Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream, Ices – The Treats of Summer
The frozen dessert landscape has changed remarkably in recent years. While I am happy to welcome many creative new additions to the marketplace, I also enjoy the time tested traditional ice cream and other frozen treats like lemon ice. Here is my guide to frozen treats.
Frozen Yogurt
Over the last three years we have seen the proliferation of expensive “premium” frozen yogurt in NYC… it started with Pinkberry, then came Red Mango. Even though Pinkberry arrived to NYC first, it is well documented that Red Mango started before Pinkberry.
From there, copy cat after copy cat. The funniest one I noticed a couple of years ago was Red Cherry, which has since gone out of business. Red Cherry doesn’t make sense. Red Mango works because mangoes are not red. Pink Berry, the same thing, there is a chance that a pinkberry exists, but you are more likely to come across a blueberry or a blackberry. There are plenty of red cherries…
Another relatively prominent expensive yogurt place is BerryWild.
Maybe some of you will disagree, but for me there’s very little difference between the three… I feel the yogurt all tastes relatively the same. All charge about the same and have similar topping offerings.
The Pinkberries of the world have almost totally displaced an old NYC favorite, TastiDelight. I never really enjoyed Tasti-D. While we used to order Tasti-D, the premium price for a styrofoam cup of this stuff always bothered me more than paying a premium Pinkberry or Red Mango that at least come with fresh fruit toppings.
Another frozen yogurt category is “weigh and pay.” We have these places that bank on the human instinct to not be able to control themselves. There’s 16 Handles and Phileo Yogurt (by way of Philadelphia, could you tell?), which my friend calls “yogurt land.” Both offer lots of machines featuring tart and not tart flavors. They let visitors take what they want, top it with healthy toppings or candy, weigh it, pay (enough to buy gallons of yogurt from the grocery store), then enjoy.
Recently I went to Jersey and visited Bischoff’s. Since 1934, Bischoff’s has been serving up ice cream sundaes in the same way. My family has been going to Bischoff’s for three generations. My dad, who grew up in Teaneck, used to take dates there in High School.
While I enjoy fro yo as a grab and go treat in the city or the mall, it is nice to sit down and have real ice cream. We asked and they don’t even have frozen yogurt at Bischoff’s! Take a look at these two sundaes that cost a total of $16! There were four of us and we couldn’t finish either one of them.
A City Ice Cream Favorite – Mister Softee
Summer is here and you know what that means….we will see Mister Softee on every other block in the city. According to the Mister Softee website, Mister Softee is the largest franchiser of soft ice cream trucks in the United States. Mister Softee is light soft serve ice cream – creamy with lots of air. Lots of creative ways to enjoy, including the double cone. Don’t forget to dip your cone in chocolate, strawberry, etc. Check out some Mister and Ms. Softee Profiles on Midtown Lunch.
On the topic of Mister Softee, please keep in mind that not all Mister Softee trucks are created equally. If you are in the mood for Mister Softee, please look at the truck carefully. If it doesn’t specifically say Mister Softee, it isn’t (meaning, they buy cheaper, less enjoyable product and try and sell it for the same price). Check out this 2008 article on Mister Softee Knockoffs.
Real Mister Softee
Clearly not Mister Softee!
If I find some better examples of fake Mister Softee trucks, I will update. There are plenty out there, believe me.
Lemon Ice (and other flavors)
There is only one King and he’s from Queens.
I have been enjoying the Lemon Ice King of Corona my entire life but the establishment has been around for twice as long as me (over 60 years). Read my full review.
La NewYorkina Modern Mexican Ice Pops
It was a hot day, I was thirsty and in the mood for something sweet. I had enough Mister softee and fancy frozen yogurt for the week. I walked into the Hester Street Fair, and the answer was looking at me. La NewYorkina “modern mexican ice pops.” Such a simple and refreshing idea.
I asked what the most popular flavor was, and Fanny, one of the propieters, served me Mango con Chile (Spicy Mango). The $4 pop was filled with large mango chunks. The chili made for an occasional bursts of spice. If the pop isn’t spicy enough for your taste, Fany offers seasoning to sprinkle (like you would pepper flakes on a pizza).
Other flavors include:
- Fresa-Strawberry
- Tamarindo Fresco- Fresh Tamarind
- Horchata- Cinnamon Rice Milk
- Jamaica- Hibiscus
- Pina con Menta- Pineapple Mint
- Nuez- Pecan
Fanny explained that she makes the pops after hours in a local wholesale bakery after 7pm during the week. It is a simple process from the cutting of the fruit, to the freezing. literally what you see is what you get. Check out these Facebook pics of the process.
At this point, they are getting ready for the Hester Street Fair each week. I see no reason why this concept can’t go bigger with a food truck or even a well positioned storefront.
Find La Newyorkina at the Hester Street Fair, every Saturday and Sunday,
10am to 6pm.
In Summary…
There is a right place and a right time for frozen treats and we certainly have a lot of options in the NYC Metro area… Enjoy! Please comment below on any of your favorites that I missed.
New York City Street Fair Food Guide
It’s that time of the year. Last weekend as I walked my way through NYC, I stumbled across three New York City street fairs.
This guide will go through NYC street fair food options. I will divide street fair food into three categories.
- Food I look forward to eating at each fair
- Food I never consider eating because I am scared of unintended consequences (i.e indigestion, a lost tooth)
- Pleasant surprises
Hopefully this guide will help locals and tourists alike to navigate NYC street fair food options.
Food I look forward to eating at each fair
I will pick up some pickles if, for some reason, I have no pickles in my fridge.
Kettle corn: I most likely won’t buy this, I have plenty of equally enjoyable Orville Redenbacher at home, but I will try a free sample.
Sticking with corn, how can you go wrong with fresh corn? I like how most use the grill to char the corn.
Another corn product is the sweet corn arepa. How can you go wrong with melted mozzarella and sweet corn?
Food I never consider eating because I am scared of unintended consequences
This may be controversial but I never want a candy apple during the summer. Candy Apples are a Fall food for me. I am also afraid that I will lose a tooth when I bite into the hard shell.
Dirty hands making falafel balls and frying in oil on a dirty street, no thanks. The same applies to Zeppoles. I will sometimes try a spinach pie though.
Fear of indigestion, continued…
No desire to have one of those smoothies. How could they possibly wash all that fruit with no running water? They also use the same dirty blenders all day! If you do happen to be by a fair when it’s closing they may sell bananas and other unused fruit for next to nothing. That I will go for!
I may have a crepe or two in Paris, but not on a NYC street…
Pleasant surprises
I would try a lobster roll at lunch time!
As the summer goes by, I will add some pictures of some of the pleasant surprise food options that I come across.
Street Fair Calendars:
Shaburi
** Update 7/25 /2010 – Shaburi has closed***
I had the pleasure of dining at Shaburi two times in three nights. I very rarely go back to a New York City restaurant so quickly, but I was especially impressed with attentive service and gourmet cuisine at reasonable prices (based on how you order, more on that later). This restaurant, which is highly rated by Zagat and Michelin, has a noticeable awning, but often is overlooked on this quiet part of East 39th Street.
I ordered Shabu Shabu both times. Shabu Shabu is thin slices of meat and vegetables cooked on the table in a simmering pot of broth. I opted for Kobe Beef ($28) with the spicy miso broth ($2) the first time and Berkshire Pork ($ 16) with Tom Yom broth ($2) the second time. I will describe my first time…
The waiter quickly turned on the built in burner on the table.
Next, the spicy miso broth arrived.
Within minutes, the broth was at a simmering boil.
At this point, it was time to add the vegetables. Because I was a “first timer,” the waiter did this for me and explained that adding the vegetables first was necessary to add flavor. The vegetable assortment was a “work of art” including corn, several varieties of mushroom (shiitaki, enoki, and oyster) watercress, tomato, cabbage, tofu, scallions, and my favorite, pumpkin.
A few minutes later, the shabu shabu was back to a rapid boil.
It was time to dip the thinly sliced pieces of Kobe beef into the broth. The waiter demonstrated how it only took about 5 seconds to cook the meat. When cooked to your specifications, remove the meat, dip in either sesame sauce or ponzi sauce, and enjoy. The meal also came with sushi grade rice, which helped to tone down some of the spiciness of the broth.
Next, scoop out the veggies with one of the special spoons and enjoy from the soup bowl provided. The soup bowl also has handles to allow you to sip instead of spoon!
Shaburi shabu shabu was perfectly executed in every way. It was also a hearty portion – piping hot and perfectly seasoned. The broth was “harmonious” when all the previously described ingredients mixed together.
hough I enjoyed the Kobe, I found the Berkshire pork to be as enjoyable for a much lower price.
Rating:
Food – 8/10
Ambiance – 7/10
Service – 8/10
Category:
Food Type – Japanese
Style – Casual
Price – Expensive
Address/ phone: 125 E 39th St (Btwn Lexington & Park Ave), 212-867-6999
menu: menupages.com/restaurants/shaburi/menu
Second Avenue Deli
Second Avenue Deli is the best Kosher Deli in NYC. Love the Matzo ball soup and the other soups including split pea and beef barley. Love the corned beef and tongue. The “free” health salad, pickles, and sour tomatoes as starters and the shot of egg cream at the end is a nice touch.
My wife and I came up with a way to save when we dine at 2nd ave. Order one soup and share and one sandwich with a few extra slices of bread. With the pickles and health salad, it should be more than enough for two. if you are still hungry, order a Knish or grab a slice at Pizza 33 across the street.
The service is abrupt but efficient. I always like the “old school” waitresses.
Don’t forget Dr. Brown’s sodas.
I think they would have been better off investing in a larger place when they moved up to 33 & 3.
Rating:
Food – 9/10
Ambiance – 7/10
Service – 7/10
Category:
Food Type – Kosher
Style – Casual
Price – Moderate
Wanna go?
Address/phone – 162 E 33rd St, 212-689-9000
website- 2ndavedeli.com
menus – 2ndavedeli.com/2ndAveDeliMenu.pdf
Sinigual New York
I recall walking by Sinigual as they were building it and thinking the entrance is not very inviting. I am not a follower of Feng Shui but something about this place on 42 street didn’t seem very inviting. Several months later, my wife and I were in the neighborhood around lunch time and decided to give it a try. They obviously put a lot of money into Sinigual. Unfortunately, is very little that differentiates Sinigual from every other overpriced Mexican place in NYC, except for the fact that they started the meal with fresh tortillas instead of chips. I liked the tortillas but wasn’t sure what to do with the salsa and butter on the table. My wife had chicken fajitas, which were good enough. A highlight was the little scoop corn mash that i used to love to get at Chevy’s as a kid (it was no better than Chevy’s). I had the fish tacos. The piece of fish inside was very small and all I remember from the meal was the mayo that overpowered. I asked for hot sauce to overpower the mayo. All in all, stick with Mercadito for Mexican in NYC.
Rating:
Food – 7/10
Ambiance – 7/10
Service – 7/10
Category:
Food Type – Mexican
Style – Casual
Price – Moderate
Wanna go?
Address/phone – 150 E 42nd St (At 41st & 3rd Ave), 212- 286-0250
website- sinigualrestaurants.com
menus – menupages.com/restaurants/sinigual
OpenTable – opentable.com/sinigual-new-york
E-MO Kimbab
If I worked near E-Mo, I would eat kimbab (Korean sushi rolls) every day.
They keep it simple at E-Mo. For $6 you get a robust roll filled with Korean vegetables, pickles, and rice and an ingredient like beef, jalapeno, mushrooms, kimchee, squid, tuna, and spicy tuna. The roll comes with miso soup. It is always made to order, tastes really fresh, is healthy, filling and really satisfying to eat.
Rating:
Food – 9/10
Ambiance – 7/10
Service – 8/10
Category:
Food Type – Korean
Style – Casual
Price – Reasonable
Wanna go?
Address:
2 W 32nd St (between 5th Ave & Broadway)
99 Cent Fresh Pizza
For those who are curious, the 5th location of 99 Cent Fresh Pizza opened up in Murray Hill at 201 E 34th Between 2nd and 3rd. I recently had a chance to try their pizza, which rivals Celeste and Ellio’s. The place is totally not worth a review, but I did notice one thing that is worth mentioning. For $2.75, they offer a special that includes “battle” water and 2 slices of their crappy pizza…. It might be worth buying the pizza and throwing it out if the “battle water” will give you an edge in you next fight.
Vic’s Bagel Bar
Judging from the Sunday morning crowd that wrapped throughout the store, Vic’s is a welcome addition to Murray Hill. Why, you may wonder, is this bagel shop different from any other bagel shop? The answer is bold innovation, creativity, efficient service, fresh high quality ingredients, and most importantly THE BAGEL.
What’s the bold innovation? A customized cream cheese/bagel topping bar. All cream cheese is made to order with those high quality ingredients I mentioned.
They have everything you’d expect, and then a few unexpected ones like Chocolate Chips, Sprinkles, Potato Chips, Kosher Bacon Bits, Pesto, Wasabi, BBQ Sauce, Zaatar, and Maple Syrup. They are smartly capitalizing on the very popular overpriced NYC yogurt /salad bar trend.
I had the “Tokyo Tel Aviv Express” with lox, wasabi, pinch of scallion and edamame on an everything bagel. My everything bagel was soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. It was much better than I expected. They included the perfect amount of ingredients– I usually tell other bagel shops to go light on the cream cheese but this bold mix of ingredients was easier to eat than a “glob” of cream cheese. The wasabi added nice flavor, but was not overpowering as it could have been.
The coffee was also good. Vic herself said it was somewhere between Dunkin and Starbucks and she was right.
Though I like Daniel’s bagels across the street, when I walked by with my bagel from Vic’s the crowd was nowhere near Vic’s. Time will tell what kind of impact Vic’s has on Daniel’s.
This may be a bold prediction in the young life of Vic’s Bagel Bar, but I see this concept as being a perfect franchise in cities beyond nyc. As Bravo says “Watch what happens!”
Rating:
Food – 8/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service – 8/10
Category:
Food Type – Bagels
Style – Casual
Price – Reasonable
Wanna go?
Address/phone –
544 3rd Ave At 36th St – 212-213-3900
menu- menupages.com/restaurants/vics-bagel-bar
website- vicsbagelbar.com
Nana
There’s no room for Nana in Murray Hill. Always excited for a new place, but my dining experience tonight was all I needed to know that the Nana doesn’t have what it takes to make it beyond a year. Nana is undifferentiated and no better than any of the other generic sushi places in the neighborhood including Hana, Iron Sushi, Tony’s, Akane, etc. For the record, the only good sushi place in Murray Hill is Mishima. Back to Nana… they only had one server for the place. He didn’t know the difference between shumai and vegetable dumplings. My Chirashi was fresh but it took too long to arrive. The pieces of fish were too big and lacked the flavors you will remember from a higher quality place.
To top it off, they are attempting to fool Yelpers with a review and professional photos from the owner, or someone related… Check it out and let me know if I am right or wrong? http://www.yelp.com/biz/nana-sushi-manhattan. I suspect bigmouth s. as being somehow paid by the ill nana.
Rating:
Food – 5/10
Ambiance – 6/10
Service – 5/10
Category:
Food Type – Japanese
Style – Trendy
Price – Reasonable
Wanna go?
Address – 511 3rd ave, Manhattan, NY 10016 (At 34th St)
website- http://www.nanasushi.com
Zengo
Zengo loosely means “give and take.” The idea is to come with a big group of people, order several plates, pass the dishes around and enjoy. I plan to give and take a lot because it is so close to home and on their fourth day in business they impressed me as really “buttoned up” with excellent service, high quality, tasty food, and a really creative and well planned space to explore.
Before even entering the space, I was impressed by the thoughtful decor including wrought iron screens and wood beams to make the large and previously imposing space a little less imposing.
Sensing my curiosity, the bartender, Allison, arranged for the manager to take me and another interested diner a tour after our meal. I am looking forward to experiencing La Biblioteca downstairs with wall to wall shelves of over 400 types of tequila. It will open when they receive their liquor license. They say it is will have the largest selection of Tequila in North America. I was also impressed that they are sending the “tequila sommelier” to and from Mexico to learn about the product first hand (I need to get a job like that). It also is cool that you can buy tequila, get a “library card” and then go back and enjoy the bottle for up to 6 months from your locker. In contrast to the “chill” downstairs, the upstairs Sake and Sochu Longue was more of a VIP vibe. I plan to go back to try both.
I should probably get into the food… I sat at the bar and enjoyed three entrees. Of the three, the “give” would be the Wakame-Hijiki Seaweed Salad cucumber, carrot, daikon, apple, ginger vinaigrette. Though fresh, in my opinion it needed a kick of flavor. The “takes,” more than compensated for the lackluster salad. The Halibut Ceviche aji amarillo, red onion, cucumber, apple, tomato, cilantro was as fresh and flavorful as can be. It was sweet, light and tangy. I enjoyed the plantain chips that accompanied. Even better were the Charred Tuna Wonton Tacos with sushi rice, mango salsa, guacamole. This is a prime example of how to effectively mix Asian and Latin fare. The sushi grade tuna was impeccable, the wanton taco shell was crispy and the sushi rice was the hidden treasure.
The bill crept up there, but this is midtown, and I was more than happy to pay for the impressive and thoughtful surroundings, quality ingredients, and attentive service. This place will be lots of fun for those benefiting from the expense accounts from the many neighborhood businesses when the economy picks up!
Rating:
Food – 8/10
Ambiance – 10/10
Service – 9/10
Category:
Food Type – Latin/Asian
Style – Nightclub
Price – Expensive
Wanna go?
Address/phone –622 Third Ave at 40th St, New York, NY 10017, 212-808-8110
website- http://www.modernmexican.com/zengony/index.htm
menus – http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/zengo
reservations – http://www.opentable.com/zengo