Who does that?

Ash and I were taking the train to Albany on Friday, so I figured I'd pick up a small sandwich at Penn Station. I went to Hot & Crusty (that name still seems odd to me), picked up half of a chicken salad sandwich, and then saw a small cup of chocolate mousse. Now, Hot & Crusty is half a bakery, so it wasn't completely out of the blue. In fact, on their website, they call themselves "New York's best known and finest bakery." (I beg to differ, but that argument is for another day.) If you've read my earlier post, you know I can't pass up chocolate mousse, so I bought it along with my sandwich, grabbed a spoon, and headed onto the train.

After eating my below-average sandwich, I was really looking forward to my dessert. I opened the container, dug my spoon in, and took my first bite.

(Pause.)

Not good. At all. Not so bad I had to spit it out, but it really tasted like whipped chocolate pudding. I quickly became disappointed, and commented to Ash that it was well below the already low expectations I had in mind.

I thought for a moment and realized that maybe my initial disappointment had clouded my judgement. Perhaps it wasn't all that bad. I dipped my spoon in for the second time, and when I pulled it back out, covered in whipped pudding, you won't believe what I saw.

Cake. Not even chocolate cake. Yellow rum-type cake. It was like someone had read my earlier post and decided to taunt me. If I wasn't on a moving train, I would have made a huge scene. Now, to put things in perspective, this mousse cup was clear. As in transparent. No where could you see any cake in the clear plastic (I always examine my mousse carefully), and so I was happy to plunk down $4.50 for what I thought would be extremely mediocre chocolate mousse. Instead, I was holding whipped chocolate pudding with tiny pieces of yellow rum-type cake...and I was livid. It didn't even have layers of cake--it just had random cake crumbs strewn about, as if specifically intended to aggravate me. (Random pieces of yellow cake in a chocolate mousse cup--who does that??) Ash was actually scared to talk to me for the next several minutes--the scowl on my face and the near-full container thrown into the garbage said it all.

Just a word of caution--steer clear of the chocolate mousse from Hot & Crusty. This may be one of the few times I will not give an item a second chance.

PS- I ordered a chocolate mousse "dessert shooter" at Applebee's last night (we were at Woodbury Commons). It was $1.99 and came in a large shot glass, with whipped cream and some Oreo bits. It was a pleasant surprise...half the price of Hot & Crusty, and more than twice as good. If I was at Applebee's, I'd definitely get it again. (I think they might be $2.99 in NYC, however-- keeping in mind the tiny amount, I'm not sure it's worth the extra buck. On a side note, if you're in NYC, what are you doing eating at Applebee's??)