It’s hard not to marvel at the number of food places in NYC that specialize in one thing only, and somehow manage to cover their bills–even turn a profit. The Macaron Cafe (http://bit.ly/HFNJJ), a store dedicated to selling French macaroons in rainbow colors, is a prime example. Yeah, they do sandwiches too, but I’ve never actually seen a customer order one.
On a recent business trip there, I only had a couple of hours before I had to catch my train back. But I couldn’t go home empty-handed. My sweet tooth (and greed) wouldn’t allow it.
Thanks to Sex and the City and the national obsession with cupcakes, you can pretty much find a cupcake place every few blocks in NYC. So one of the things I picked up was a dozen organic cupcakes from Butter Lane. They have a limited number of cupcake bases that you can pair with their frostings. I believe the ones in the photo are caramel on vanilla cake and strawberry on vanilla cake. We thought they did a better job with the frosting (perfectly sweet, creamy and flavorful) than their cakes (the vanilla was dry, but the other cake options were more moist).
Rice to Riches, which JDang introduced to me a while back, specializes in a smorgasbord of rice pudding flavors (20+ kinds a day). I picked up the Coconut Coma and Hazelnut Chocolate Bear Hug. Check out the funky UFO-like packaging.
The coconut was disappointing, a bit bland with a faint sour taste to it. But I could probably bathe in the chocolate-hazelnut. Rich (more dark chocolate than milk chocolate, flavor-wise), creamy and nutty. It’ll be hard to go back to Nutella after you’ve tried it.
Butter Lane, 123 East 7th Street, (212) 677-2880
Rice to Riches, 37 Spring Street, (212) 274-0008
pie versus cake 