of chips to go around in each bite. What I like to call maximum chippage flavor. For a chocolate purist, I'll say this cookie is probably not for you. And while I'd still choose their regular chocolate chip over this one, if the other was sold out, this one is still a good alternative choice for those of us who like a good cookie treat no matter what. 

• An LA critic ponders San Francisco and Bauer....interesting.
• OpenTables hottest restaurants in America! And the lone(?) SF entry is...what?
• I'll say my love affair with the doughnut started long before I moved here, but apparently it has been a thing for awhile. 
• Hot Sauce and Panko has found their new space and is up and running a little closer to home now on Nob Hill. 
• Waxman's at Ghirardelli Square is now open and you can get some peas on toast there as avocado on toast is so last year. 
• Did anyone know there is a magazine just for queer chefs? And why didn't this originate in San Francisco? 
• If you don't want to do meatballs the next time you hit IKEA in Emeryville, there is a new option just down the street now. 
• San Francisco Magazine runs down the forthcoming great restaurant deluge. And it's not a rainstorm to be looking forward to. 
• So long Triptych! Hello to something else soon I'm sure. 
• It's only a matter of time before new restaurants in town add brunch, seems it's a requirement. But Cala has also added tapas. 
• Apparently there really are tastes of the UK and this new cafe in the Tenderloin(?!) aims to highlight them. Hello English breakfast and smashed peas! Wait, peas again?
• Look! Another hipster bar with fancy cocktails on Divis! And it's called Horsefeather, because, sure why not. 
• Let's not let the English have all the fun. A French inspired bistro is also opening this week. 
• Fear not, if you want to open your own "inspired by cafe", you can purchase this space that's is giving up after only 7 months. That restaurant deluge continues. 

On a side note. This will be the last food news post for a few weeks as I'm off to China for 3 weeks! I'll have one more local food review post before I go and then, depending on internet speeds and government tracking (ha!), will be posting my travails with Chinese cookery from the road. You can also follow my posts on Facebook and Instagram. Till then, enjoy these local happy hours in SF.