Ice Cream for Lunch

When you're in New York, it really is impossible to walk directly from point A to point B. We were actually looking for something to eat for lunch in Little Italy that day but there were just so many distractions! Most of them food-related...haha

We were just strolling the streets and BAM!  Our eyes caught Ferrara's adorable gelato cart on the sidewalk and we practically sprinted to it.  But it turned out to be a display, all fake... (but it actually looked pretty good for being plastic, good enough to lure us inside for the real stuff).

 

The (real) pretty gelato

Ohoho! The real gelato looked just as yummy as the display outside!  Except this one was edible, which is ten times better  

Coffee & Pistachio gelato

There's a funny story behind this cone.  For the first scoop, Cathy asked for pistachio and the employee scooped pistachio.  (Fun fact: This is the first time Cathy has had pistachio gelato.  Mindblowing, really.)  When she asked for tiramisu, the employee started scooping the gelato next to the tiramisu.  Cathy spoke up and said she was pretty sure, according to the labels, that it was coffee he was scooping and tiramisu was the one next to it.  The employee then gave her a slighty offensive "excuse me?" look, and said "No.  This is tiramisu.".

Well, it turned out that Cathy was right, and it was coffee and not tiramisu. (Customers are always right!)  Maybe he realized halfway and hence the extra scoop he gave Cathy.  The coffee gelato was not bad but we'll never know if the tiramisu was any good!

Banana & Hazelnut gelato

Jocelyn's was all good though.  And look at that combo, it was like eating banana with Nutella!  And the hazelnut gelato even had real hazelnuts in it.  Despite the rude employee, Ferrara is actually a great place for gelato.  Their flavors are rich like the bank!

We actually had an ice cream place planned for Chinatown, so we walked there while finishing our gelato.  You gotta have dessert after lunch, right?

The Chinatown Ice Cream Factory is actually a tiny shop, but they have so many flavors.  Each customer is only allowed two samples but there were almost 30 different flavors to choose from!  It was almost an impossible task to choose especially since many of their flavors were unique, not just your typical chocolate and vanilla. They had a lot of Chinese dessert-flavored ice cream like sesame, egg tart, and almond cookie which was pretty awesome!  We eat that stuff all the time, but to have it morph into ice cream?  HECK YES!

Because we wanted to try as many flavors as possible, we got the triple scoop.  We usually get either two or three scoops when it comes to ice cream because we're pigs ice cream enthusiasts.  So we were thinking, three scoops?  No biggie.

But when the employee started scooping...

Three large scoops of ice cream

...we had to rethink that.

The ice cream was piled up way above the rim!  And did we mention, they scooped the ice cream into 16 oz cups?  We have never seen anything that..AMAZING!  

Bottom to top: Almond Cookie & Pandan & Lychee sorbet

The almond cookie ice cream was brilliantly delicious and tasted just like an almond cookie, even had cookie bits.  It was as if the almond cookies reincarnated into ice cream: heavenly! (haha)  Pandan is Malaysian leaf and has a special taste.  It's kind of hard to describe but it was quite refreshing.  As for the lychee sorbet, it was bursting with lychee flavor and the sorbet texture was spot on!

Pandan Ice Cream

All of the ice cream had this smooth, thick texture to it.  From the first bite all the way to the bottom of the cup, the ice cream was the perfect consistency!  It was a bit softer than most ice creams, so it just melted in your mouth.  Definitely drool-worthy!

Taro & Ginger & Mango Papaya ice cream

The Taro was fabulous!  It had plenty of taro bits, which made it even more packed with the unique sweetness of taro.
The ginger ice cream here had the mild spice of ginger, while of course still leaving a pleasant sweet aftertaste like ice cream should!  For ginger lovers (like Cathy), all ginger ice creams are mighty delicious.  So if you are a ginger lover (or even apathetic towards it), you should try some ginger ice cream!  It could potentially change your life  

The Mango Papaya sorbet was cool and tangy.  You could definitely taste the wonderful marriage between the mango and papaya!

Eaten by Jocelyn and Cathy.

Ferrara Café
195 Grand Street
New York City, NY 10013

(212) 226-6150

http://www.ferraracafe.com/

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

65 Bayard Street
Manhattan Chinatown
New York, NY 10013

(212) 608-4170 or (757) 752-8696

http://www.chinatownicecreamfactory.com

(Truly) Miniature Cupcakes Baked by Melissa

Probably the most adorable red velvet cupcake.

Wonderful idea to have a window store on the sidewalk, being New York and all! After being here for a while, we discovered that walking is probably the most frequent method of transportation.  Having a window store on the sidewalk on the east coast is like having a drive-thru for cars on the west coast.  Super convenient and not to mention, super tempting.

We actually had just finished lunch when we passed Baked by Melissa.  Not exactly hungry at that time but again, super tempting.  And they even had this whole wall of cupcake pictures to lure you in!  (Random thought: imagine that on your bedroom wall.  It'd be like sugar rush and happiness all day! )

The beautiful wall of cupcakes

We decided to get six cupcakes and man, was it hard to decide what flavors...  We should have just gotten all of them but we were thinking $$$. And we were soon going to be broke from eating all this food!

We didn't actually know how miniature the "miniature cupcakes" were going to be.  The cupcakes were placed in a nice tidy little box. But when it was handed to us, we were like "OH. DEAR."  The box weighed practically nothing!  It was so light we were afraid to open it...

Beautiful and adorable cupcakes!  But when they said miniature, they meant it...

Miniature Red Velvet Cupcake placed on Cathy's hand for size comparison

And no, Cathy's hand isn't abnormally huge in any way.  Guess the size is good if you're counting calories but uh...we don't really do that so...

But gotta say, they do make great food porn photos.

Miniature Chocolate Chip Pancake Cupcake

Miniature Chocolate Chip Pancake Cupcake innards

We were super psyched that the cupcakes were "stuffed" so we cut open every single one!  But have to admit, we were kind of disappointed there was only one chocolate chip inside this cupcake...then again, guess you can't really stuff that much in a miniature cupcake.

Miniature Cookie Dough Cupcake

Miniature Cookie Dough Cupcake innards

Miniature Cookies & Cream Cupcake

Miniature Cookies & Cream Cupcake innards

Miniature Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcake

Miniature Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcake innards

Miniature Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcake

Miniature Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcake innards

This cupcake was the best of the bunch!  Real peanut butter instead of frosting and the perfect ratio of jelly stuffing.  

Because of the tiny size of the cupcakes, the frosting tended to overpower the cake part of the cupcake.  It's practically 50/50 frosting and cake.  So it was pretty much just frosting that you tasted...but this one, YUMMY!  Proves you can never go wrong with PB&J. 

Eaten by Jocelyn and Cathy.

Baked by Melissa

529 Broadway
New York, NY 10012 

(212) 842-0220

http://www.bakedbymelissa.com/

Brunch at The Breslin

Baked eggs with spiced tomato and chorizo

Hello there folks!  It's been forever ago since the last post but we just got off for summer break and kind of got swept away with all the freedom.

Cathy's off in Taiwan eating (hopefully gorging down that delicious food), so in a month or so, there will be some international food posts!  So exciting   But for now, back to New York.

Inside Breslin, there's animal decor everywhere.  Like framed portraits of cows and hanging deer head on the wall.  It could be a good reminder of what you're eating

Baked eggs with spiced tomato and chorizo

We actually came here for this dish.  We saw some photos of baked eggs on another food blog and started salivating on the spot.  Then we found out Breslin had a delicious version of this dish and it automatically became part of our food schedule in New York.

(Yes, we made a food schedule for New York and if we must say so ourselves, it was amazing!   Super detailed down to the hour and addresses.  Our love and dedication to food!)

The baked eggs were delicious and lived up to our expectations.  The eggs were served with crispy toasted bread to dip.  Have to say though, the dish was a tad heavy for brunch, being a bit on the salty side, but delicious nonetheless!  It's kind of like how potato chips are salty but also so so good you just can't help but keep cramming them in your mouth (but of course this is better than chips on a thousand levels).

Deep-fried Cotechino

The Deep-fried Cotechino was a special that day.  Cotechino is a Italian sausage similar to salami (did a little Wikipedia research when we got home to learn more about this yummy stuff).  The sausage itself was wonderful and the crunchy texture of the deep-fried goodness...mmm...calories in good use! 

Eaten by Jocelyn and Cathy.

The Breslin Bar & Dining Room

20 W 29th St

New York, NY 10001 

(212) 679-1939
http://thebreslin.com/