Meg Hearts the Ast-Oreo and Astor Bake Shop

Yes, you read that right – I said “Asto-Oreo.” The name is a portmanteau combining “Astoria” and “Oreo.” I ate it at Astor Bake Shop. And it was amazing.

As you may know, I do my best to eat healthy – lots of organic vegetables and fruits; meat from humanely treated animals, including grass-fed ruminants; pastured eggs; and high quality dairy. I also aim to be reasonable with my cravings (I have one serious sweet tooth) and have adopted (ideally) the 80/20 rule for my eating. This means when I eat sweets, they better be really good, and the Ast-Oreo is.

It’s made of two dark chocolate, buttery shortbread cookies with real buttercream sandwiched in between. It’s probably about 3x the size of your average conventional Oreo cookie, and theoretically a couple people could enjoy this and feel satisfied, but I will admit – I ate the whole thing. I loved all the butter and how the vanilla buttercream and chocolate cookies complemented each other. It’s a classic.

Of course, Astor Bake Shop makes many other things that are delicious. Take a look at this pistachio eclair – that’s right, I said it – pistachio. A bit unusual, but it totally works. It’s green inside, too.

It’s very good and very pistachio-y.

I’ve also enjoyed the baked chicken sandwich, the egg-cheese-bacon breakfast sandwich, and I loved that maize-almond cake they used to make (I haven’t seen it there in a while). The iced latte, while of medium strength for me (I like it pretty strong), it tastes really good.

Astor Bake Shop, 12-23 Astoria Boulevard  Astoria, NY 11102; (718) 606-8439; astor-bakeshop.com