Tomorrow, Vosges Haut-Chocolat will debut four of the most innovative ice cream flavors around! Red Fire is a dark chocolate accented with chili and cinnamon, Naga is a coconut white chocolate with a touch of curry, Pandan is a dark chocolate with nutty Southeast Asian pandan leaves, and Wattleseed features Australian macadamias and aboriginal wattleseeds.
If you can't wait until tomorrow for these flavor combinations, stop by today and purchase a Red Fire or Naga chocolate bar. (They're addictive.)
Vosges Haut-Chocolat: 132 Spring St., (212) 625-2929.
Friday, April 30, 2004
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Three Great Cups Of Coffee
I'm always searching for good, strong coffee and an inviting atmosphere in which to enjoy it. Here are three cafés where I like to linger over an espresso:
Manhattan: Kiva Café is a surprising oasis of calm right above bustling Canal Street. It's a pleasure to sip from the beautiful mugs sculpted by owner/artist Beebe Okaye. The coffee, made with beans from Red Hook's Espresso Emporium, is terrific, as are the fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies. There's also a full menu of sandwiches, savory tarts, and salads. A changing installation of original local artwork provides visual stimulation.
Kiva Café, 229 Hudson St., (212) 229-0898.
Queens: Munch Café & Grill (CLOSED), which occupies a quiet corner of Forest Hills, is the place to "eat, drink and unwind." I've enjoyed many a morning with a cup of their French press coffee, brewed with Queens-roasted Kudo Beans. For an extra-strong cup, try the Kenya or Ethiopian Harrar roasts. A jumbo egg sandwich on a roll is only $2.00, and according to the owner, there will soon be a new menu featuring various rice-based dishes.
Munch Café & Grill: 71-60 Yellowstone Blvd., Queens, (718) 544-0075.
Brooklyn On weekends, the popular Half Wine Bar Lounge becomes a lovely spot for a latte, opening at 9 a.m. If you like the coffee at 71 Irving Place Coffee and Tea Bar in Gramercy Park, you'll also enjoy it at Half, because the café uses the same beans. The chocolate croissants and wild blueberry muffins are baked at the nearby Blue Sky Bakery. But if you're still thinking about wine after your muffin and coffee, the tiny shop and library offer a collection of books to educate your inner sommelier.
Half Wine Bar Lounge: 626 Vanderbilt Avenue, Brooklyn, (718) 783-4100.
Manhattan: Kiva Café is a surprising oasis of calm right above bustling Canal Street. It's a pleasure to sip from the beautiful mugs sculpted by owner/artist Beebe Okaye. The coffee, made with beans from Red Hook's Espresso Emporium, is terrific, as are the fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies. There's also a full menu of sandwiches, savory tarts, and salads. A changing installation of original local artwork provides visual stimulation.
Kiva Café, 229 Hudson St., (212) 229-0898.
Queens: Munch Café & Grill (CLOSED), which occupies a quiet corner of Forest Hills, is the place to "eat, drink and unwind." I've enjoyed many a morning with a cup of their French press coffee, brewed with Queens-roasted Kudo Beans. For an extra-strong cup, try the Kenya or Ethiopian Harrar roasts. A jumbo egg sandwich on a roll is only $2.00, and according to the owner, there will soon be a new menu featuring various rice-based dishes.
Munch Café & Grill: 71-60 Yellowstone Blvd., Queens, (718) 544-0075.
Brooklyn On weekends, the popular Half Wine Bar Lounge becomes a lovely spot for a latte, opening at 9 a.m. If you like the coffee at 71 Irving Place Coffee and Tea Bar in Gramercy Park, you'll also enjoy it at Half, because the café uses the same beans. The chocolate croissants and wild blueberry muffins are baked at the nearby Blue Sky Bakery. But if you're still thinking about wine after your muffin and coffee, the tiny shop and library offer a collection of books to educate your inner sommelier.
Half Wine Bar Lounge: 626 Vanderbilt Avenue, Brooklyn, (718) 783-4100.
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Black Hound Bakery
Whenever I visit my grandmother, I bring her a cake or a pie. She knows her Upper East Side neighborhood inside and out, so I like to surprise her with treats from foreign lands below 59th Street. Lately I've been delighting her with goodies from the excellent Black Hound Bakery.
It's easy to be overwhelmed by the amazing variety of sweets at Black Hound. Jumbo chocolate-enrobed strawberries, tarts, truffles, cakes, tiny butter cookies, sweet cherries in syrup, and many other marvels beckon to the visitor. Today, feeling like Little Red Riding Hood, I filled a bag with four strawberries, an apple-ginger tart with a buttery cookie crust, a poppy-seed lemon curd white-chocolate-iced cake, and a hazelnut chocolate cake decorated with small candy bees. My grandmother's eyes lit up when I arrived at her apartment and presented her with the bag. She said she would look forward to sampling the sweets after dinner.
Apparently she was satisfied, because according to my aunt, she was later seen licking the white chocolate icing off of her fingers.
Black Hound Bakery: 170 2nd Ave., (212) 979-9505.
It's easy to be overwhelmed by the amazing variety of sweets at Black Hound. Jumbo chocolate-enrobed strawberries, tarts, truffles, cakes, tiny butter cookies, sweet cherries in syrup, and many other marvels beckon to the visitor. Today, feeling like Little Red Riding Hood, I filled a bag with four strawberries, an apple-ginger tart with a buttery cookie crust, a poppy-seed lemon curd white-chocolate-iced cake, and a hazelnut chocolate cake decorated with small candy bees. My grandmother's eyes lit up when I arrived at her apartment and presented her with the bag. She said she would look forward to sampling the sweets after dinner.
Apparently she was satisfied, because according to my aunt, she was later seen licking the white chocolate icing off of her fingers.
Black Hound Bakery: 170 2nd Ave., (212) 979-9505.
Saturday, April 10, 2004
My Kitchen Wars
Can you turn out a perfect pate en croute? Do you know how to whip up homemade mayonnaise? You will learn these techniques, as well as some valuable life lessons, in My Kitchen Wars. This stunning one-woman play is based on the memoirs of renowned food writer and chef Betty Fussell.
Superb actress/playwright Dorothy Lyman (as Fussell) invites you into her kitchen to share some "fresh coffee with the taste of bittersweet chocolate." At once, you are enthralled with her portrayal of a woman who has lost and then found herself again through the art of cooking. During the 95-minute play, Lyman prepares a lobster bisque, a lobster salad with lime mayonnaise, and a Grand Marnier souffle. (These food preparations, as well as the many allusions to eating, will leave you quite hungry. Therefore, I recommend dining beforehand! To put yourself in the mood, you might pay a pre-theatre visit to at Bouley to feast on the "Maine Day-Boat Lobster Prepared in an Exotic Manner with Lychee Sugar Snap Peas, Asparagus and Blood Orange" ).
Fussell's life experiences are poignantly described through metaphors about food. She tries to "make a bisque out of the carcass of her marriage." A mayonnaise, the temporary emulsion of oil and lemon juice, is the "momentary truce" of a tenuous relationship. A dockside cafe in Calais serves "real bread and real butter," and is the beginning of Fussell's gradual awakening to the new possibilities in her life.
Watching Lyman at work in the kitchen, I was impressed by her ability to captivate the audience while preparing a three-course meal! Aside from being a great cook, Lyman is an accomplished television actress and director. She will be performing in My Kitchen Wars through May (or beyond), as well as in the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival on May 21.
Singer Melissa Sweeney spices up the production with jazzy interludes, some of them food-related as well. (Salmon and backgammon, anyone?)
My Kitchen Wars: 78th Street Theatre Lab, 236 W. 78th St., (212) 391-1547.
Superb actress/playwright Dorothy Lyman (as Fussell) invites you into her kitchen to share some "fresh coffee with the taste of bittersweet chocolate." At once, you are enthralled with her portrayal of a woman who has lost and then found herself again through the art of cooking. During the 95-minute play, Lyman prepares a lobster bisque, a lobster salad with lime mayonnaise, and a Grand Marnier souffle. (These food preparations, as well as the many allusions to eating, will leave you quite hungry. Therefore, I recommend dining beforehand! To put yourself in the mood, you might pay a pre-theatre visit to at Bouley to feast on the "Maine Day-Boat Lobster Prepared in an Exotic Manner with Lychee Sugar Snap Peas, Asparagus and Blood Orange" ).
Fussell's life experiences are poignantly described through metaphors about food. She tries to "make a bisque out of the carcass of her marriage." A mayonnaise, the temporary emulsion of oil and lemon juice, is the "momentary truce" of a tenuous relationship. A dockside cafe in Calais serves "real bread and real butter," and is the beginning of Fussell's gradual awakening to the new possibilities in her life.
Watching Lyman at work in the kitchen, I was impressed by her ability to captivate the audience while preparing a three-course meal! Aside from being a great cook, Lyman is an accomplished television actress and director. She will be performing in My Kitchen Wars through May (or beyond), as well as in the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival on May 21.
Singer Melissa Sweeney spices up the production with jazzy interludes, some of them food-related as well. (Salmon and backgammon, anyone?)
My Kitchen Wars: 78th Street Theatre Lab, 236 W. 78th St., (212) 391-1547.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Paula Stevens Burecas
"When I was a girl in Argentina, I loved the sound of the piano," said Paula as she wrapped me up an almond half-moon cookie. "I would always hear the music coming from the neighbors' living rooms, and I wanted so badly to learn to play. But we had my grandmother living with us, so I wasn't allowed."
It is to our benefit that Paula's creativity was instead focused on the art of baking. Her deceptively nondescript storefront conceals amazing stuffed breads: burecas with eggplant, cheese, potato and spinach-cheese fillings. As you buy your first box of six or twelve, she will exhort you, "Whatever you do, don't put these in the microwave!" Two or three of them make a wonderful meal, but I recommend calling ahead, as the eggplant variety sells out quickly. My favorite filling is the chopped spinach and cheese. If you prefer a flaky pastry rather than a stuffed bread, try the "bulemas," which contain the same delicious fillings within layers of paper-thin filo dough.
Paula is at work in her kitchen six days a week, baking cookies and breads for weddings. She lovingly photographs the food at every event she caters, and will gladly show you her photo album. (She will also proudly show you a picture of her son.)
When I asked if Paula's last name were "Stevens", she replied, "No, that was my late husband's name." She then mentioned that she's looking for a nice 68- or 69-yr-old man who enjoys baked goods (80 is too old). Disclaimer: Paula promised me a lifetime of free burecas if I am able to find her such a gentleman; if you know someone, please contact me!
Paula Stevens Burecas: 6379 Saunders St., Queens, NY, (718) 459-7276.
It is to our benefit that Paula's creativity was instead focused on the art of baking. Her deceptively nondescript storefront conceals amazing stuffed breads: burecas with eggplant, cheese, potato and spinach-cheese fillings. As you buy your first box of six or twelve, she will exhort you, "Whatever you do, don't put these in the microwave!" Two or three of them make a wonderful meal, but I recommend calling ahead, as the eggplant variety sells out quickly. My favorite filling is the chopped spinach and cheese. If you prefer a flaky pastry rather than a stuffed bread, try the "bulemas," which contain the same delicious fillings within layers of paper-thin filo dough.
Paula is at work in her kitchen six days a week, baking cookies and breads for weddings. She lovingly photographs the food at every event she caters, and will gladly show you her photo album. (She will also proudly show you a picture of her son.)
When I asked if Paula's last name were "Stevens", she replied, "No, that was my late husband's name." She then mentioned that she's looking for a nice 68- or 69-yr-old man who enjoys baked goods (80 is too old). Disclaimer: Paula promised me a lifetime of free burecas if I am able to find her such a gentleman; if you know someone, please contact me!
Paula Stevens Burecas: 6379 Saunders St., Queens, NY, (718) 459-7276.
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