Chocolate is what’s been keeping me alive under the tremendous amount of stress and frustration at work these days. Every night, there is only one thing on my mind when I get home: warm chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream by Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
I first tasted the minicake in 1997 at Nougatine in New York City, and as the warm chocolate lava slowly spilled over my dessert spoon, I knew I was falling in love. It has become a ritual for me to go back to Nougatine at least once a year to taste the harmony of tender cake and intense chocolate fondant and forget about the bad things that happened that year.
Mobssie, a chocolate cake cafe in Hongdae. By Ser Myo-ja
New York City is on the other side of the globe, but I have found a magical dessert in Seoul. Mobssie is a small chocolate cafe near Hongik University, better known as Hongdae.
Mobssie gets its name from the Korean for “very much,” so people can say I am “Mobssie” fond of the cafe’s offerings.
Mobssie
Mobssie’s Just Baked Chocolate Cake - Moelleux au chocolat is slightly different from that of Jean-Georges, but it offers decent competition. The chocolate cake (4,500 won, $3.27) takes about 15 minutes to bake and it’s served inside a small cup, topped with icing sugar. The top is slightly gooey and the warm chocolate lava lies just under the surface and underneath is a layer of moist chocolate cake.
The cafe serves a signature Mobssie coffee (4,000 won), and the jumbo bowl of mild coffee is a perfect match for the warm chocolate cake.
Mobssie’s interior screams that you are in Paris. The Tiffany-blue painted walls and frames of photos depicting France are adorable. There’s seating for about 20 people and I have never waited for a seat before, but last Saturday the joint was packed. While I was waiting for my cake to be baked, a queue formed outside.
