28 June 2013

I think my stay in New York just turned from great to amazing.

Breakfast:

Oatmeal w/cinnamon, banana chips, raisins & granola

 Snack:

1/2 banana

 Snack:

1/2 banana

 Snack:

Red delicious apple

Snack for Hannah's birthday celebration from Baked By Melissa, NYC, NY:

Double chocolate cupcake (had a bite, gave the rest to Daniel)
(I'm still not a fan of these cupcakes.)

Snack during recitation:

Almonds from Ben

Snack from Grom Gelato, Midtown West, NYC, NY:

 Caffè Guatemalan: Guatemalan coffee gelato, Cassata Sicilian: sheep's milk ricotta gelato w/candied citrus (shared both w/Ben)
(Definitely the best gelato I've had here. The coffee flavour was super strong, like almost on par with the shot of espresso Daniel got from Caffe Palermo, but it wasn't overwhelmingly so. If you don't really enjoy coffee, you'd absolutely hate this, but otherwise, it might possibly be the best frozen coffee dessert ever. I've never had sheep's milk ricotta ice cream, but it's surprisingly good! Incredibly creamy yet light and the candied citrus pieces added a refreshing burst of sweet tartness.)

Snack from La Espiguita, Astoria, Queens, NYC, NY:

Burrito de bistec (steak) w/green salsa & some kind of cilantro chili sauce thing (shared w/Ben)
(I love Mexican food! I had a lot of trouble eating this cleanly, but it was so good. Slightly more salty than I would have liked, but the salsa and chili sauce pizazzed the entire burrito into glory. There were also random little bits of some sort of cheese in the burrito that added surprise bursts of salt and creaminess.)

Sample from Güllüoglu, Astoria, Queens, NYC, NY:

Turkish delight (2)
(Yum. I normally don't care for gelatin-esque desserts, but this was good!)

Snack from Güllüoglu, Astoria, Queens, NYC, NY:

Pistachio baklava (shared w/Ben)
(Their traditional thing. Really enjoyed the crust and the pistachio flavour. I think this is better than the Hungarian pastry shop's.)

Walnut baklava (shared w/Ben)
(Not the traditional one, but so much better. The pistachio baklava was already good, but this was great! Superb flaky crust and a perfectly sweetened, crunchy filling in one bite. Mmm.)

Snack from Titan Foods, Astoria, Queens, NYC, NY:

Spanakopitas in different crusts (shared w/Ben)
(I'm normally not a fan of spanakopitas because I think they're too heavy, but these small ones were great! Maybe Amherst just adds too much cream and cheese to theirs or something, but these fillings were much lighter. I'm still not a big fan, but I enjoyed eating these. Oh, and the Greek grocery store that was selling these was amazing. I wanted to purchase their entire bakery! Kept wishing Marie was with me so she could read all the Greek stuff.)

Snack from St. James Deli, Long Island City, Queens, NYC, NY:

Polvorón: Spanish shortbread cookie (shared w/Ben)
(Crumbly, slightly dry and buttery. Would have been perfect if we had a cuppa or coffee.)

Snack from Rio Market, Astoria, Queens, NYC, NY:

Cashew juice, coxinha de frango: fried dough filled w/spiced chicken meat, passion fruit mousse (shared all w/Ben)
(I've never heard of cashew juice before! I think it has a slightly acquired taste, but it's surprisingly delicious and refreshing. The cashew taste is very subtle; the drink resembles a mellow citrus juice at first and then the cashew flavour becomes prominent and lingers. Slightly nutty, but it's very subtle. Ben and I didn't know what the fried dough thing was, but the cashier lady said it had chicken and cheese in it so we just got one for kicks. It's actually quite delicious and filling! The dough is very savoury, and the shredded chicken filling is super tender and perfectly spiced. Apparently it means "little chicken thigh" in Portuguese, and it's molded to resemble a chicken thigh. The passion fruit mousse was a bit disappointing. While the texture was amazing, the sauce tasted nothing like passion fruit. The "mousse" was actually more like flan without the caramel sauce on top, except the market must have made it with caramel because it was reminiscent of caramel. It was delicious, and I love flan, but I wish it was actually passion fruit mousse.)

Snack from Randy's Ice Cream, Elmhurst, Queens, NYC, NY:

Red bean, green tea & pistachio ice cream (shared all w/Ben)
($1/scoop of ice cream!!! It seriously doesn't get any cheaper than that in NYC, especially if the scoops are this big. The red bean and green tea were great, even though I think they put artificial colours in for the red bean. I liked the pistachio ice cream as well, but it was very artificial and by the time Ben and I got to the pistachio, the enormous scoops got overwhelming.)

Snack from Java Village, Elmhurst, Queens, NYC, NY:

Corn fritter (shared w/Ben)
(Originally wanted bing bika amben, which are these sweetened corn muffins, but I couldn't find them so we got a corn fritter instead. Super oily and a bit salty, but balanced out the three scoops of ice cream we had previously bought. I liked the little corn kernals in this fritter!)

Snack from JoJu, Elmhurst, Queens, NYC, NY:

Black sesame milk tea w/coffee jelly (shared w/Ben)
(Originally intended to get a black sesame milkshake, except couldn't find it on the menu so we decided on a strawberry ginger infused green tea. Then just as I was about to order, we saw it on the menu but decided we had enough creamy sweets so I ordered the the black sesame milk tea w/pearls. They ran out of pearls so I just added coffee jelly instead and it kind of works! The drink was nutty, strangely savoury, creamy without being overwhemingly so and had bursts of bittersweet coffee.)

Snack at Corner 28, Flushing, Queens, NYC, NY:

Peking duck bun (shared w/Ben)
(We made it just in time! I ordered two, we went in to eat it and when we walked out, the woman selling these was gone! My day was made when I got these; nothing could have spoiled it. The woman didn't put hot sauce in these, but they were still amazing. And for $1/piece, these totally beat IPPUDO's prices. I don't think I stopped smiling after I got these. I miss my mother's version, but gah, so delicious!)

Snack at Tianjin Dumpling House in the Golden Mall, Flushing, Queens, NYC, NY:

Pork & cabbage dumplings w/soysauce (not pictured, shared w/Ben)
(The woman kept trying to get me to order the sea bass ones, but Ben and I stuck with our traditional order. These didn't really need soy sauce, but we found that out too late. Regardless, they were still delicious and for $4, I really can't complain. I really can't wait to come back to this "mall"! Seriously couldn't stop smiling.)

Snack from Red Bowl Noodle Shop, Flushing, Queens, NYC, NY:

Fresh hot soymilk (shared w/Ben)
(Randomly bought a cup after I realised it was only a $1! Not as good as the one my mother makes, but still decent. The woman kept trying to sell me the cold soymilk, but I was adamant on getting the hot one until the guy standing next to her stepped in. Hot Asian soymilk is so good! Creamy, light and refreshing. Most people are weirded out by it, but I personally think it's way better than American-ised soymilk like Silk.)

Snack from Tia Julia Taco Truck, Elmhurst, Queens, NYC, NY:

Carne enchilada taco: spicy pork meat taco (shared w/Ben)
(So good! Needed some salsa verde, but great on its own. The spicy pork meat was definitely a good choice, and I normally hate onions and cilantro, but I can't deny that they taste great on tacos!)

Horchata (shared w/Ben)
(Ben ordered some horchata and the guy proceeded to bring out this jug, shook it and punctured a hole at the top.  So naturally, Ben and I thought he'd pour it into a cup and serve it to us. We were wrong. He plopped down this jug in front of us much to our surprise. It was huge, but so cheap. $3! Such a steal! And the horchata was amazing too! Perfectly sweetened, although there was a bit more cinnamon in here than usual. The only thing that could have made this better was if there was ice in it. But seriously, amazing horchata. Reminded me of the good ol' times in Nicaragua.)

Check out how large that jug of horchata is!

Snack from Soy Bean Chan Flower & Gift, Flushing, Queens, NYC, NY:

Dòuhuā: silky tofu pudding w/ginger syrup (ate most of it, Ben ate some & threw the rest away)
(One of my favourite Asian desserts! Super light and refreshing, but you have to like tofu. Kind of found out that Ben wasn't a big fan of tofu after he kept commenting on how strange this texture was, so I ended up eating most of it. This jug was $2.50; normally I just get a small bowl for $2.50, so I didn't feel bad about throwing away about a quarter of this jug. I still can't believe how much the woman in the shop gave us! Ben and I went into this flower/plant shop and I managed to utter out the Vietnamese word for this dessert in a Chinese accent, since I didn't know the Chinese word for this,  and the woman immediately took a bucket and ladled a ton of tofu into the bucket. Oh my god. That's an entire family's serving! Anyway, the texture of the tofu was very good, but I would have liked the syrup to be more gingery.)