First off, many thanks to Kat in Osaka for sending a very awesome package full of Japanese snacks - sweet and savoury!
From Colo Galita to Mini Thank You Tirol Choco and Mini Kit Kat bites, you bet I'll be occupied with these for the next few days ^_^
The real highlight though were these darling phone charms that, as part of a promotion, came with certain Lipton Tea purchases in Japan...why don't they do these sort of giveaways in the U.S.? Front and center is a pink (strawberry, I'd like to say) macaron, and in the back is a bitty cream puff. You can read more about them on Kat's post here.
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Tuesday night I was at City Harvest's Bid Against Hunger event, fawning over Eric Kleinman's (Bar Milano) housemade rabbit terrine and the...
...foie torchon with duck prosciutto from Hudson Valley Foie Gras. A good majority of the desserts at the events were repeats from the SWEET festival a few weeks ago. Much to my delight, Francois Payard brought back his hot and cold pina colada (which I covered in more detail for Serious Eats' SWEET festival write up). Ron Ben-Israel was present with the same two cakes from SWEET, the chocolate stout cake with malt buttercream and a lemon cake with Grand Marnier, cranberry buttercream, and lime zest.
Following suit, The Modern did a repeat with the Coconut Chocolate Demeux. Il Laboratorio del Gelato had little gelato bites...flavours of dark chocolate and peanut butter flicker in my memory. Billy's Bakery arrived with plenty of cupcakes on hand, and so was Roni-Sue with truffles, honey-tea lollipops, and that crazy, crazy delicious buttercrunch of hers. Surprisingly enough, my favourite station of the night turned out to be not any of the sweet ones, but rather Tony Abou-Ganim's (The Modern Mixologist) hands on demo station where I learned how to craft my very own mojito.
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I think there's a virus going around or something. Justin visited last weekend and (along with many delicious snacks), gave me the cold/cough. When I went into work on Monday, Debbie had stomach issues and Andrew had a fever. The lady who does our lunch orders was sneezing all day and the fund accountants were doing no better. Oh well. You know what they say right?
Ice cream heals all!
Banana & Pumpkin
Or...at least, that's how it seems to work for me, hehehehhh ;) I met Lauren for a "little" snack at Sundaes & Cones the other night after hearing that they just brought out PUMPKIN ice cream. o_O There are many reasons to love Sundaes & Cones, but a major flaw in operaton is the fact that you're only allowed one flavour for a single serving. All other ice cream shops in the city allow two flavours in a single serving. A single serving is very generous (I've seen plenty of people only finish half and then chunk out the rest because there's simply too much), so you end up with a massive scoop of one flavour. Which is nice. But it gets boring.
Chocolate-Peanut Butter & Pumpkin
And we wanted two flavours. Which meant getting two scoops. So there you have it, two scoops for Lauren: chocolate-peanut butter and pumpkin, and two scoops for myself: banana and pumpkin. We're lucky our frozen treat tolerance knows no boundaries.
The night before, chilly fall weather demanded that Jessica and I head straight for the newly opened Kambi Ramen House on 14th and 1st Avenue. Kambi is opened by the same owners of Minca on 5th Street. How it compares to the original, I don't know because I have yet to visit Minca.
Unlike the many nights I've frequented Ippudo, there was nary a wait around 7:30pm at Kambi. The restaurant was constantly busy but never full during the meal. Service? Efficient, friendly, and to the point. There ramen here is cheaper than Ippudo by a good four or five dollars, but in the end, I'd rather pay extra for ramen that's more than twice as good.
And because we were warmed to the bones after the hearty broth, soft-serve from Chickalicious was in sure order. I had my heart set on the espresso ice shot, composed from a swirl of vanilla bean soft-serve, topped with crunchy chocolate pearls, and a shot of espresso. Pretty luscious, eh?
For Jessica - the brownie soft-serve sundae with toasted pistachios, chopped bananas, and a pour of silky warm fudge. Living less than a five-minute walk from both Sundaes & Cones and Chickalicious is turning out to be awfully satisfying for my sweet hankerings.
Sundaes & Cones
95 E 10th Street
New York, NY 10003
(212) 979-9398
Kambi Ramen House
351 E 14th St
New York, NY 10079
(212) 228-1366
Chickalicious Dessert Club
204 E. 10th Street
New York, NY 10003
(212) 475-0929
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