My wife and I stopped in here for a quick sip of tea and a bite of some desserts when we were up in Hudson, NY.
The cookie had a tasty and soft center, and the banana cream pie was really smooth. Not too rich, so I liked it.
We sampled a few teas (green and black), and I slammed the pink lemonade. I really liked the green tea, because for once in my life it was sweet and not bitter.
VERDIGRIS TEA
135 Warren St
Hudson, NY 12534
Lick is an ice cream joint I tried up in Hudson, NY. They had some interesting flavors on the board.
My wife and I went with a cup of fig and sweet cream. It tasted like an ice cream version of fig newtons. Delicious.
LICK
623 Warren St
Hudson, NY 12534
I came here with a gang of Instagram influencers to help get some pics for promotional purposes. I’m not really a bakery or sweets kind of guy, but this place was great! Check out some of their stuff below:
Chocolate frosted cronut:
Strawberry cheesecake:
Blackout chocolate cake:
Coconut cream cake:
Banane cream pie:
Eclairs:
Rainbow cookies (and The Cake Dealer):
Lobster tail “Sfogliatella”:
And special cupcakes for Mother’s Day:
It was really tough to pick favorites. The pistachio eclair, the lobster tail, the cronut, the rainbow cookies, the tres leches (not pictured) and the creme brûlée cupcake (not pictured) were all incredibly good. If I had to pick just one, it would probably be the tres leches. It tasted like a wet Cinnamon Toast Crunch cake. That may not sound like much to you, but I swear it was awesome.
MIA’S BAKERY
139 Smith St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
You know me: I’m not really an ice cream and donuts kind of guy. But DECADENT and SAVORY donuts?!?!!! Now you have my attention!
“Forbidden Donuts” has created a secret menu of seven deadly sinful donuts that will be shared with faithful sinners every Sunday at Bowery Kitchen Supplies in Chelsea Market from 11am to 4pm.
Limited quantities are available, so get there bright and early.
Menu and pricing are below. My favorite is the Smoked Salmon.
Caviar w/ Vodka Jelly $ 18
caviar cream
Smoked Salmon & Roe $8
smoked salmon tarama
Foie Gras & Chocolate Glazed $15
Foie gras mousse
Lobster “Roll” $10
Matcha Green Tea $5
crispy artichokes
Cauliflower Peanut Butter $5
crispy ginger
Kimchi $5
sweet & sour sriracha glazed
FORBIDDEN DONUTS (POP-UP)
Chelsea Market
Bowery Kitchen Supply
75 9th Ave
New York, NY 10011
As you all know, my wife is The Cake Dealer. Whenever we see a bake shop, she gets interested. We were on our way to lunch when we stumbled upon what I can only imagine is a NYC landmark bake shop called Glaser’s. It just looked old school from the outside. Sure enough, when we approached, we saw that they were about to celebrate their 115th anniversary.
After lunch, we went back in to check out some of their products.
For about $9 we took home a nice assortment of tasty shit.
Those are cookie sandwiches on the top left. Bottom left was my favorite: the raspberry crumb cake. The lemon danish was excellent and the black and white cookie is a Seinfeld classic.
Here’s to the next 115 years, Glaser’s. What a cool place with really nice stuff.
GLASER’S BAKE SHOP
1670 1st Avenue
New York, NY 10128
The head honcho over at Let’s Dutch reached out to me to introduce himself and his service. Essentially it’s a place where people can host and organize group activities, and one of the things they facilitate is large format dining. That’s right up my alley, given my creation of Carcass Club, in which I and some friends try to get together to take on the various whole beast feasts that are peppered throughout this fine city.
Naturally, I was interested. The service is great for both city newbies, who are looking to meet new people with similar interests, and old fogies like me and my wife, who are just looking for seats at the feast when it’s becoming increasingly difficult to peg down a date and time among all of our friends that might be interested.
I was especially pumped when Vincent (the aforementioned head honcho) informed me that they’d be doing the new brisket feast for 10 people at Momofuku Ssam Bar. Fuck yeah.
So the meal is pretty simple. You get a massive hunk of delicious, tender, slow cooked brisket, along with lettuce for making wraps, and various sauces and kimchi items for toppings.
I highly recommend this meal to anyone who loves brisket or BBQ, as it is quasi-BBQ in nature. They even created a secret seven-spice blend for this baby. I absolutely loved it.
You may already know that I’ve been to Momofuku for their large format feasts in the past: duck and rib eye. This brisket feast is the best of the three I’ve tried, and I think they’ve also added a fourth, pork shoulder (bo ssam). I’ll have to try that one soon.
MOMOFUKU SSAM BAR
207 2nd Ave.
New York, NY 10003
My wife was invited to this little joint as an influencer to help promote their business.
We were able to sample four different slices of “Piece of Velvet” cake, and in the future, there will be ice cream and waffles offered on the menu as well.
Some cakes even have booze infused in them, like rum, bourbon, vodka and whiskey.
Red Velvet: this is their signature cake. It was rich and flavorful.
Pina Colada: This was my favorite of the four we tried. The pineapple and coconut flavors were very natural and tasty.
Ciroc Coconut: They’ve soaked real coconut shavings in “Ciroc” vodka for three days.
Blueberry Vanilla Bourbon: Self explanatory, and really delicious.
Here’s a shot of my two favorites side by side:
PIECE OF VELVET
101 MacDougal St
New York, NY 10012
I was recently invited to the French Cheese Board by Peachonomics and The Baddish Group for a cheese tasting. I ended u learning a lot about cheeses, and since we were eating all cow’s milk cheeses, I figured it was worth a write-up on here.
I had no idea that certain cheeses were meant to be cut and eaten in specific ways depending on their shape and size. Check out these charts:
Pretty interesting. And this chart of cow breeds shows which cheeses come from which cows:
What I found interesting is that, much like our Beef Check-Off system here in the States, Cheeses of Europe acts as a marketing tool and advocacy arm of the cheese industry across the pond. They organized this event as a way to educate foodies in NYC about French cheeses. I’m actually looking forward to learning more about cow’s milk cheeses. Maybe one of these days I’ll organize a beef and cheese pairing event, as I’m sure certain cuts of beef or methods of preparation would pair nicely with certain cheeses.
Not only does the French Cheese Board sell cheese, but it also acts as an art gallery and food lab as well, where students can intern and learn about cheese.
We tried a bunch of really diverse cheeses. My two favorites were the Brillat Savarin and Pont I Eveque. Both were softer and creamier than Brie.
They served us some nice wines that went with the cheeses, and even put together some plated cheese hors d’oeuvres.
I definitely recommend hitting this spot to try out some cheeses. The prices are very reasonable.
THE FRENCH CHEESE BOARD
41 Spring St
New York, NY 10012
I’m not really big into the whole artisan ice cream fad that’s sweeping NYC. Don’t get me wrong: I, too, will “scream for ice cream” now and then. As you probably have figured out, I’m more of a savory guy than a sweets guy. But who doesn’t like ice cream, right? It’s just that my soft spot when it comes to ice cream is soft serve. Typically vanilla, and Carvel if possible; no sprinkles either, and in a cheap-ass wafer cone, too. I know, I know. That’s boring crap. But it’s my boring crap. It’s what I like.
Anyhow, with a set-up like that I you might get a sense that I am super critical when it comes to scooped ice cream, because I generally don’t dig it the same way everyone else does. And then once you trust me in my ice cream criticalness, I could tell you something like “HOWEVER, AFTER TRYING VAN LEEUWEN, I AM A CHANGED MAN,” and you’d lick it up, thinking “Well, it must be good if the guy who hates ice cream even likes it.”
Well, that’s sorta what I’m doing. But I’ll be honest: I’m not really a changed man, per se. I will still choose soft serve vanilla Carvel over the best ice cream in town, but I now understand the draw to these new artisan ice cream joints.
We tried an array of scoops. Six, I believe. The lemon meringue, butternut squash, and sour cream apple flavors really stood out as amazing. (Those are my wife’s cake balls that we put on top)
And a few of these were even VEGAN! They pull it off. You’d never know you were eating hippie food.
I actively disliked Morgenstern’s, but I truly enjoyed Van Leeuwen. But get this: I was there with ice cream aficionado JustAFoodieNYC. This guy is legit. He eats more ice cream than anyone I know, and he’s been at it since he was a kid. A true ice cream enthusiast. I trust his judgment; he is to ice cream what I am to steak. Anyway, Van Leeuwen is one of his top picks, but he tells me that Ice & Vice is even better. So I will have to give that shit a try soon.
VAN LEEEWEN
204 Wythe Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11249
This place serves up some interesting ice cream flavors, and I came in with a buddy who was tasked with gathering up some food influencers to come in and try some of their special new offerings. On special when I went was the avocado cardamom soft serve ice cream, and the sour plum raspberry-filled traditional ice cream.
There really wasn’t much of an avocado flavor to the soft serve, but there was definitely some cardamom coming through in the back end. The texture was a bit grainy and icy though, so I probably wouldn’t get it again.
As for the sour plum, it had a slightly better texture, but still a bit icy. I could eat this again, but it wouldn’t be something I’d go out of my way to get. Not bad.
In short, I support the idea of experimenting with new and unique flavors, but if the texture isn’t right, or if the flavors don’t match the descriptions, then you are failing as an ice cream maker. This was my first time trying this place, and from what I understand they are highly rated. Perhaps I should stick with some more traditional flavor selections next time.
MORGENSTERN’S
2 Rivington St
New York, NY 10002
