Grocery ! I Mei's Pearl Milk Ice Cream Pops

I found these at the 99 Ranch Market in Plano yesterday.  I wonder if they have always been in Asian grocery stores, and I have just been SLEEPING AT THE GROCERY CART WHEEL, because it combines my two favorite loves in life in one very portable package.

I mean.  Pearl milk tea.  As a popsicle??

How would that work?  How is that even possible??!

I stared hard at the package through the frosted freezer door at the grocery store, until I could stand the wait no longer.

I rushed home and ravaged the package immediately.  As you can see, I could not even wait to take a picture until after I stuck my giant chompers through it.

It did indeed taste like a cold cup of pearl milk tea !  The right side has a subtle, slightly bitter tea flavor with bits of chewy pearls, and the left side is sweetened milk, and together, it is simply magic.

I love these.

I hope you try them and fall in love too !

More Congee Bowery and J'Chanceux Macaron Impulse Buys

Last Saturday, I convinced myself to get out of bed with the promise of comforting congee to nurse my unfortunate cold. 

So Congee Bowery it was (my new obsession), but this time I made it out there at the more respectable time of 12:30 p.m.

Apparently, during the day, the waitresses double as food prep people, and they use the dining room to prepare massive quantities of Asian vegetables.  Later, a guy tried to buy some of these vegetables from them, and it was a painful 5 minute conversation with a huge language barrier.  He did not get any of these vegetables.

More duck and meatball congee.  This time, my congee had more ginger and duck skin, which I especially enjoyed.  My love for poultry skin is probably one of the more disgusting (though insanely delicious) things you'll find out about me.

I branched out and ordered pan fried shimp noodles.  They are just basic flat rice noodles with tiny bits of dried shrimp and scallions.  Super greasy, but tasted fine in small doses.

Congee Bowery is the best cheap date.

 After filling up on congee, I wandered back to the Spring St subway stop.  I was minding my own business, when my eyes immediately strayed to this glass case:

Macarons are just so gosh darn pretty.

The glass case belonged to J'Chanceux, a small bakery that is attached to Green Apple, known for their organic ice cream.  A super nice Asian woman named Vivien opened this shop about a year ago, and she was sooo nice and letting me take a billion pictures of her confections.

I stared at all the options.

What the.

Tempting.

So I walked away with only two (and you didn't think I had any self-restraint!).

Left: Jasmine, Right: Peanut Butter (you know it, baby)

One day, Diana, our macarons will have glorious feet like this.

The Jasmine had a nice creamy buttercream inside.  There was a subtle tea taste.

Hello, beautiful.

Mmm.  Tasted like a fun Nutter Butter.

I really did enjoy the J'Chanceux macarons, not only because of their brilliant colors, but the texture was good: moist with just the right amount of chew and a slightly crisp shell. It might be a touch too soft (as you can gather from the demolished appearance of the macaron after just one bite), but I did not mind it too much.

Diana's favorite macarons remains Madeleine Patisserie, however, I think I might rank J'Chanceux as my current favorite due to the more varied and inventive flavors.  In analyzing my photos, I had completely overlooked the "Cinnamon Cream Cheese" macaron, so this will be a note to self to inspect this tiny shop a little closer next time.  I was pretty pleased with this impulse buy !

Congee Bowery

98 Bowery

New York, NY 10013-4750

(212) 965-5028

 

J'Chanceux

202 Mott St

New York, NY

Impulse Buy: Doughnut Ice Cream Sandwiches at Peter Pan Bakery

It was another lovely day in New York yesterday, and I found myself with an extra half an hour before the Poprally event, wandering around Williamsburg.

Such a nice day, even the pigeons were hanging out on the rooftop.

Somehow, as fate would have it, I found myself yet again staring at these through the glass of the one and only Peter Pan. 

I need these.

I had a half hour of time + stomach space + a promise I had made to you to come back for their doughnut ice cream sandwiches?!  The stars have aligned my friends.

The interior.

I asked for a doughnut ice cream sandwich and was given the option of a red velvet or chocolate cake doughnut.  You don't even have to guess which one I picked.  The ice cream flavors were limited also: strawberry or mint chocolate chip.  It took me a few seconds to imagine the flavor combinations of a red velvet doughnut mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwich (have you ever seen so many nouns next to each other?), so I played it safe and got the strawberry.

This is what the end result looked like!

In the end, there was so much ice cream, I ended up knife and forking it.  The red velvet doughnut strawberry ice cream sandwich was a solid flavor and texture combination, and it tasted better when I let the ice cream melt a little and get absorbed into the doughnut.  I could only imagine that if they used the glazed red velvet cake doughnut to make the sandwich (they had used naked cake doughnuts dusted with powdered sugar for mine), the crackling goodness of a sugar glaze would really take this one over the top !

After, I headed to the Poprally event and watched the artist print hundreds of LP album covers for us to take as souvenirs.  Trang and I had misunderstood the event's description and thought we would be able to silkscreen also, but apparently the collaborative aspect of the event was him printing and us taking.

I miss silkscreening. :-(

The exhibits inside PS1 were a bit controversial (total understatement) but this picture is totally PG and pretty neat: the floor of a massive room was completely covered with records.

Records, records, records!

And that was Saturday afternoon !

Peter Pan Bakery

727 Manhattan Avenue

Brooklyn, NY‎

Il Laboratorio del Gelato: Serious name, serious gelato !

Ever since tasting the brilliant flavors of Cafe del Hidalgo in St. Augustine, FL, I have been on a perpetual search for divine gelato in New York.  The search brought me to Il Laboratorio del Gelato on Sunday.  The weather was cold and damp that day--the perfect setting for an outdoor stroll and a cup of ice cream.

The potential for Il Laboratorio was high:
1. Located on the Lower East Side, where all my beloveds are, dangerously close to Doughnut Plant for a one-two calorie punch!
2. The ridiculous list of flavors including Mexican cinnamon, Thai chili chocolate, wasabi and more.  Ree-dic-u-lous!!

Il Laboratorio has a small storefront on Orchard and Delancey. 

You cannot see the flavors until you are right at the window, and they feature 10 flavors each for gelato and sorbet. 

Today's gelato flavors included salted caramel, ricotta, sage, amaretto crunch, marscapone.  Salted caramel looked ridiculous with a gooey layer of caramel.

You can select 2 flavors for the small and 3 in the medium.  I opted for a small, since I had taken part of that amazing brunch experiment earlier, and selected marscapone and cinnamon (predictable). 

The texture of the gelato was sooo smooth and pure and lovely.  The cinnamon was beautiful. 

Just.

Beautiful.

The small was a perfect portion of indulgence without the guilt.

Still, with the splendid flavors, and the uhhh-mazing cinnamon, I am totally going to rock a medium with three flavors next time.  Cafe del Hidalgo, you may have met your match !

Il Laboratorio del Gelato

95 Orchard Street

New York, NY 10002-3112

(212) 343-9922