I Scream For, Well, You Know....

My favorite foods are the ones that are the worst for me: bread and ice cream. Good bread only please--you can keep your supermarket white. But I kinda like all ice cream, even the stuff with carageenan and polysorbate-80. (Mmmm...Baskin-Robbins Jamoca Almond Fudge!) Sadly, not only is ice cream a bunch of empty calories with a ton of sugar, it's also made with milk and cream. And no, I'm not a vegan...I am severely lactose intolerant. 

It came upon me suddenly last year. One day I could consume dairy products with no problem. The next, well, let's just say shit happened. And now the really great (I think) recipes for dairy ice cream here on Minxeats will need to be recreated in a non-dairy format. In the meantime, please enjoy them as is. Some early recipes include eggs, but after discovering Jeni's secret I now choose to dirty a couple more small bowls in order to avoid the potential disaster of scrambled eggs in my custard. (Egg drop ice cream isn't a thing.) 

Does anyone have suggestions for dairy substitutes in ice cream? Of course coconut milk is always an option, but the taste of coconut might not work for more delicate flavors like chamomile tea. I've tried some non-dairy ice creams, and while some are good, others don't quite hit the mark. Van Leeuwen's can be a bit dense, particularly when eaten side by side with a dairy flavor. (I know--I shouldn't do that.)

On with the show.

Apple Pie Ice Cream even has crust pieces in it!

Apricot Cardamom Pistachio Ice Cream So many great flavors together!

Cardamom Carrot Ice Cream is my favorite Indian dessert, gajar ka halwa, in ice cream form.

Chamomile Honey Tea Gelato Will it surprise you when I say this is my all-time favorite ice cream? (Technically, it's a gelato.) It's infused with a very specific brand of now-discontinued tea bag, and I might have enough of them left to make another batch. One can use regular chamomile tea, as long as it's of high quality. It won't have the honey flavor, but a drizzle over the top, sundae-style, will get you close. Celestial Seasonings, Twinings, and Bigelow make chamomile honey tea with vanilla that might also work, as long as the vanilla isn't too obvious. If you find another honey chamomile tea out there, please LMK about it.

Cracker Toffee Ice Cream This ice cream is also infused with tea and includes the crunchy delight of cracker toffee bits. If you don't want to make the toffee, just throw in handfuls of Heath bar bits, which will be different but still delicious.

Key Lime Pie Ice Cream Everyone's favorite dessert, in ice cream form. Or just make the pie. lol

Meyer Lemon Poppyseed Ice Cream Please make sure your poppy seeds are fresh! The little buggers get rancid quickly, and rancid poppy seeds will ruin your day. And your ice cream.

Oomame Chile Crisp Ice Cream Some people put chile crisp on vanilla ice cream. I put it in ice cream. I thought it was super delicious, but Mr Minx was not convinced. No problem. More for me! (I ate the entire quart, apart from a couple tablespoons.)

Pudgy Partner Ice Cream  This is my version of Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby. Tasted at least as good, maybe better. 

Sour Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream Sweet cherries are fine, but I prefer sour cherries. Pitting them is a pain in the butt though.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Stuffing My Face in New York - Day Two

I did and didn't eat as much on Day Two as I did on Day One. I ate fewer meals, but the sandwich I had for lunch was honestly enough food for the entire day. Read on.

My regular NY breakfast habit is a stroll down to Dominique Ansel Workshop in Flatiron. I've never been to the original bakery on Spring Street so have never eaten a Cronut. But I have eaten gingerbread croissants, pear tarts, canele, and kouign amann at his Workshop. This time I tried a coffee creme brulee pull-apart bun, made with the same laminated dough as most of his pastries, filled with a blob of coffee cream and topped with a wee creme brulee. Sweet, crispy, creamy deliciousness. I love that they serve La Colombe coffee, a brand out of Philly, and had one with some oat milk, which I sipped as I sat at an outdoor table and watched a crew of people unload what looked like pieces of a set from an enormous truck.

Daisy and I had both recently read about All'antico Vinaio, a Florentine import that opened last November on 8th Ave near Times Square. Though I had wanted to eat mostly Asian cuisines on this visit, after I looked at their menu, I was game for an Italian sandwich. La Paradiso, in particular, caught my eye--mortadella, pistachios, a pesto-like pistachio cream, and stracchiatella (fresh mozzarella soaked in cream) layered between slices of schiacciata, a bread that seemed the love child of focaccia and ciabatta. I thought we could share a sandwich, since these babies appeared to be around 8 inches square and 2 inches thick, but Daisy seemed shocked at the suggestion. We each ordered a sandwich and had them cut in half so we could share. Her choice was La Schiacciata Boss, with Tuscan ham, Pecorino, and truffle cream. Both sandwiches were stellar, with great bread, just crusty enough on the outside, and tasty fillings.  

top: Boss, bottom: Paradise

After that massive lunch, I just wanted a nap; instead we hopped on a bus for a trip to sniff fragrances downtown. We spent quite a bit of time at Mizensir, a narrow boutique filled with the creations of master perfumer Alberto Morillas. He is the creator of familiar fragrances like CK One, Acqua di Gio, and Marc Jacobs Daisy, as well as Must de Cartier, Penhaligon's Iris Prima, and Thierry Mugler Cologne. My rather vast collection of scents includes those last three, and may well include a Mizensir fragrance in the future.

At some point, Daisy suggested we stop for tacos, and I looked at her like she had three heads. I was still working off that colossal bologna sandwich! I did find enough room for a tiny bit of gelato from Gentile. I noticed that they had sorbetto flavored with chinotto, a variety of bitter citrus popular in Italy. Recently I sampled fragrances from Abaton, which specializes in scents made with the fruit, and was curious to taste it. To balance the icy sorbet, I also got some plain fior de latte gelato.

Later that evening, we stopped into the new Manhattan outpost of Nan Xiang, a Flushing, Queens favorite for xiao long bao, aka soup dumplings. Daisy chose the popular pork version of the dumplings, and I went for the Lucky Six combination platter that included pork, chicken, scallop and pork, pork and crab, pork and truffle, and gourd/shrimp/pork. While the oversized dumplings were tasty, the wrappers were somewhat uneven and doughy in places. Still, I enjoyed them, though I really didn't need any more food at that point.

It's amazing I got any sleep at all on this trip, with all the food I ate so late in the day. Perhaps my body was simply exhausted from all the digesting it had to do? Or maybe the 44,000 steps I walked in three days had something to do with it.

If you missed Day One, you can find it here.

Read about my sole meal on Day Three here.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Stuffing My Face in New York - Day One

My eating adventures in New York have been a regular feature on Minxeats for years. Check out the posts found here, here, here, here, here, here, and so on. Neal and I always ate well when we visited NYC, but since I met my friend Daisy in 2017, food consumption has gone up quite a bit. When Daisy and I get together, we may have 2-3 full meals, a couple of snacks, and a stop for drinks in an 8-hour period. Now, it's not constant eating; we do pop into various shops and boutiques that seem interesting, and always make time to sniff perfumes. But still--it's a lot of food consumed in a relatively short amount of time.

On my most recent trip, I met up with Daisy at Golden Diner. It's located in Chinatown, and the location reflects on the otherwise typical diner-style dishes. I ordered the chicken katsu club, featuring tender chicken cutlets, red cabbage slaw, blt, and bulldog sauce on the typical myriad slices of toast. Daisy had the Chinatown egg & cheese sando, the NY standby, but with exceptionally fluffy eggs on a sesame scallion milk bun. Now that I peruse the menu again, I kinda wish I had ordered the Thai Cobb, partly because of the clever name but also because it sounds delicious. 

Let me backtrack a minute. The Golden Diner meal was at about 3:30pm on a Sunday. I had arrived in NY noon-ish, and after tucking my bags safely away with the hotel porter, I headed to a Thai restaurant near Penn Station called Random Access. I'd wanted to eat there for a while and had even made a reservation the last time I was in town, but plans changed.  This time, I was able to satisfy my curiosity about the place with an order of sriracha lime dumplings and an egg pancake. The former comprised steamed chicken dumplings with a spicy mayo, plus cilantro, red pepper, shallots, and coconut. The latter was a roti flatbread merged with an omelet, topped with squid, mussels, bean sprouts, kale, coconut, and a sweet sriracha sauce. Both dishes hit all the right spots, and were a flavorful contrast to the rather wan Thai food I had back home in Baltimore earlier in the week.

Now back to the Daisy-led Food-O-Rama.

We wandered around a bit before visiting Michaeli Bakery. We were there for donuts, but it was too late in the day and they didn't have much of a selection. Instead, we split a rugelach. The rugelach I'm familiar with are made with a sturdy cream cheese pastry and filled with nuts, jam, chocolate, or all of the above. This one was a tiny croissant-like pastry with a chocolate filling rolled into it. It was very good, if very different.

Our next stop was King Dumplings. It used to be a "dollar dumpling" joint when it opened a couple years ago, but now the price has gone up a few bucks. Ten really good pork dumplings for less than $5 is pretty amazing though. 

If you're counting calories, we're probably at 3500 so far.

Our next stop was Kopitiam, specializing in Nonya (Chinese Malay) cuisine. I wanted to try everything on the menu, but we settled on three dishes + dessert. We tried the Nyonya Bak Zhang, a dumpling of blue and white sticky rice with minced pork, mushrooms, winter melon, and salted egg, all wrapped in a mile of some sort of leaf (banana, I'm guessing). I was expecting something yummy like one of my favorite dim sum dishes, sticky rice in lotus. Sadly, the dumpling was cold and overcooked, the salted egg yolk was dried out, and the whole of it pretty flavorless. The tok tok mee made up for it, reminding me of chow fun with its wide noodles in a dark sauce studded with pork, shrimp, and other goodies. 

The pandan chicken was also tasty. The three triangular chicken meatballs were wrapped in pandan leaves and served with a sweet chili sauce.

Asian desserts are not French pastries, so I shouldn't have been surprised when one of the items we ordered was on the gelatinous side. The kuih talam was described as salted coconut milk over a pandan cake base. Yes, those were the flavors, but the "cake" was not the western-style flour-based cake that I expected. The kuih lapis was a "1000-layer" cinnamon butter cake, rather like a crepe cake or maybe a Smith Island cake, only without any frosting. Both desserts, I think, would make a great afternoon snack with some tea.

I opposed the idea of eating a burger next, so we parked ourselves at an outdoor cafe and enjoyed an adult beverage instead. There was plenty more to eat the next day.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Oomame Chile Crisp Ice Cream

Moroccan Oomame on Oatmeal with feta

One of my favorite products discovered at the 2021 Fancy Food Show was Oomame's line of globally-influenced chile crisps. Originally from China, chile crisp has become a popular condiment among chile-heads and others who enjoy a flavorful bit of spice plus crunchy texture. It's great on dumplings, but also pizza, pasta, and just about everything else. What I like about Oomame's product is that it comes in four varieties - a classic Sichuan style, plus others borrowing flavor profiles from Mexico, Morocco, and India. While I still like to use the Sichuan version on typically savory dishes, I have found that the dried fruits in the other varieties (fig in Moroccan, papaya in Indian, mango in Mexican) add a subtle sweetness that makes them also work well with foods that are traditionally sweeter. Try a drizzle of Moroccan Oomame with a sprinkle of feta cheese on your next bowl of oatmeal--rather than the usual brown sugar or maple syrup and fruit--for something totally unexpected and totally delicious. But let's push that proverbial envelope a bit, shall we?

Some ice cream shops in Sichuan province have taken to drizzling chile oil on vanilla soft serve. And while a chile crisp sundae seems like a fine idea, I took it even further by putting chile crisp in ice cream. Yes, I did! The Mexican-inspired version of Oomame Global Chile Crisp, in particular, seemed ripe for taking a savory condiment fully into dessert territory. But rather than using vanilla in my frozen confection, I borrowed some elements from the chile crisp itself to flavor the creamy base. I started with Jeni's ice cream recipe, which uses corn starch and cream cheese in place of eggs as a thickener, and infused it with mango and orange peel, adding peanuts as a substitute for the pepitas in the Mexican Oomame. (While they're great for crunch, I didn't think they'd add all that much flavor.) 

The result exceeded my wildest expectations. Mr Minx wasn't all that thrilled with the flavor of dried onion in his ice cream but it didn't bother me. Nor did the occasional hit of cumin. The predominant flavor was orange peel, even more so than chile, which I thought was enough to keep my creation well within the realm of dessert. If you're an adventurous eater, give it a try. 

I have no regrets.

Oomame Chile Crisp Ice Cream

1 clementine or half a small orange

2 cups milk

1 1⁄4 cups heavy cream

1 ounce dried mango strips

Small handful of roasted unsalted peanuts

4 t cornstarch

2⁄3 cup sugar

2 T light corn syrup

1⁄4 t kosher salt

3 T cream cheese, softened

2 T Oomame Mexican Chile Crisp

Additional roasted unsalted peanuts

Chocolate chips (optional - I used a Seattle Chocolates Mexican Chocolate bar, cut into slivers)

Peel the clementine or orange in large strips, saving the fruit segments for another use. Carefully scrape the white pith from the inside of the peel with a small knife. 

Reserve 1/4 cup of milk and put the remaining 1 3/4 cups plus the cream into a 4-quart saucepan. Add the mango, peanuts, and clementine or orange peel. Over medium-high heat, bring the milk to almost a boil. Turn off the heat, cover the pan, and allow the flavorings to steep for about 20 minutes. 

Stir the cornstarch into the reserved 1/4 cup of milk and set aside. 

Strain the steeped milk into another 4-quart saucepan, reserving the fruit and nuts. Add the sugar, corn syrup, and salt to the pan and bring the milk to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 4 minutes, then stir in the slurry. Bring back to a boil and cook until thickened, 2 minutes.

Put the cream cheese in a large bowl and pour in 1/4 of the hot milk, whisking until smooth. Carefully whisk in the rest of the hot milk. Stir in the chile crisp. Pour the milk into a storage container. Add a layer of ice cubes to the bottom of a baking pan large enough to fit the storage container and put the container on top of the ice in order to cool the milk mixture down quickly. After about 15 minutes, put the container in the fridge to chill completely, 4 hours or overnight.

Cut the steeped mango and orange peel into small pieces and reserve along with the peanuts.

Put the chilled ice cream base into the bowl of an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's directions. After the ice cream has started to thicken and is almost done, add the mango, orange, peanuts, and chocolate, if using. Scoop ice cream into a freezer-safe storage container (I just used the same one I used for the hot milk) and smooth with the back of a spoon. Cover and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.

Serve with additional chile crisp, or over your favorite brownies. Or eat straight out of the container.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Dining in New York, June 2019 - Part 1

It might seem that I go to New York a lot. I do--at least 3 or 4 times a year, and mostly for the purpose of eating. My most recent trip was to the Fancy Food Show, which I attended with the lovely Dara of Dara Does It and Dining Dish.

Though we both start out in Baltimore, we don't travel together. She favors the bus, while I take Amtrak. I mean, I ride the bus twice a day, five days a week. I deserve to travel in relative comfort sometimes! Our various means of transportation get us to the city at different times and in different places. So while Dara goes straight to the Javits Center and starts walking the show, I hoof it from Penn Station to our nearby hotel and check into our room. With that accomplished, I take the subway to Javits Center.

In past years, I emerged from the 7 train to a Hudson Yards complex still under construction. This time, my path was scaffolding-free. Since I was so close, I decided to check out the mall part of the new complex and have lunch. On my way in, I chuckled at the many people waiting in line to walk around in the Vessel, a huge sculpture made of staircases in the form of a shawarma (or gyro or al pastor) rotisserie.

You see, it, right? Shawarma.

Once inside, I made use of the touch-screen map kiosks to find Fuku, a fast-food fried chicken restaurant that is part of David Chang's Momofuku empire. I wanted to try one of his chicken sandwiches for a while now, but I had concerns. Would it be too spicy? and could I order it without its usual topping of chickpea butter? The answers were "no," and "yes," in that order. While the sandwich was indeed spicy, it wasn't beyond a level I could tolerate comfortably. And the cashier didn't blink when I asked her to leave off the butter. (Chickpeas and lentils give me severe stomach cramps.) I don't know what the butter added, but I certainly didn't miss it.

After the sandwich, I went upstairs to Van Leeuwen ice cream. I sampled a couple of both the dairy and vegan flavors and ended up with a scoop of Earl Grey. The ice cream was smooth and creamy, but not overly unctuous, and was a perfect antidote to the spicy sandwich I had just consumed.

The mall was otherwise unremarkable, full of overly expensive shops catering to the one percent. Not my scene. Yes, I do go to Bergdorf Goodman just about every time I visit New York, but only for the beauty floor; seldom do I purchase anything. I'm rather obsessed with perfume, and Bergdorf's has one of the best selections of fragrance around. Also I like to visit with friends who work there.

Speaking of friends from BG, I had dinner that evening with my friend David, a makeup artist with Estee Lauder. He was going to be in the Village, so we agreed to meet at North Square at the Washington Square Hotel.

Neal and I had stayed at that hotel 15 years ago, and I had no idea there was a restaurant. Or maybe it wasn't there back then. In any case, North Square seemed to be a popular place, as it was full by 6:30.

We started our meal with blistered carrots with lemon tahini, pomegranate, and pistachios. It was a generous portion and could make a nice light entree with a salad or a side. I liked the contrast of tender carrot and the various crunchy toppings.

For my entree, I had the coriander-crusted scallops with quinoa pilaf, sauteed market greens (spinach) and coconut lemongrass sauce. While the scallops were nicely cooked, and everything was tasty, I didn't really detect either the coriander or the lemongrass. David had a burger, which he seemed to enjoy.

We passed on dessert. I had already been bad and had ice cream at lunch, not to mention more ice cream at the Fancy Food Show. And I was supposedly on the Whole30 diet. Not on this day, sister!

Fuku
20 Hudson Yards
New York, NY 10001

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream
20 Hudson Yards
New York, NY 10001

North Square
Washington Square Hotel
103 Waverly Pl
New York, NY 10011

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Eating Around New York

Mr Minx and I are serious eaters. We enjoy a wide variety of foods from all over the world. Asian food is my thing especially. Northern Baltimore County, where we live, isn't exactly a hotbed of good food, and really great Asian food is hard to find. So when we go to New York, we eat as much of it as we can get.

I like to stay in or near Koreatown, in Midtown Manhattan. 32nd Street between 5th Avenue and Broadway in particular is packed with Korean eateries, though there are some outliers on 31st and 33rd and across 5th. One can get bibimbap or barbecue 24/7, and fancy pastries and bubble tea most of the day. On our most recent trip to New York, we ate at two Koreatown restaurants, but also ventured elsewhere in the city for ice cream and pizza.

Our first stop of the trip was for a lunchtime feast of dumplings and noodles at Mandoo Bar. The soft and slippery udon with seafood was mild and soothing; the colorful steamed mandoo were variously filled with vegetables, pork, and seafood. All benefited from the mix-your-own-sauce collection of salty and spicy condiments found on every table. Personally, I prefer the fried mandoo, because I like a little crunch on the somewhat thick wrappers, but the steamed version was satisfying, too.

Later that evening, we visited Hao Noodle & Tea, which was written up here last week. Our lovely food tour guide, Daisy, remembered that Morgenstern's ice cream had recently opened a new flagship shop nearby, so we stopped in to sample a few of their 88 occasionally very unusual flavors.

When presented with that many choices, I have trouble making up my mind. I did manage to settle for cardamom lemon jam. The ice cream was strongly cardamom flavored with small pockets of a somewhat bitter lemon marmalade that contrasted nicely with the sweet spice and milky ice cream. Sadly, I didn't take note of what Mr Minx ordered, but he seemed to enjoy his flavors which likely involved chocolate. Daisy had a date-flavored concoction that was neither ice cream nor sorbet, with an odd grainy texture, that was saved by a dose of a very good hot fudge sauce.

After Morgenstern's, we trudged through the rain to Joe's Pizza, a slice joint on Carmine near Bleecker. Mr Minx, a proponent of NY-style pizza, really enjoyed the perfection of Joe's thin crust that audibly cracked when being folded. It's truly one of the best slices in town, relatively cheap and satisfying, too.

The next morning, after lattes at Starbucks (I know, but it was Sunday, they were open, and they are if nothing else, consistent), we walked the ten or so blocks to Bryant Park to check out the Bank of America Winter Village. The rain had stopped, but the clouds lingered. Still, it was a lovely winter day. We window shopped up and down the maze of tiny boutiques until we made a decision about food. Mr Bing was our first choice.

A few years ago, I saw Mr Bing at Urbanspace Vanderbilt. The food court was crowded and most stalls had lines; I found myself overwhelmed by foodie anxiety. Rather than choose something new to me, like bing, I quickly grabbed two tacos at one of the less-busy stalls, scarfed them and escaped the crowds. I resented my decision.

Jianbing is a traditional street food that originated in the north of China. Generally eaten for breakfast, this crepe-like pancake is coated with egg on both sides, smeared with various pastes and sauces, and folded. It can be filled with meat and veg, like our General Tso's bing. It's big enough to share, and fucking delicious. I won't pass up this treat next time.

Mian Kitchen was nearby, and we grabbed a couple of bao (fried chicken and pork belly) with a side of spring rolls. I enjoyed the spring rolls, which were piping hot and crispy, but was a little disappointed in the bao. The chicken was on the dry side, and neither were as flavorful as others I've eaten in town.

We also tried one of the famed liege waffles from the Waffles & Dinges outpost at Bryant Park. It was good, but I've had better.

Our plans for the evening involved visiting the tree at Rockefeller Center and checking out department store holiday windows. Barney's was a real bust; they didn't bother decorating at all. Bergdorf's windows were real winners, especially those dressed up with fake confectionery like cakes and gingerbread houses. From BGs we segued to the Parker New York Hotel (formerly the Parker Meridien) to hit up the fabled Burger Joint, a faux "dive" restaurant tucked away behind a curtain next to the hotel's front desk. The ambiance (posters, tons of graffiti on the walls and gouged into wooden tabletops) is very CBGB, but the food is classic Americana--burgers, fries, milkshakes, plus beer and wine.

The burgers were simple and very good, earning every "best burger in NY" accolade received in those glory days before the advent of the now-ubiquitous Shake Shack.

Much later in the evening, we enjoyed our second dinner at Samwon Garden, in Koreatown. Though it was nearly 10pm on a Sunday, most Korean restaurants in the neighborhood were packed, some with lines. Samwon Garden has multiple levels, so we were able to snag a table and order a few of the more interesting non-bbq items on the menu. The Honguh Kangjung, or deep fried skate wings with housemade Buffalo sauce were crunchy and overcooked and doused in a sauce more sweet than spicy (though it was spicy). Osam Bulgogi was another spicy sweet dish, this time with chewy chunks of squid and morsels of pork belly. The show stopper was a dish listed as a "side" - an enormous plate of fries with kimchi, bulgogi, and cheese curds, rather like a Korean poutine. I'm not crazy about fries in general, but I probably ate more than my fair share of this dish.

The next morning, we wandered around Chinatown in the chill wind, stopping for a porky plate of steamed dumplings at Chi Dumplings before ice cream at Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. I am endlessly amused that the "regular flavors" at this tiny shop include durian and taro, but the "exotic" flavors include chocolate and vanilla.

After ice cream came....pizza! I haven't been to that many pizza joints in NYC, but I did realize that one of my favorites, Pomodoro, was not too far away from where we had wandered. We had a quick vodka slice before heading to the Strand to browse through books.

After the Strand, we found ourselves wanting three things: 1) a place to sit; 2) to pee; 3) something warm. We spotted Max Brenner and found everything we ever wanted. 

And churros with milk chocolate, caramel, and raspberry dips. Lattes on the side. So good and so welcome.

We left the city later that afternoon, full of happy food memories and already planning our next visit.

Mandoo Bar
2 W 32nd St
New York, NY 10001

Mr Bing
Urbanspace Vanderbilt
230 Park Ave
New York, NY 10169

Mian Kitchen
1065 Ave Of The Americas
Ste 2400
New York, NY 10018

Waffles & Dinges
Bryant Park
6th Avenue & W 42nd St
New York, NY 10018

Burger Joint
Parker New York
119 W 56th St
New York, NY 10019

Morgenstern's
88 W Houston Street
New York, NY 10012

Samwon Garden
37 W 32nd St
New York, NY 10001

Chi Dumpling House
77 Chrystie St # A
New York, NY 10002

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
5 Bayard St
New York, NY 10013

Pomodoro
51 Spring St
New York, NY 10012

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Homemade Chubby Hubby Ice Cream

I am an ice cream fanatic. I could eat it every day (but I don't). One of my all-time favorite flavors is Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby (though it ranks a distant second to B&J fabulous Wavy Gravy). Chubby Hubby seemed to disappear from the market. I heard that it was discontinued. Now I hear it's back again, but different--the pretzels have changed or something. I still haven't seen it in the grocery store, so it seemed like high time to attempt to make it at home. And here's the recipe.

I changed the name to avoid copyright infringement. Also to be more inclusive.

Pudgy Partner Ice Cream

For the ice cream:
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons softened cream cheese
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2/3 cup malted milk powder

To finish:
Fudge ribbon
1 cup peanut butter-filled pretzels, lightly crushed (I used Trader Joe's)
2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter, warmed in the microwave for 30-45 seconds to liquefy

For the fudge ribbon:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/8 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1/8 cup cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon fine or table sea salt
3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the ice cream: Mix 2 tablespoons of the whole milk with the cornstarch to make a slurry. In a separate bowl, whisk the cream cheese and salt together until smooth. Prepare a shallow ice bath: in a large bowl or baking pan, place an inch of cold water and several ice cubes. Set aside.

Cook the remaining milk, cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a large saucepan until it comes to a rolling boil, Boil for 4 minutes, watching carefully so it doesn't boil over (stir when it starts to expand), remove from heat, and slowly whisk in the slurry. Bring back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Blend a few tablespoons of hot milk mixture into the cream cheese to loosen it, then pour the cream cheese mixture into the pan of milk. Whisk well until smooth. Pour into a container with a tight-fitting lid and place the container into the ice bath until cool, ensuring that the water level doesn't come up as far as the lid. When the mixture seems mostly cool, refrigerate until completely cold.

To finish: Make fudge ribbon.

To make the fudge ribbon: Combine all of the ingredients except the vanilla in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook on low heat until everything is melted, then cook an additional 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Freeze ice cream according to manufacturers instructions. Once  the ice cream is done, scoop some into a large lidded storage container. Drizzle on some of the fudge sauce--feel free to allow it to settle in big globs--followed by some of the pretzels, and some of the peanut butter. Continue to layer ice cream, fudge, pretzels, and peanut butter--ending with a layer of ice cream--until all ingredients have been used up. Press a piece of wax paper onto the surface of the ice cream. Seal container and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.

There will be a little bit of fudge sauce left over. Store in a covered container in the fridge. Warm it up in the microwave for a few seconds to use as hot fudge sauce, or eat it from the container with a spoon.

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Flashback Friday - Miso Caramel

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on March 6, 2012.
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During a recent episode of Chopped, the competitors' dessert baskets included a tub of white miso. Both chefs made some sort of miso caramel sauce, which was also the first thing that came to my mind. Why? Well, salted caramel has been the Big Thing for quite a while now, and miso is definitely salty. Why not take a very basic caramel recipe and substitute miso for butter?  I tried it, and it worked like a charm. The sauce was sweet and salty, but didn't taste miso-y in the least.

For those of you afraid of making caramel for some reason, don't be! Homemade caramel is easy-peasy, but you do have to keep a couple things in mind.

1) Once the sugar is melted and bubbling, DO NOT STIR. It'll do its thing all on its own.
2) PAY ATTENTION. Don't make a phone call, read the paper, or do anything other than stand near the stove, keeping an eye on the pot.
2) Melted sugar is HOT. Be careful not to get any on yourself.

Miso Caramel Sauce

3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons yellow or white miso

In a heavy saucepan set over medium-high heat, stir together sugar and water. Without additional stirring, bring mixture to a boil. Use a wet pastry brush to wash down any sugar crystals that form on the sides of the pan. When sugar becomes a deep golden brown and wisps of smoke just start to form, remove pan from heat.

Check out the photo below...see how the edges are getting dark but the center sugar is still light in color? It's going to start smoking any second now, so be prepared to take it off the heat before the caramel burns.

Once off the heat, carefully pour in the cream, which will cause the caramel to bubble. Stir to combine. If the caramel seizes up and hardens with the addition of the cold cream, then put the pan back over low heat and stir until the caramel is liquid again. Whisk in the miso. Allow to cool slightly before pouring into a lidded container. Store in the refrigerator.

Remelt the sauce by putting some in a ramekin and microwaving it on high for 30 second intervals until hot and liquid-y. Serve over ice cream, pound cake, or just eat it cold out of the jar with a spoon. Makes one pint.

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Posted on Minxeats.com.

Dining in NY: Summer 2018 Edition

One of things I look most forward to every year is the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. Not only do I enjoy going up and down the aisles of the Javits Center looking for new food trends and tasting everything from liege-style Belgian waffles to goat cheese, from maple syrup to ice cream, I also love eating all of the various things the city has to offer. And it has a lot.

I usually stay in Koreatown, where one can indulge in Korean bbq and soondubu jigae 24 hours a day. While I don't always partake in a full meal at one of the many restaurants around me, I usually stop somewhere for a snack and always for pastries.

This trip, I popped into Mandoo Bar for a snack of goon mandoo, or crisp fried dumplings stuffed with pork and greens. I wasn't sure I could eat all ten dumplings, but they were so good, light and greaseless, I dispatched them without much effort at all.

There are two pastry shops that I frequent, Paris Baguette and Tous les Jours. The first is great for flaky pastries, like this danish-like creation of crisp glazed croissant-style dough filled with cheese and topped with toasted almonds. Paired with an iced milk coffee, it was a good start to my day of perfume shopping. I didn't stop for lunch until about three that day, and when I did, it was to grab one of the several weirdly delicious hot-dog-filled pastries at Tous Les Jour. Imagine a cheese danish, but savory, with a hot dog stuck in the middle and a drizzle of ketchup and onions.

Yes. Exactly like that.

I also bought several donuts for Mr Minx and a couple of the sausage-looking chewy rice sticks for me to eat when I got home.

More sweetness was had at Spot Dessert Bar in Flushing. (There's one on 32nd Street in Koreatown, too!) They serve trendy, perfectly Instagrammable desserts, like the Harvest: layers of berries and soft cheesecake topped with oreo crumbs served in a small flowerpot, with black rose milk tea for "watering," and raspberry sorbet. So cute and also a nice combination of flavors and textures.

My partner in crime, Daisy, had the baked Alaska cone, which they bruleed at the table in order for her to film the action.

I had been to Besfren before for a cookie. It was February, and I wasn't into the idea of eating ice cream at that moment. This time, however, it was hot as hell and a frozen treat was very welcome. I had seen this matcha taro soft serve ice cream on Instagram many times, and can say it's as tasty as it is pretty. The texture could be more creamy/thick though, IMHO.

A few doors down from Besfren is Keki Modern Cakes, home of the famous Japanese "bouncy" cheesecake. Another Instagram darling, this cheesecake isn't the most photogenic thing in the world, but it is delicious. My roommate Dara and I put a hurting on one while having a serious conversation about life; I took another home to Mr Minx, and that one didn't last long, either.

My trip to NY wasn't all sweet. I also popped into the branch of Tacombi in the Empire State Building two blocks north of Koreatown for some taco snacks. The tacos are smaller than average, and they only use one tortilla, so two tacos make for a light lunch. I tried the al pastor and the chorizo con papas. Next time I think I might go for a tostada.

Besfren
315 5th Ave
New York, NY 10016
http://www.besfren.com/

Keki Modern Cakes
315 5th Ave
New York, NY 10016
https://kekinyc.com/

Mandoo Bar
2 W 32nd St
New York, NY 10001
http://mandoobarnyc.com/

Paris Baguette
6 W 32nd St
New York, NY 10001
http://parisbaguette.com/

Spot Dessert Bar Flushing
39-16-39-98 Prince St
Flushing, NY 11354
https://www.spotdessertbar.com/

Tacombi Empire State Building
23 West 33rd Street
New York, NY 10118
http://tacombi.com/

Tous les Jours
31 W 32nd St
New York, NY 10001
www.tljus.com/

Posted on Minxeats.com.