Manna Cafe

After Nan Xiang, I kept mumbling “I want tong yuan I want tong yuan I want tong yuan.”  This loosely translates to “I want sugar balls I want sugar balls I want sugar balls” or more accurately, in my case, I wanted mochi (rice flour dumplings) filled with black sesame paste.  It’s a treat I had occasionally while growing up – some of us were lucky enough to have parents who made them from scratch, but I’m pretty sure my mom just bought the frozen kind.  In any case, DLS was game, and Noah joined us to wander around to [...]

Donatella

A few weeks ago, Beer Boor and I had plans to have tea at Three Tarts.  Unfortunately, due to some odd circumstances, we found ourselves in the area without tea, so I suggested visiting Donatella, where I’d been last December and really enjoyed, telling him that we had to go as I know he enjoys this style of pizza.  Of course, life happened, and we never found ourselves there… until now!  I was pleased that when I said “I think it’s near here” it turned out to be literally an avenue away.  I’m usually terrible at telling where I am [...]

The Soft Serve Fruit Co.

New York City, Manhattan especially, sports hundreds of boring, and in some cases terrible frozen yogurt and no-fat dairylike concoction places. What if there were a similar concept, but a completely different taste and texture, to choose instead? Recently Yvo and I represented The Feisty Foodie on the Upper East Side at The Soft Serve Fruit Co., (probably) New York’s first soft-serve fresh fruit location. It’s laid out like virtually every frozen yogurt place, but of course with a huge difference: it’s all fruit puree, organic cane sugar, and a bit of water. As such, it’s fairly low in calories, [...]

Top Ten Pastry Chefs in America 2011

Recently ICE hosted Dessert Professional’s annual awards ceremony, honoring the ten best pastry chefs in America. The Blind Baker covered this event in three parts last year, so yep, as Yvo’s not a huge fan of sweets and had another event to attend, she could only stop by for a short time, so I picked up the slack and made the huge sacrifice to eat my way through their confections. With some time before the ten winners were introduced, we were able to wander through the kitchens as the chefs and their teams set up for the onslaught. Here, Yoni [...]

Convivio (Closed)

Oh, Convivio.  As I mentioned previously, after Matsugen and Lily O’Brien’s, I headed over to Convivio to meet up with the ladies of FBM for dinner.  We’d made plans to have dinner there during February so we could eat the old menu with the new chefs after the ‘divorce’ – yes, Michael White and Chris Cannon split their restaurant partnership, and unfortunately, Convivio, my favorite of the group that I’d visited thusfar, wound up with Chris Cannon, who’d hired new chefs.  Rumor was that the old menu would remain until post-February, when a new menu would be introduced, showcasing the new chef’s [...]

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