Sprinkles

Cupcakes
780 Lexington Avenue
(212)  207-8375
Website

I stopped in at Sprinkles for the first time last week. I had always heard that it was a hugely popular cupcake chain on the west coast (and their company slogan seems to take credit for the cupcake craze of the past decade), but it took me a year to finally check out their first store here in New York. The shop is very small and gets crowded quickly. There’s a cute little seating area that features big seats for adults and smaller seats for kids, or perhaps dogs – they seem very dog-friendly. In fact, they’re also very people-friendly. Everyone who works at the store is extremely nice. When I visited there were about four people working behind the counter. They took turns helping customers on line and made sure to ask everyone their name. Then they would address the customer by name several times while they packaged the order and processed payments. It’s like that party trick where when you meet someone new, you’re supposed to address them by name three times and then you remember it forever.

I loved the display cases. So streamlined and organized!

I purchased two cupcakes – the salty caramel (which has a limited run until May 27th) and the red velvet. When I got home I tried the salty caramel first. The cake was described as a caramel flavored cake, but the flavor was faint. It was, however, extremely moist and buttery. The frosting was a smooth butter and cream cheese frosting, this time with a distinct caramel flavor, sprinkled with fleur de sel. There was a little too much frosting for the amount of cake, but since it was so delicious, I didn’t mind. Overall, buttery goodness.

I decided to give the red velvet cupcake to my mother so I only got to try a tiny bite, possibly not enough to get a full impression. It was moist and sweet, but didn’t have the tanginess that I like in a red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting.

At $3.50 a cupcake, I doubt I will make frequent trips to Sprinkles, especially since I can easily make a batch of them at home for the price of just one there. However, in future moments of weakness and laziness, I can imagine being drawn to their salty caramel – when it’s available.

Downtown Food Crawl

Last Saturday two friends and I committed to spending a whole day walking around downtown in search of tasty food. We had already spent considerable time figuring out an itinerary and our final plan included five locations to grab a bite and two for cocktails. By the end of the day, we had stuck to our intended itinerary and even had room to sneak in two additional spots along the way. Since we shared everything (except for cocktails and buns at Baohaus), I didn’t feel stuffed at the end of the day. The walking probably helped as well.

Excellent breakfast at Dominique Ansel: choco soft bun, ham & cheese croissant, “DKA”

Unscheduled stop at Payard for a coffee macaron

Beecher’s Handmade Cheese make their own cheese on-site in these giant vats.

Grilled black forest ham and cheese sandwich and their “World’s Best” mac & cheese. It was very tasty but not the world’s best.

Prosecco (and donut) stop at Tarallucci e Vino.

Beef cheek bao and pork belly bao at Baohaus. I was surprised that I liked the beef cheek more than the pork belly, but both were yummy.

A well-made Negroni at Freeman’s. So good I had two!

The star of the day: whole fried chicken wings at Pok Pok Wing. I want to go back to there.

Boquerones and patatas bravas at La Churreria

A small order of regular churros with dipping chocolate and one vanilla cream stuffed churro. Unfortunately they were sold out of the dulce de leche stuffed churro that I really wanted. Not sure I would go back here, nothing was so good that I’ll crave it again.

Old NYC Photos

Last week, the New York City Department of Records unveiled their Municipal Archives Online Gallery, a collection of more than 870,000 images and other forms of media spanning over 100 years.  Shortly after news spread that the gallery was available, the site was overwhelmed with visits and was taken offline for almost a week.  Every day I checked back in to see if it was back up and last night it finally was!

The gallery is divided into smaller sub-collections, some based on former politicians, and others based on government departments. I started in the Municipal Archives Collection where I found many photos of aerial shots, city infrastructure, and buildings, but the most interesting ones were the ones that included people. Later I used the advanced search tool to find more photos based on specific metadata.

Here are some photos that caught my eye:

Tattoo artist on Bowery, 1938; Jack Dempsey and children; Office party, 1960s; Parade in Brooklyn, 1941

Schoolchildren in Chinatown; Fruit vendors at 40th Street & 9th Avenue in the 1930s; Rockaway Beach, 1927

I also found some photos of my current neighborhood from 1930-31:

Lexington Avenue along 86th and 94th Streets

Bill’s Bar & Burger

American
Rockefeller Center, NYC
212.705.8510
Website 

A few months ago I ate at Bill’s Bar & Burger for the first time. Considering their name, I figured I had to try a cheeseburger. I also had sweet potato fries, and the chopped salad. The burger was nothing special, the fries were okay, and the salad was tasty, but none of it would draw me back again. However, during that meal, I kept noticing that people all around me were ordering a dish I had overlooked on the menu. I made a mental note to come back at least one more time and try the Blackened Mahi Tacos.

I finally went back and tried the tacos and they were really delicious. I understand why it appeared to be so popular during my first trip. The fish was cooked nicely and had a well-seasoned crust on most of the surface. Beneath the fish was shredded lettuce, a small dollop of basic guacamole, and some crunchy cole slaw, and on top, a generous drizzle of chipotle aioli and diced tomatoes and onions.

Yum. They might not be authentic Mexican tacos but the flavors and textures were great. I’ll gladly go back to Bill’s again to have these.

Craftbar

New American
900 Broadway, NYC
212.461.4300
Website

Left to right: trotter, loin, belly. The platter was too large to fit in one photo!

Every week, the kitchen at Craftbar receives a whole pig that they then cut up and do glorious things with in the form of their frequent “Pork for Two” special. On a recent evening, my friend and I splurged on this hefty dish and loved every second of it. We were told that the cuts of meat in the special weren’t the same from night to night. When we were there the platter consisted of a generous amount of roasted pork loin slices, a patty of trotter that had been breaded and deep fried, and a braised pinwheel of pork belly. I would have been satisfied with just the pork belly, but the combination of the three components was out-of-this-world delicious.

I don’t believe I’ve ever had trotter before, and the way they prepared it here made it unrecognizable as a part of the animal that, well, trots. We likened the finished product to fried chicken skin but it was so much better than that. Crispy and salty on the outside, and soft, creamy, and fatty (in a good way) inside. I understand why they only give you a small portion of it.

Pork belly pinwheel

The pork belly was outstanding and tasted like it had been braised in the pan sauce that I kept mopping up. It was definitely the star of the plate. Tender and yummy and perfectly prepared. I have craved the pork belly several times since this meal.

The meats were laying among a bed of roasted fingerling potatoes, pearl onions, and adorable thumbelina carrots that I originally mistook for pieces of regular carrots whittled down to nubbins. Beneath everything was a wonderful bacon jus. Yes – bacon sauce!

Mmm, bacon jus...

When we had decided to go for the pork platter, we also chose to forego appetizers because we knew it would be a lot of food. However, a short while after we ordered, I realized that one of the guys working there that night was someone I went to high school with. He came over to say hello and then very kindly put our pork festival on hold and brought us an order of the pecorino arancini. I was excited about this because the arancini happened to be the one appetizer I wanted to try when I looked over the menu.

I’m glad we got a chance to try these. The rice balls were made of a creamy, cheesy risotto with a light and crispy breaded shell. The sauce that they were served in was a spicy tomato sauce. The pairing was fantastic.

Despite inhaling everything thus far, we agreed that there was still room for something sweet. Unfortunately the dessert that we wanted – the brownie with malted milk ice cream, fudge sauce, and chantilly cream – had run out. Instead we chose two of the smaller desserts to share.

Left: PB & Chocolate; right: Cheesecake

The first dessert was three little sandwiches of chocolate feuilletines (thin crispy cookies) filled with what was described as peanut butter cream. I was hoping for something like a peanut butter mousse on the inside, but instead it resembled peanut butter straight out of a jar, and it was too heavy for the cookies. The second dessert was an unbaked cheesecake presented simply, in an individual ramekin. This was not too sweet, which was great. The crust underneath was made of cocoa nibs, which also didn’t add any sweetness, but did add a nice deep, dark chocolate flavor. Throughout the creamy cheesecake were tiny flecks of lime zest that gave it a fresh taste and a little bit of texture. After trying a spoonful, I took one of the chocolate feuilletines, scraped the gloppy peanut butter off of it, and topped it with some of the cheesecake. Now, that was a great combination!

Throughout dinner I drank a cocktail called Copywriter, composed of Jameson whiskey, Carpano vermouth, lemon, honey, and a splash of Benedictine. So good I had three.