Cipriani!!!

So, I was around the Grand Central area and discovered that Cipriani has a takeout place called Cipriani Le Specialta that sells their vanilla meringue cake to go! Getting that slice of cake for only $3.25 and NOT paying tip (it would have been close to 9 at least without tip)? SCORE!! So I picked me up a slice

Look at that beauty!!! Of course mine didnt look exactly like this since it was in a container but it still had that gorgeous bruleed top. So this cake is basically layers of vanilla cake and vanilla cream surrounded by a thick meringue that has little sugar crystals dispersed throughout that are then bruleed to a golden brown. The cake is soft and moist, with a creamy vanilla cream that's kind of just whatever but add that sugary meringue and flavor is definitely enhanced. Sure, it's a little grainy. But, still pretty sweet. Basically, this is a pretty good slice of cake. and it's cheap too!

Il laboratorio del gelato

So, it was a rather warm day so I thought, let's have some gelato! So I ventured over there to get me some. Let me say, there are soooooo many flavors that looked good! I wanted to try them all! Crazy flavors like cateloupe with cayenne, lychee, black sesame, honey lavendar, yuzu, etc. along with traditional ones like chocolate, vanilla, amaretto, etc. But they limit you to two flavors per customer :( So I decided to try orange hibiscus cuz it sounded weird, but it just tasted like very orange-y and then I asked the guy behind the counter what the difference between watermelon and their yellow watermelon gelato was and he couldn't explain it and so I got to try it hehehe. It tastes like watermelon but like a little bit off. He was nice, since he said he "made me try that one" he'd give me another taste. Yay! I chose Yuzu, also cuz it sounded whack. It tasted citrus-y and I rather liked it. But, I figured, if I get a cup with two different flavors I really tried 5 flavors! HAHA! So their small cup lets you mix two flavors (LOVE!) for about $3.50? I knew I was in a fruity mood but I also wanted to try gelato since they ARE a gelato shop. I thought I couldnt go wrong with mango gelato and lychee sorbet.

  

And, it did not disappoint. The lychee sorbet was so fruity and sweet but also really freakin refreshing. A perfect palate cleanser so I left that to the end. I had the mango gelato first and that was good too, although my only thing is that it was a little dense and creamy so the mango flavor wasn't as dominant like in the sorbet (i like the one at sundaes and cones more but i think that was a sorbet so not really fair to compare I suppose) but other wise I thought the mango was great too, just wish it had more mango flavor. I actually may go back here when I want a gelato fix!

Laduree!

So, I finally made it to the famous Laduree!!! After hearing so many good things about it (being the best macaron shop in new york) I had to go. Plus, theyre from Paris!!! I haven't had many macarons in life so I'm not the best judge of what is good or not. But, I can say what I thought about these macarons. I had the coconut, raspberry, and salted caramel macarons.

And there they are. I think I'd have to say my favorite was the coconut. It just had a very strong coconut flavor because of the cream inside. I found that the raspberry (which had jam instead of cream) was nice too but a bit too sweet where it left the back of my throat a little irritated. The salted caramel was good too but I felt like I was eating straight up caramel which was just way too much for me. I don't know, maybe it's me, but I'm not going back to get more macarons cuz those babies cost $8.40 for 3!!! Maybe I'm just not a macaron person.

Four and Twenty Blackbirds!

So, I finally made it to this little shop in Park Slope. I don't usually go to that neighborhood but when I heard there was a little old shop cranking out delicious pies, I decided to make a visit. Plus, it wasn't too much of a trek from the train. When I walked in, there were lots of empty tables and I was glad because I wanted to just sit down and have some good pie. Plus, they don't serve whipped cream if you take it to go and what's pie without a little whipped cream!

This is exactly what my slice of pie looked like. See how it's like so thick, it's cuz theres lots of apple slices under there. Anyhow, on to teh taste. The apples were very soft and the crust was flaky and buttery. I didnt like that at the end there was a huge piece of crust without apples so I had to ration out my apple slices at the end. The whipped cream added a nice smooth airy touch to the pie. However, I was a little disappointed because it's a salted caramel apple pie and I didn't really get the salt or caramel and I love the salty/sweet combo. Wish it was there. But it was a good apple pie.

Two Little Red Hens!

So before going to the Dialog in the Dark exhibit, Mona went and picked up some desserts to eat before the show. She got the brooklyn blackout chocolate cupcake and cheesecake (supposedly the best in nyc).

It was a chocolate cake with a milk chocolate ganache on the inside and chocolate crumbs on top of chocolate frosting. Yes, I just said chocolate four times in that sentence. This is for the chocolate lovers. It was a nice, moist chocolate cake and that added smooth ganache made it even more moist! I'm a sucker for ganache. With chocolate frosting and crumbs its a chocolate overload! However, despite having so much chocolate it wasn't TOO much. Odd, but a good cupcake.

 First off, look at that thing! It's HUGE!!!! The cheesecake was ncice and soft with a somewhat crunchy top and a graham cracker? crust. I really liked the crust, it was a nice, sweet crunchy contrast to the soft cheesecake. i don't know if it's the best in the city, it just tasted like cheesecake.

Ino!

So I was around the W4 area and was in the mood for some good breakfast so I traveled on down to ino cafe and wine bar. A small little place that does paninis, salads, bruschetta, soups, etc. I only wanted to try the truffled egg toast as that's what theyre famous for and I was going to spend more money later.

Check out this bad boy. Looks good huh? IT WAS. Sooo im thinking that it has egg (obviously) a slice of toast covered in fontina cheese, with sprinkled chopped asparagus, with TRUFFLE OIL!!! I LOVE TRUFFLE OIL!!! So I knew this would get messy so I chopped it up into little pieces. The yolk just leaked out, got everywhere which was ok cuz I could soak it all up with the toast! Surprisingly, the outside of the toast remained crunchy despite being surrounded by the soft egg. When you take a bite, you get the crunch of toast, followed by the soft bread, melty cheese, the yummy yolk, and ohhh the truffle oil! It tasted sooo good. Add some chopped asparagus for some crunch and you are set! It was DELICIOUS! Perhaps I will visit again to try the bruschetta!

Karam!

So, I've been hearing about this arabic place for a long time now. I was actually there with a friend a few months back but didn't have the money or probably time to buy anything but, from what I could tell, there seemed to be a lot of authentic arabic food. Shawarma, falafel, hummus, tabouleh, mashi, etc. So I heard their chicken shawarma sandwich was #28 of the 101 best sandwiches in New York by New York Magazine along with several other awards. So I got the chicken shawarama sandwich.

So basically it was spit roasted chicken (no clue what that means) with vegetables like something green, tomatoes, and some other thing that tasted a bit sour that im thiking was another vegetable. It also had a lemon-garlic sauce too. I gotta say, I kinda could not se how this was one of the 101 best sandwiches in New York. I thought that the sour vegetable was really powerful and kinda turning me off from the sandwich. I also thought that the lemon- garlic sauce was too overpowering. I didn't really think there was a balance of flavors. Sorry, Karam. I just straight up did not really like this sandwich.