The Japanese just might be the modern-day masters of cute. But wagashi, adorable pastries shaped like fruit, birds, and flowers, have served as traditional tea ceremony snacks for centuries. Although rare on this side of the Pacific, Minamoto Kitchoan sells wagashi in bright array, spot-lit in glass cases like the baubles at Tiffany’s.
Enjoyment of wagashi hinges on one’s opinion of the mochi (rice paste), sweet red-bean paste, and jellied fruits they’re made from. If you like treats that are sweet and potato-textured you’re in luck. But if in doubt, ingredient and freshness information is meticulously displayed on the oft-impenetrable plastic packaging.
A selection is pictured above. Hakuun-no-hotori ($3 – bottom left) consisted of condensed milk and sweet beans wrapped in crepe. Fukuwatashisenbei ($2 – top left) was really more of a classic vanilla wafer, with crisp, butter cookies encasing smooth crème. The pumpkin-shaped one ($2 – top middle) had a moist thin rice layer wrapped around sweet pumpkin-spiked beans. Wagashi can be bought individually for two or three bucks although a box of Shunen, pictured at the top of this post, will set you back a steep $27. (The petals are white bean paste wrapped in pink rice cake, while the middle is rice cake and merengue). Staff are unfailingly friendly, (as I stared at the daunting word Fukuwatashisenbei, one counterperson offered kindly, “cookie?”). Seasonal wagashi are available – this cherry blossom dessert on nycnosh looks too good to eat.
Minamoto Kitchoan
608 Fifth Avenue New York, NY
Sun-Thu 10am-7:30pm, Fri-Sat 10am-8pm
French toast is one if my favorite foods, but I get to indulge so rarely. On weekend mornings I’m usually too unsociable to eat out, and cooking is the last thing I want to do. If someone made a tasty take-out version, I’d probably eat it every day.
Abraco Espresso‘s version of pain perdu (or “lost bread,” since in France the traditional recipe calls for stale bread) is the french toast sandwich I’ve been missing. A slice of moist, eggy challah is folded over ricotta filling, dusted with powdered sugar, and wrapped in wax paper for no-fuss nibbling. The ricotta is like no other I’ve tasted, creamy and spiked with orange blossom, which adds just a hint of fruity, floral flavor. The pain perdu is pre-made–perfect when you’re on the go, costs $3, and is just the right mount of food to quell morning munchies. At first I was a little hesitant about eating room temperature french toast without syrup and other accoutrements, but now I’m a complete convert.
I’ve written about Abraco Espresso before. This closet-size cafe has great service with great attitude, top espresso and coffee, and delicious edibles like salads, sandwiches, and daydream-worthy frittata. The buttery-salty-sweet olive oil cookies flecked with raisiny dried olives are also not to be missed–mind you, this comes from someone who doesn’t even like olives.
Abraco Espresso, 86 E. 7th St.
Mon-Fri 7:30am-8pm, Sat 8am-8pm, Sun 9am-8pm
Macarons are not macaroons. Those dense, coconut-cluster snacks have nothing on these French confections. One bite reveals the layers–a light whipped cream, sandwiched between two puffed pastries, whose sugary shells cracks and melts merengue-like on your tongue, while inside remains moist and chewy. Macarons come in an endless variety of pastel shades and flavors, from always-popular fruit like strawberry and key lime, to hazelnut, caramel, and chocolate.
A fail-safe spot to procure my favorite treats is Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warener Center. Bouchon feel something like a secret, as its situated up two escalators in the middle of an upscale mall. But neither the takeout window, nor the sit-down dining section deals in your standard food court fare. Lunch-friendly prepared sandwiches, like ham and emmenthaler on fresh-baked bread, as well as buttery spinach quiche and watercress salads are available, and priced lower than you might from the chef/owner of the French Laundry and Per Se. However, the baked goods–eclairs, tarts, croissants, brioche, and homemade-oreo “TKO cookies” are where it’s at. As for the macarons, try the raspberries and champagne, nutella, and caramel flavors ($2.75/each). But beware of the passionfruit variety, unless you like your cream filling eye-wateringly tart. Lest your pooch feel left out, foie gras-enriched dog treats are available.
Bouchon Bakery
Time Warner Center, 10 Columbus Circle 3rd Floor
Mon-Sat 11:30am-9pm, Sun 11:30am-7pm
Some New Yorkers seem to have a bottomless appetite for super-sweet buttercream cupcake frosting, something I could never understand. But that was before I tried French buttercream. The Gallic version is airier and more mousse-like than its sugary American counterpart, and Butter Lane has both available to sample, along with rarer flavors such as grapefruit ginger, blueberry, and pumpkin. Having never been an icing freak, Butter Lane’s raspberry buttercream was a pleasant suprise, with a hint of tart raspberry and plenty of crunchy seed bits swirled throughout. As for the cake, my chocolate cupcake was somewhat dry and tasteless, the vanilla was ok but nothing special, but the banana was moist, buttery, and actually tasted like banana. It came dolloped with vanilla cream cheese icing and was my favorite of the three ($2.50/each).
As for how Butter Lane stacks up to the competition, the various flavors rendered as icing are a nice touch, but I think picking a cupcake is kind of like picking a toothpaste: whatever. Butter Lane’s main distinction is that it’s located in the East Village, where nary a Magnolia Bakery or Crumbs can be found, it’s cute inside, with orange floral wallpaper a la Alice in Wonderland, and it’s tourist-free. They also sell Harney & Sons tea by the cup (my favorite). There’s no seating though, and if you are traveling more than a few blocks, it might be a good idea to call ahead since their hours are somewhat irregular. On a couple of Saturday afternoons I noticed the shop was shuttered with a “Sorry, out of cupcakes” sign posted in the window.
Butter Lane, 123 East 7th St. between First Avenue and Avenue A
Last night I tuned into Food Network’sThrowdown With Bobby Flay to watch chef Flay challenge Dessert Truck to a bread pudding bakeoff, and I sorta expected to see the truck vanquished. I’ve dissed Dessert Truck’s chocolate bread pudding with bacon anglaise in the past, for while it is definitely smooth and chocolatey, and its charms have grown on me, real bread pudding is NOT about smooth. Bread pudding is about spongy layers soaking up egg and butter, like having your favorite french toast for crumbled up dessert. The version chef Flay made (or rather, that his two assistants made while he yammered in the background), was a chocolate-coconut bread pudding with passion-fruit sauce. It looked fantastic, if a bit busy (I wonder if you could taste the bread pudding under all those flavors), next to the relatively homespun pudding cups from the truck. The crowd taste-tasting on the street seemed split, but the two gals they plucked from the audience to judge the winner went with Dessert Truck! One of them had never had bread pudding before though, so there you are. Maybe Dessert Truck is really great, unless bread pudding happens to be your favorite dessert.
Interestingly, this episode showed the Truck’s chef making the bacon anglaise with real chunks of bacon that are subsequently strained out. I could not taste the bacon at all when I tried it, but the crowd claimed they tasted… something. All I can say is, if you promise me bacon, there better be bacon in there!
While we’re on the subject of bread pudding, Whole Foods on the Bowery sells a classic, plain bread pudding by the pound at their dessert bar. Although I usually stretch my arm muscles reaching for the unbroken bits in the back and cringe when I have to skim the skin off the neighboring caramel sauce, this is a decently delicious bread pudding when I can’t find it anywhere else.
Dessert Truck
Day – Park Ave and 52nd St. Monday – Friday: 12:00PM – 4PM
Night – St. Marks Place and 3rd Ave. Monday – Sunday: 6PM until about midnight