It's a bona fide French ghetto up there.
So if you want ice cream sandwiches with some serious panache...
Francois Payard Patisserie
1293 Third Avenue at 74th Street
Showing posts with label ice cream. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ice cream. Show all posts
Monday, June 24, 2013
Trés French on the Upper East Side
Monsieur Francois Payard has many tentacles in the city now. One being across the street from Eric Kayser.
It's a bona fide French ghetto up there.
So if you want ice cream sandwiches with some serious panache...
... or exquisite bonbons, filled with sesame almond praline, raspberry purée or fresh ginger...
And don't forget the vachon, a delectable little number of mixed berry sorbet, sandwiched between two fine licorice-flavored meringues with just a little bit of whipped cream...
well, you know where to go.
Francois Payard Patisserie
1293 Third Avenue at 74th Street
It's a bona fide French ghetto up there.
So if you want ice cream sandwiches with some serious panache...
Francois Payard Patisserie
1293 Third Avenue at 74th Street
Wednesday, June 05, 2013
It was salty pimp time
Have
you been to Big Gay Ice Cream Shop yet? It
took me about a year of wanting to go before I actually managed to get there.
I
was happy to share the experience with a partner in crime: Kasia.
It
took us a solid 10 minutes of debating the finer points of the menu: dulce de
leche versus Nutella, apple versus pumpkin, cone versus sundae.
But
finally, amidst the rainbows and unicorns, we had our order.
The
American Globs Sundae pour elle.
A
salty pimp pour moi.
That’s
vanilla soft serve with dulce de leche and sea salt, dipped in chocolate.
It's every bit as ridiculous and delicious as you'd expect, and if
you haven’t been to Big Gay Ice Cream Shop yet, do not wait a year for this
creamy satisfaction.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Oh my sorely neglected sweets
You’d think that I’ve
given up sugar. Lost my appetite for cake. Am shying away from all things
fudgy, crunchy, creamy, chocolaty, gooey and otherwise so sublimely satisfying.
Trust me. Nothing is
further from the truth.
While I haven’t had
any good hauls at new bakeries, I have been stuffing my maw with morning
pastries…
… cookies…
....cakes…
...decadent breakfasts…
....and, especially, ice
cream…
More important, I am
planning on getting out in the field more these upcoming weeks to give my sweet
tooth some proper exercise.
From top to bottom: pastries at The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, CO; almond croissant from Ceci-Cela; walnut chocolate chip cookie from Levain; salted chocolate chip cookie from Ovenly, BK; wedding cake from Lot 2, BK; homemade three-layer strawberry cake; french toast from Homemade, BK; peach ice cream from Old Lyme Ice Cream Shop, Old Lyme, CT; Dairy Queen goodness from Old Saybrook, CT; homemade gelato sampler from Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria.
From top to bottom: pastries at The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, CO; almond croissant from Ceci-Cela; walnut chocolate chip cookie from Levain; salted chocolate chip cookie from Ovenly, BK; wedding cake from Lot 2, BK; homemade three-layer strawberry cake; french toast from Homemade, BK; peach ice cream from Old Lyme Ice Cream Shop, Old Lyme, CT; Dairy Queen goodness from Old Saybrook, CT; homemade gelato sampler from Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Floats for the Post
I've started doing some writing for the New York Post, which has taken me on more than a few delicious adventures including amazing rotisserie chicken at 606 R&D in Prospect Heights and beautifully creamy homemade ricotta and gnocchi at Alimentari & Vineria in Noho. More recently, I tapped into my sweet side, sampling some of the city's most insane floats.
The decadence of the three scoops
of cinnamon gelato, paired with crunchy bits of chocolate-covered graham crackers,
white chocolate hazelnut meringue cookies, tiny cubes of espresso gelée, shards of milk chocolate embedded with pop rocks, and stout beer at the courtyard restaurant of the New York Palace hotel just didn't come across in my photo.
Check out all the other deliciousness here.
Friday, December 09, 2011
Smitten with Smitten ice cream
On a beautiful day in San Francisco, filled with California sunshine, what else should one indulge in besides ice cream? Delicious, homemade, artisanal ice cream.
After hitting the streets with a Radio Flyer wagon, Smitten’s conceptrice, Robyn Sue Goldman, opened her ice cream haven in the hipper and hipper Hayes Valley (maybe I never would have left San Francisco if Smitten, Miette and Christopher Elbow were all in the ‘hood when I lived there…). A little red wagon is cute, but this outpost is plenty fun, too.
First, you order your flavor. Vanilla and chocolate (made with local, delicious Tcho chocolate) are always on the menu. Two other flavors—this week, quince and horchata—rotate. Naturally, I chose chocolate.
They start with all-natural ice cream base and add the flavor’s ingredients. No emulsifiers or unnecessary additives.
Pour them in the one-of-a-kind machines named “Kelvin” and—boom—the liquid nitrogen comes in…
… and the ice cream is created there, in about a minute, right in front of you.
Fun and gimmicky? Maybe.
But it doesn’t matter because the ice cream is brilliant.
The ice crystals are smaller with the liquid nitrogen so the ice cream’s texture is 10 times smoother.
Creamy, velvety.
I could have eaten a large bowl, but did myself a favor and ordered a kiddie size—because I knew Christopher Elbow is right around the corner…
After hitting the streets with a Radio Flyer wagon, Smitten’s conceptrice, Robyn Sue Goldman, opened her ice cream haven in the hipper and hipper Hayes Valley (maybe I never would have left San Francisco if Smitten, Miette and Christopher Elbow were all in the ‘hood when I lived there…). A little red wagon is cute, but this outpost is plenty fun, too.
First, you order your flavor. Vanilla and chocolate (made with local, delicious Tcho chocolate) are always on the menu. Two other flavors—this week, quince and horchata—rotate. Naturally, I chose chocolate.
They start with all-natural ice cream base and add the flavor’s ingredients. No emulsifiers or unnecessary additives.
Pour them in the one-of-a-kind machines named “Kelvin” and—boom—the liquid nitrogen comes in…
… and the ice cream is created there, in about a minute, right in front of you.
Fun and gimmicky? Maybe.
But it doesn’t matter because the ice cream is brilliant.
The ice crystals are smaller with the liquid nitrogen so the ice cream’s texture is 10 times smoother.
Creamy, velvety.
I could have eaten a large bowl, but did myself a favor and ordered a kiddie size—because I knew Christopher Elbow is right around the corner…
Monday, July 25, 2011
A wee sweet spot in Hell's Kitchen
It’s true. I’ve been a little obsessed with Ben & Jerry’s this summer. I’ve never even been a huge ice cream person but for some reason, I can’t get enough. So far, I’ve sampled:
Mission to Marzipan
Clusterfluff
Karamel Sutra
Oatmeal Cookie Chunk
Peach Cobbler
Maple Blondie
And, as of this past weekend, Cinnamon Buns.
So consumed I am by Ben & Jerry’s that when I buy a pint, I eat the whole thing. I literally can’t stop. It’s bad, very bad. Because it’s so damn good.
And now there’s a new threat in my world. It’s a sweet little shop in the middle of nowhere—i.e. right around the corner from my office. It’s called je & jo.
Similar to Ben & Jerry’s, je & jo was started by two ice cream fanatics who have excellent principles and even better taste. And a love for cookie dough in their ice cream.
Everything at je & jo is made by hand in their little Hell’s Kitchen spot and then peddled around town on tricycles. They use fresh ingredients, as locally sourced as possible. They even use wind power for their kitchen and package the ice cream in compostable sugarcane fiber cups.
But at the end of the day, it’s all about the ice cream. je & jo do not disappoint.
As with Ben & Jerry’s, I am quite sure I will make my way through their roster of flavors: Coffee ice cream with spicy chocolate cookie dough… cardamom ice cream with snickerdoodle cookie dough… lemon ice cream with ginger molasses cookie dough…. Peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter cookie dough…
But I had to start somewhere. So I started with cinnamon ice cream with oatmeal raisin cookie dough.
The top was creamy and melty.
The first bites, spicy and sweet…
And then, woah, what’s this?
It’s the cookie dough. Buried like treasure.
Good to the last lick.
As this new obsession inevitably continues to run its course this summer, I'll keep you posted on the other flavors...
Mission to Marzipan
Clusterfluff
Karamel Sutra
Oatmeal Cookie Chunk
Peach Cobbler
Maple Blondie
And, as of this past weekend, Cinnamon Buns.
So consumed I am by Ben & Jerry’s that when I buy a pint, I eat the whole thing. I literally can’t stop. It’s bad, very bad. Because it’s so damn good.
And now there’s a new threat in my world. It’s a sweet little shop in the middle of nowhere—i.e. right around the corner from my office. It’s called je & jo.
Similar to Ben & Jerry’s, je & jo was started by two ice cream fanatics who have excellent principles and even better taste. And a love for cookie dough in their ice cream.
Everything at je & jo is made by hand in their little Hell’s Kitchen spot and then peddled around town on tricycles. They use fresh ingredients, as locally sourced as possible. They even use wind power for their kitchen and package the ice cream in compostable sugarcane fiber cups.
But at the end of the day, it’s all about the ice cream. je & jo do not disappoint.
As with Ben & Jerry’s, I am quite sure I will make my way through their roster of flavors: Coffee ice cream with spicy chocolate cookie dough… cardamom ice cream with snickerdoodle cookie dough… lemon ice cream with ginger molasses cookie dough…. Peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter cookie dough…
But I had to start somewhere. So I started with cinnamon ice cream with oatmeal raisin cookie dough.
The top was creamy and melty.
The first bites, spicy and sweet…
And then, woah, what’s this?
It’s the cookie dough. Buried like treasure.
Good to the last lick.
As this new obsession inevitably continues to run its course this summer, I'll keep you posted on the other flavors...
Monday, May 02, 2011
Pain perdu
Ever heard of it? I hadn’t either until I moved to Paris. And had it for dessert. And fell in love with it.
It’s another baffling example of just how the French can remain so thin. Because pain perdu is really French toast.
Day-old bread, steeped in a mixture of egg, cream, sugar and spices until it gets sodden in the best possible way, and then skillet-cooked. But instead of having it as a singular meal at breakfast, they have it for dessert, after dinner.
With ice cream. And caramel. And anything else you can dream of.
It’s another baffling example of just how the French can remain so thin. Because pain perdu is really French toast.
Day-old bread, steeped in a mixture of egg, cream, sugar and spices until it gets sodden in the best possible way, and then skillet-cooked. But instead of having it as a singular meal at breakfast, they have it for dessert, after dinner.
With ice cream. And caramel. And anything else you can dream of.
Sunday, October 03, 2010
I still dream about Buonocore gelato
Close your eyes and imagine that delicious smell of waffles being made. In this case, a waffle cone. Breathe in, deeply. Mmmmm…
That’s exactly what hit me in the face as I walked down via Vittorio Emanuele in Capri a couple weeks back. Obviously I had no choice but to stop at Buonocre gelateria, the source of that amazing smell and a full range of creamy, indulgent gelato flavors. From which I chose stracciatella and tiramisu.
And when they placed my cone in my hand?
It was still warm. Imagine, a warm waffle cone with cool, creamy, beyond-amazing gelato. The stuff that dreams are made of.
The next day I went back and tried toasted almond and chocolette (a chocolate and hazelnut combo—every bit as amazing as it sounds, though the toasted almond smoked it).
And the day after that, I sampled gianduja and cherry vanilla.
It was with such memories in my head that I dragged Jo to Caramella, a petit ice cream shop on rue des Martyrs that I’ve always wanted to go to.
Maybe it’s unfair to have finally visited this “modern ice creamery” when Buonocore was still tickling my taste buds. For it was good, but not great. I had salted caramel and noissette—two flavors that never fail to make me shimmy in appreciation. But it just wasn’t as rich or creamy or mind-blowing as the Italian gelato.
Which begs the standard issue question: what is the difference between ice cream and gelato??
For one thing, the machines that make gelato churn slower so there is less air pumped in the mixture. Thus its denser, creamier, more heavenly texture.
And the recipes usually include more egg yolks, more milk and less cream… so gelato, incredibly, has fewer calories than ice cream.
So until I find a suitable gelato fix in Paris, my daily cono piccolo in Capri still has me dreaming.
47 rue Martyrs
That’s exactly what hit me in the face as I walked down via Vittorio Emanuele in Capri a couple weeks back. Obviously I had no choice but to stop at Buonocre gelateria, the source of that amazing smell and a full range of creamy, indulgent gelato flavors. From which I chose stracciatella and tiramisu.
And when they placed my cone in my hand?
It was still warm. Imagine, a warm waffle cone with cool, creamy, beyond-amazing gelato. The stuff that dreams are made of.
And the day after that, I sampled gianduja and cherry vanilla.
It was with such memories in my head that I dragged Jo to Caramella, a petit ice cream shop on rue des Martyrs that I’ve always wanted to go to.
Maybe it’s unfair to have finally visited this “modern ice creamery” when Buonocore was still tickling my taste buds. For it was good, but not great. I had salted caramel and noissette—two flavors that never fail to make me shimmy in appreciation. But it just wasn’t as rich or creamy or mind-blowing as the Italian gelato.
Which begs the standard issue question: what is the difference between ice cream and gelato??
For one thing, the machines that make gelato churn slower so there is less air pumped in the mixture. Thus its denser, creamier, more heavenly texture.
And the recipes usually include more egg yolks, more milk and less cream… so gelato, incredibly, has fewer calories than ice cream.
So until I find a suitable gelato fix in Paris, my daily cono piccolo in Capri still has me dreaming.
47 rue Martyrs
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