Ice cream - so good yet so bad. It’s one thing I cannot resist, and having a great ice cream shop like Sundaes and Cones a few blocks away from me doesn’t help either. I first had a taste during an ice cream social that my dorm had, and since then, whenever I have an ice cream craving, this is my go-to spot. All the flavors are creamy and delicious. They have the classics, like chocolate, vanilla, and cookies and cream (which my friend Yawei says is supppper delicious), but they also have a few unique ones like wasabi, lychee and ginger. It’s the odd flavors that make the people come, but I think it’s the classics that make them stay. I tried the wasabi, and I can assure you, it really tastes like wasabi – there’s also a good kick that hits your nose a few moments after swallowing. It’s not unbearable though; the vanilla mutes the flavor. I also sampled the lychee, which was refreshing but a bit sweet. I took advantage of the lack of a sampling limit and tried many of them, no shame, I say! Ultimately, this time I decided on the pink grapefruit. If you like sweet grapefruit juice, like my roommate Mel does (the more sugar the better), then this one will definitely hit the spot. Its refreshing and creamy and tart. It has quite a bit of sugar in it though, so beware! You’ll probably need some water after finishing it. The prices are a bit high for a scoop though – one scoop in a suger/wafer cone will run you about $3.50 plus tax. I relate all my pricey indulgences to the number of steamed pork buns that I could buy in Chinatown instead. So this one cone could buy you 4-5 buns! The people there aren’t very friendly either, unfortunately. It’s not that they’re mean, just that they don’t look very happy. But I don’t come for the service; it’s the ice cream I crave. So if you too want some delicious creamy goodness, visit this place and feel free to sample as much as you want!! Sundaes & Cones 95 E 10th St New York, NY 10003
Oh my God! You guys have to try the Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake at Stand. It is quite possibly the most delicious milkshake I've ever had! And for $6, it better be! You can taste the freshly toasted marshmallow that's been blended into it, and also see the charred black specs floating around. The shake has a really nice consistency too - not too thick to suck up in the straw but now too thin that it's soupy either! The two toasted marshmallows on top were a nice touch too. I drank that till there was nothing left in the cup! We also had the french fries. They were thick cut and delicious too, but a little but too salty for my taste. I liked the kewpie mayonnaise that they laid out on the table; the mustard had an odd aftertaste of ginger,so it wasn't to my liking. But the salty fries went well with the sweet toasty shake, so I have no complaints Except for the fact that the shake didn't last for eternity... $5 for a large plate of fries
For those of you who aren't in New York or who don't want to pay for a $6 Milkshake, I found the recipe on Gourmet.com!
Stand's Marshmallow Shakes(excerpted from gourmet.com)
3 scoops vanilla ice cream (they use Laboratorio del Gelato) 1 tablespoon whole milk I large dollop, er, Wookstock Water Buffalo Milk yogurt (For the 300 million of you that can't pick water buffalo milk yogurt up at your corner store, feel free to use a substitute yogurt—it's just there to add a little more liquid and balance out the sweetness of the ice cream a bit) 5 Kraft Jumbo Jef-Puffed marshmallows Whipped cream 1) Toast marshamllows under a broiler, or, if you're frisky, over a flame until they just start to blacken evenly (the trick is to make sure it's evenly toasted and dark, but not turned to charcoal). 2) Put the milk, yogurt, and then ice cream in the blender. Blend carefully, just until you get a "donut"—when you see the shake holding to the sides of the blender with a hollow core. 3) Add three of the toasted marshmallows to the blender, and whirl it just until they're all broken up and distributed evenly. Be careful not to overblend it, making it too melty. 4) Pour shake into a glass, top with a dollop of whipped cream, break the last two marshmallows on top, and serve with an extra-wide straw. 5) Repeat if necessary. And it will probably be necessary.
A look I created that was inspired by this palette from Victoria Secret. Mine broke so I had to find colors similar to it.
The Products I use were: Mac Paint Pot in Painterly Urban Decay - Baked & Smog Bare Minerals - Queen Phyllis Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on - Flipside & Zero Lancome Oscillation Mascara
Lorac Tantalizer Bronzer Victoria Secret Lipgloss in Steamy
Check Me out on Youtube! http://www.youtube.com/user/ThuyTBird
As you can see, the posts i've done so far have been about food. So now I'm gonna put up a makeup tutorial. It's a blue and black eye I created late one night. I hope you enjoy! But first, here's a view of my makeup collection. I cleared out the top drawer of my dresser to fit everything.
Do chua in Vietnamese translates into “sour stuff”, but I think this pickled dish is a bit more sweet than sour. People usually eat this with their banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) or placed atop bun cha Hanoi (recipe shall be posted later). If you’re using this to put in your sandwiches, I would julienne the carrots because they are more suited for the shape of the baguette. But since I used this for the latter, I cut them into flower shapes.
The recipe for this is really easy and based on your preferences. In Vietnamese cooking, the measurements are not exact – you can’t just add a ½ cup of this or a tbsp of that and expect it to taste right. When I was younger, I was really annoyed at this because every time I would ask my dad for a recipe, he would just tell me to add some of this or some of that. But as I grew up, I began to value the magic of tasting as you go and tweaking something till it fits your needs. So this recipe is just a rough guideline; I didn’t measure anything when I made this. Feel free to add more sugar if you want it sweet or more vinegar if you like it sour. For Do Chua you will need: 2 Large Carrots 1 Daikon 3 tbspn of sugar 1 tsp salt ½ - 1 cup of white vinegar Water To cut the vegetables: This is a little bit labor intensive, but not as much as you’d think! My roommate thought I cut each slice of carrot into a flower, but I told her I wasn’t that anal! Peel the carrots and daikon and cut each carrot/daikon stalk into 2 or 3 manageable pieces. Take one piece and make a shallow vertical cut into the side, make another shallow cut that intersects with that one so that you end up cutting out a long piece of the carrot. Do this five times until you get something resembling this picture: Once you have cut out the sides, take your knife and start slicing the carrots/daikon. I did mine about 1/8th of an inch thick, but you can do it whatever size you like. I prefer mine to be a bit thicker to maintain crunch. After you finish slicing all the vegetables, place them into a bowl. Evenly coat them with the sugar and salt, then add your vinegar. If you have too little vinegar, you can add a bit of water to fully coat the vegetables. Taste your vinegar mixture! Adjust to your likings=) Let them refrigerate for a few hours or preferably overnight. You can store them in a jar if you’d like, but I just put mine in a clean plastic used kimchee container. They will be ready in the morning for you to snack on alone or eat with anything!
Staying in New York for Spring Break has its perks. For one thing, I got to go on a FREE cupcake tour of the East Village with some people from my dorm. Free and cupcakes? In one sentence??? How could I resist. This is my opinion of the 5 shops we visited, accompanied by lots of pretty pictures! Bakeries: Magnolia Bakery Crumbs Bakeshop Sugar Sweet Sunshine Butterlane Tonnie’s Minis
Magnolia Bakery 401 Bleecker Street NYC 10014 Were you surprised that this one was my least favorite of the tour? Well you shouldn’t be! Things that are too hyped up usually disappoint (low expectations = no disappointments!). The bakery itself was really pretty – I loved that everything was out for people to see and grab and you could watch the lady in the corner decorating the cupcakes. This bakery gets #1 in décor; it’s beautiful and reminds me of a tea party. I got the chocolate cake with yellow vanilla frosting. I was really disappointed with this one. The chocolate flavor of the cake was good, but it was dry and crumbly and not what I expected by the line that snaked out the door. The frosting hardens if it’s not eaten fresh, so you have to eat it the moment you get it! My frosting however, was hard the moment I got it so it wasn’t that enjoyable. Its not too sweet though, which is good, but it’s not something to write home about – no distinctive quality screams out to me. If you’re gonna go here, try the banana pudding instead! The nice man behind the counter gave us a sample and it was delicious! I need to go back and buy that huge bowl behind the counter! My ranking for this one? - #5
Crumbs Bakeshop 37 E. Eighth St., New York, NY, 10003 Crumbs was the first stop on our list, and the one I was least excited about because I’ve had them before. Their cupcakes are on steroids if you compare them to the others! Two people could easily split one cake and still be slightly nauseous after. The cupcakes were just okay – too sweet for my taste. I got the Brownie Cupcake because I was craving chocolate. The frosting was not as sweet as I expected, but the consistency was slightly oily – I can feel my ateries clogging with every swallow. I like it because there was fudge filling inside too. The cake was pretty moist, but I didn’t like the flavor of it too much. It wasn’t quite as chocolatey as I expected and there was a weird aftertaste. I could only handle a sliver of this one and had to wash it down with tons of milk. My ranking for this one? - #4
Sugar Sweet Sunshine 126 Rivington St. NYC 10002 Just the name of the bakery made me happy. I loved the atmosphere in here. Its feels very homey and comfortable. I got the Pumpkin Cupcake with cream cheese frosting. The cake was more like a muffin than a cake and a bit greasy, but still really good – it had a nice balance of spices without being overpowering or too sweet. It was also really moist and held up in the fridge. I liked the frosting but wished it could have been more tart. I suspect they used brown butter for the frosting, which I have no complaints about. The toasted walnuts on top were also a nice touch. My ranking for this one – #3
Butterlane 123 East 7th Street, NYC 10009 Our next stop was Butterlane Cupcakes. Butterlane is unique in that they specialize in different types of frosting. They offer 3 types of cake – Chocolate, Vanilla and Banana and over 10 types of frosting (can’t remember the exact number). There was a tray where you could sample the different frostings, so I of course I had to sample each one (some more than once)! They offer two types of chocolate and vanilla – French and American. I personally like the French frostings because they have a lighter but somehow richer, stronger taste – especially the chocolate one! After much debate, I decided on a banana cupcake with cream cheese frosting. The frosting was amazing – I really loved it! They didn’t overload it with frosting, like at crumbs. It was tart and not too sweet and really light. The cake was super banana-y! it even had a chunk of it inside and denser than the other cupcakes we tried. Jack, the RA that I went with commented that the two elements seemed disjointed; they tasted great separately but didn’t do much to compliment each other. Either way, this one was really good and the rest of the group ranked this high on the list My ranking for this one? – #2
Tonnie’s Minis 120 McDougal Street, NYC 10012 This one was the unknown of the group, but I had been there previously. They were skeptical because it did not look all decked out and fancy like the other bakeshops and shared half of its space with a cheesesteak restaurant. However, I assured them that the cupcakes were awesome. I had the Golden Heart – which is a yellow cupcake with red velvet cake inside and topped with cream cheese frosting. The cake here is super moist and the frosting was super buttery and delicious. I like this one because they give you just the right amount of everything; they don’t overload on frosting or sugar or use supersized cupcake pans. This one was my favorite. But it was a close tie with Butterlane. I chose this one as my favorite however because everyone likes an underdog! My ranking for this one? - #1
I don’t think I’m gonna be eating anymore cupcakes for a while -_-
If you haven’t guess already by my last name, Nguyen, I’m Vietnamese. I grew up in a very Vietnamese area of Northern California – San Jose, so I’ve always been surrounded by fantastic Vietnamese food, both at home and in my neighborhood. Upon arriving in New York for college, I was very disappointed by the lack of Vietnamese community. It made me very sad *tear* During my first semester, I craved Viet food all the time (don’t tell me you’ve never had an insatiable Pho craving). The pho here cannot compare to the one at home, but luckily I found a restaurant that comes pretty close in authenticity. Although, I’ve never heard of putting grilled meat into my pho until I came here, but hey, we all have our variations.
But enough about my love for pho, that will be reviewed another time. The other day, I had an intense craving for Bun Bo Hue. In case you don’t know, Bun Bo Hue is a very popular noodle dish, whose origins lie in Central Vietnam. I call it the younger brother of Pho - they are both great and have distinctive, unique qualities, but because Pho is so popular it overshadows it. To me, broth is the most important component of any noodle dish: good broth can make up for other shortcomings. The broth in bun bo hue is prepared by cooking beef bones for a very long time, along with spices that include lemongrass, chili, and shrimp paste. When my family makes it, we do it extra spicy with the addition of chili flakes cooked in hot oil. It’s usually topped with think slices of beef shank, oxtail bones, or pork and garnished with bean sprouts, banana blossoms, and lime, as well as additional chili.
I had the Bun Bo Hue at Cong Ly, my go to spot for Vietnamese food in NYC. Its cheap($6 for a bowl that made me very satisfied), delicious, and the old man that works at the counter is very funny when you get to know him (he reminds me of my grandpa). I come here whenever I feel homesick.
I was pleasantly surprised when the bowl was brought to my table. The color looked right – slightly brown and red from the chili, and it smelled good too. I tasted the broth plain before adding the lemon or chili and was pleased. The broth was slightly sweet and salty, but not overly so. It also did not leave me with msg-overload. The noodles were a bit too soft for me, I like mine with a bit more bite. They give you lots of meat for one bowl though, so I was happy (quantity of meat is second to quality of broth on my list). Overall, I was very happy and my craving was satiated. So, if you too are craving Vietnamese, hit up Cong Ly. You won’t be disappointed!
Cong Ly 124 Hester St (between Bowery & Chrystie St)
Sorry for the messy formatting of the last post, I'm still trying to figure our how to work with Blogspot. Hopefully, this one looks better.
So, today I'm gonna talk about the much hyped, Hot Chocolate from City Bakery. I've heard a lot of good things about it and my dorm floor and I were gonna go try it out, but i had to go to a birthday party so i couldn't make it. So, I decided to try it myself the next day.
Well, when I walked into the bakery, I was a bit confused about how to order, because there was no menu, hence I had no idea of the pricing. I finally smartened up and followed the line that was snaking around the corner. When it came to my turn, I ordered a small hot chocolate with one of their homemade marshmallows. Guess how much one small cup was?? $5!!! Too expensive for my cheap ass, so this hot chocolate will be a one time treat.
My thoughts? I was surprised at the consistency of the drink. It was thick! Almost like a chocolate ganache with some more cream added in for good measure. I’ve never had hot chocolate this thick and I’m not sure if I like it. I think it would have been more likable had it been thinner. However, the chocolate was very good and high quality. If I wasn’t going shopping afterward, I would have saved the drink and used it as a creamy dessert for later. The marshmallow they put on top was the star of this drink. It was soft and fluffy, but thick at the same time. I managed to drink about half the chocolate (with a spoon nonetheless!) but finished off the marshmallow. Water is free so feel free to ask for some – you’re gonna need it to get through this cup.
I think I can make a much more likable hot chocolate at home, for much less! I’ve been meaning to try my hand at making marshmallows anyway…
Here’s the address if you want to try it for yourself: 3 W 18th St (between 5th Ave & Avenue Of The Americas) New York, NY 10011
I love baking cakes for my friends’ birthdays. It’s always my gift to them. I’ve noticed that the cakes get more elaborate as each birthday passes. For my friend Ned’s birthday, we got him the $2 Cheesecake from Trader Joe’s! Then for my roommate’s bday, I made her a Dulce de Leche cake. For my friend Derrick’s birthday, I decided to take on the most difficult cake challenge yet: Martha Stewert’s Chocolate Crepe Cake. I’m not sure what prompted me to take on this challenge, given that it was midterm week and that I had never made crepes before. But, I think I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. After 7 hours and many burnt fingers, I finally succeeded in my feat. The work paid off, it was delicious and Derrick along with my other friends loved it. So if you like taking on challenges, try this one, I promise the results will be very worth your while.
For this recipe, I used Martha Stewart, incorporated ideas from this blog and also found a pastry cream recipe from The Joy of Cooking. I used Martha’s recipe for crepes – which turn out wonderfully fluffy and tasty. However, there must be a healthier recipe for them because this one calls for 1 ½ sticks of butter(not good for my diet)! I also used her glaze recipe. I attempted to make candied hazelnuts, but I seriously need to work on my sugar art skills. My first batch of sugar syrup turned out well, but hardened before I could make enough. The second and third batches were a disaster – the sugar crystallized, hardened, and stuck to the pan – it was a bitch to clean. Overall, the candied hazelnuts were an EPIC FAIL. If you guys have any tips on how to work with sugar, let me know!
I like the orange chocolate idea from What’s For Lunch, Honey? However, the measurements for the pastry cream and what not used the metric system, and I didn’t know how to convert! So I used a recipe from Joy of Cooking. The candied Orange Peels turned out wonderfully, and I recommend making extra to save as a garnish for other desserts.
So here is my version of Martha Stewart’s Darkest Chocolate Crepe Cake. I hope you enjoy it!
For the Chocolate Crepes:
·3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus melted for pan
·8 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
·1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
·1/3 cup sugar
·1/2 teaspoon salt
·2 1/2 cups whole milk, room temperature
·6 large eggs, room temperature
·1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
·Bring 1/4 cup water to a rolling boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add butter, 1 piece at a time, whisking to combine after each addition. Remove from heat; stir in chocolate until completely melted. Set aside.
·Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk together milk, eggs, and vanilla in another medium bowl. Gradually add milk mixture to flour mixture, whisking until smooth. Add chocolate-butter mixture, whisking until smooth. Pour through a fine sieve into an airtight container; discard lumps. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
·Lightly coat an 8-inch crepe pan or nonstick skillet with melted butter. Heat over medium heat until just starting to smoke. Remove pan from heat; pour about 2 tablespoons batter into pan, swirling to cover bottom. Reduce heat to medium-low; return pan to heat. Cook, flipping once, until edges are golden and center is dry, about 30 seconds per side.
·Slide crepe onto a plate. Repeat process with remaining batter, coating pan with butter as needed. Crepes can be refrigerated, covered, up to 1 day.
For the Orange Vanilla Pastry Cream (I found that 1 batch was not enough for me, so feel free to make a double batch! Also, the cream was a bit too thick so I would recommend using a bit less cornstarch than the recipe suggests)
Ingredients:
1/3 Cup Sugar
2 tbsp AP Flour
2 tbsp Cornstarch
4 large egg yolks (save the whites to make a healthy egg white omelet that will make you feel less guilty after eating this cake!)
1 1/3 cup milk
¾ Tsp Vanilla Extract
Orange Zest (add as much as you like!)
In a medium bowl, beat sugar, glour, cornstarch and eggs yolks on high speed until thick and pale yellow, about 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, simmer milk on a medium saucepan
Gradually pour about 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture. Go slowly because the hot milk will scramble the eggs if you go too fast. After the eggs have been tempered, pour the rest of the milk in.
Scrape the egg/milk mixture back into the saucepan, add the orange zest and cook on medium heat, whisking constantly and scraping the bottom and corners of the pan to prevent scorching. . Cook until the custard is thick and bubbling. When it comes to a boil, cook for 45-60 seconds more. Then take off the heat, scrape into a clean bowl and add the vanilla extract.
If the custard is too thick, add more milk and whisk until you get the consistency that you like.
For the Candied Orange Peels,
Go to this site: They can explain it much better than I can
Bring cream, corn syrup, and salt to a boil in a medium-heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Remove from heat. Add chocolate; swirl pan to cover completely with cream. Let stand about 5 minutes. Stir until smooth. Let cool completely.
To assemble the Cake
After you have made the crepes and pastry cream, you can start putting together the cake. I made the glaze after I finished putting the layers together.
Place one crepe on whatever platform you choose. I flipped over a pie dish and covered it with wax paper. Then spread it with some cream. Continue doing this until you have used all your crepes – there will be about 30 layers. When I made my crepes, there were some that looked a lot less than perfect. But I didn’t let them go to waste, I used them as fillers between the good crepe layers. The ones that were too ruined to salvage were happily eaten by my roommates and I=)
Then, make your glaze and pour about half of it over the cake. Put it in the fridge for about 20 minutes to allow it to firm up. Then take it out and pour the second layer over it. I did two layers of glaze because the first one was to cover the imperfections and the second one was a nice perfect top coat.
Decorate however you like! I used the candied orange peels in the middle and then surround them with toasted, crushed hazelnuts and the only 2 candied hazelnuts that actually looked good.
White chocolate would look wonderful drizzled over this as well.
Move the cake to a nice cake plate and serve - unless you would like to leave it sitting on a mountain of chocolate glaze.
I didn’t tell derrick what was inside the cake, so you can imagine how surprised he was to find, not a 2 layer cake, but a 30 layer one!
