Sweet streets of NY, Day 1 Spoils

Some regard San Francisco as the gastronomy capital of America. But a recent trip to NYC affirmed for me that it takes the culinary crown—at least, when it comes to sweets (and yeah, that’s despite its lack of a Tartine). The thing is, whatever your obsession, NYC probably has a store dedicated to it. Take this place that sells only rice pudding. Or giant French macarons. That’s not even factoring in the dessert trucks.

Given the plethora of food oases, it’s easy to overdo it. Luckily we walked a lot during our visit, which helped alleviate the post-binge bloat. We managed to consume a plantation’s worth of sugar during our mere 4 days there. Here’s a rundown of our Day 1 intake.

Fat Witch brownies, Chelsea Market

These brownies didn’t strike me as anything special in the store—more like a gift-giving idea than anything. But I had a change of heart after we tried them back at our hotel. They’re rich yet not dense, so you don’t feel like you’re eating a chocolate brick. They’re probably my second-favorite brownies after the ones at Pret a Manger, which seem to have a tad more chocolate. The caramel was better than the red (dried cherry) flavor. BTW, I noticed on Fat Witch’s website that they’re one of Oprah’s Favorite Things, official seal of things the hoi polloi should aspire to blow their monetary and caloric budgets on.

Ronnybrook Farm apple pie milkshake, Chelsea Market

We stopped by for an apple pie shake, which even between my and Mr. x-sXe’s hearty appetites, we couldn’t finish. This thick apple-caramel concoction needed something to offset the treacly sweetness (and a wider, bubble-tea-sized straw to suck it up with). A side of salty pie crust to scoop it up would’ve been welcome. It felt like a sin to toss about a third of it away, but we wanted to reserve some pancreatic juices for post-dinner goodies.

Stand Burger toasted marshmallow milkshake, East 12^th Street

Undeterred by our Ronnybrook fail, we headed to Stand Burger a few hours later. Mr. X-sXe has a thing for toasted marshmallow shakes, after being spoiled by the one at Good Stuff in DC. We got the small and polished off the whole thing quickly. Unlike Ronnybrook, Stand gets that you need a supersized straw for a thick shake. (Minor gripe: the actual marshmallow on top was stale.)

Related posts:

NYC, Day 2: a cornucopia of goodies at Doughnut Plant and Momofuku Milk Bar

NYC, Day 3: donut gluttony and a Hostess-inspired treat

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We take on Chef Spike’s toasted marshmallow shake–during the power outage

We don’t recommend trying this, but if you must, have a fire extinguisher nearby.

Day 3 of the Derecho power outage. It’s about 95 degrees outside. Mr. X-sXe and I are bored, hot, and getting really testy with one another.

Ever since Good Stuff opened in Crystal City, Mr. X-sXe’s been obsessed with getting their toasted marshmallow milkshake–the gold standard of milkshakes. He’s been finding ways to schedule meetings down there just to have an excuse to stop by.

If your power is working, you’ll get better results browning your coconut flakes in the oven.

Maybe the heat had fried our brains, but we decided that the time was ripe for attempting to make a better shake than Chef Spike’s. We’d do that by adding ingredients to take the flavor over the top: toasted coconut, coconut milk, and vanilla extract, modifying the original recipe.

We couldn’t use the oven, but we had a giant blowtorch and one working outlet in the kitchen (a small generator was powering the fridge). The grocery stores near us were open. All the stars were aligned. So we set out on our quest.

What went inside.

What we learned:

• Making a milkshake during a power outage is tricky. When the temperature inside the house is 90+ degrees, everything melts quickly. Your shake could become a casualty, ending up more like a soupy bowl of melted ice cream.
• While blowtorching marshmallows works alright, it’s doesn’t work well on smaller ingredients like coconut flakes that can blow away and burn quickly. Plus it’s a fire hazard, so prepare accordingly.
• Toasting ingredients makes everything taste better.

Hand-blending the shake with the generator-powered outlet. In retrospect, we should’ve used regular, not jumbo marshmallows (more surface area for browning).

So, were we successful in topping Good Stuff’s milkshake masterpiece? It really depends on whether you like coconut. If you do, this milkshake is heaven. If you don’t, then stick with Good Stuff’s version.

Introducing the toasted marshmallow, toasted coconut milkshake. Born of a Derecho power outage. Made possible by a blowtorch and generator.

Recipe: Mr. X-sXe’s toasted marshmallow, toasted coconut milkshake

Serves 2. Measurements are approximated.

• 4-6 scoops of vanilla ice cream

• 2-3 tablespoons 2% or full-fat plain Greek yogurt

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/3 cup coconut milk

• 1/4 cup coconut flakes, toasted medium-brown in the oven

• 6 jumbo marshmallows (or 8 regular marshmallows would probably work better). Reserve 1-2 for decorating the tops of your shakes.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Use a hand blender to get the mix to the consistency you want, making sure the toasted marshmallows and coconut are incorporated (you should see brown specks throughout your shake). You could also use a regular blender. Pour into 2 glasses and top with the marshmallows. Enjoy while slipping into a sugar-dairy coma.

What’s in Chef Spike’s fridge? You might not wanna know.

Chef Spike is the former Top Chef guy who owns Good Stuff Eatery–the place with a damn fine burger, a bottle of Sriracha on every table, and a milkshake that causes serotonin surges (the toasted marshmallow).

That’s why I was expecting to find better sweets in his fridge and freezer. Jolly Rancher popsicles? Andes chocolates? Skinny Cow ice cream? Hershey’s chocolate syrup? That’s how he (and his fiance) get their sugar on?

Click on the photo to see the full post at BrightestYoungThings.

Photo by Aineki Traverso via BrightestYoungThings

Encouraging signs of coconut water going mainstream

Mr. X-sXe and I are big fans of coconut water, “nature’s Gatorade,” as it’s often billed. Seems it’s getting a bit more mainstream lately, as in this new flavor of Naked smoothies. Note that even though the label touts fewer calories, there are still 40 grams of sugar per bottle. Taste-wise, I couldn’t detect the coconut water, but it had a pleasant tropical flavor overall, and I could definitely taste the guava (a vastly underrated fruit).

The cool thing about Naked is they tell you exactly how much fruit went into the bottle. This one included 3/4 of a guava, 1/2 of a coconut’s water, 3/4 of a peach, 1/3 of a mango, 3/4 of an orange, and 3/4 of an apple.

de-lechable leche milkshake, good stuff eatery

You’ve heard me rave about their toasted marshmallow milkshake before. If not:

https://pievcake.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/good-stuff-eatery-marshmallow-milk

Anyway, this caramel milkshake is also pretty tasty, with caramel in almost every sip. A close second to their (original recipe) toasted marshmallow shake. But both Mr. X-sXe and I had bad stomachaches afterwards. So we’re probably sticking with the toasted marshmallow next time.

Full disclosure: we also had burgers and onion petals (rings) with the shake. It hasn’t been a volatile combination for us before, but in this case it was extremely volatile. Explosive, even. Ok, I’ll stop now.