The Sweet side of New York City

One thing I noticed about staying in New York was the over abundance of sweet things. There were not only the huge amounts of candy and chocolate - some of what we get in Australia but with different flavours - but even the bread and burgers buns were sweet! I found that only after a few days of being in the city that I was craving a 'proper meal'. I needed meat. I needed vegetables! I'm not sure if it was just the food we were eating, or whether New Yorkers or Americans in general are used to the high sugar content? I will say that I was more than happy to browse through the big stores with all those sweet things as it was such a novelty for me.

I found out about Dylan's Candy Bar not long before we left for our holiday and knew I had to get us there somehow! I'm so glad we did, imagine - a 3 level store filled with candy, chocolate and sweet things with staff who are lovely and excited about their jobs. This is where we first tried one of the best tasting things in the world (this coming from someone who's not a sweet tooth!) - Candy Corn M&Ms!

I'd been wanting to go to FAO Schwarz ever since I saw Tom Hanks in the piano scene in Big. While I knew about the floors and floors filled with toys, I had no idea that they had such a big sweet section on their bottom floor. There seemed to be so many tubs filled with weird and wonderful candy and chocolates, or lots of giant versions or giant bag fulls of sweets. 

These are just a couple of the different sorts of chocolate bars I found. We do have Milky Ways and Twix in Australia, but definitely not caramel and peanut butter flavoured ones!

A new addiction! Candy Corn M&Ms! When the girl in Dylan's Candy Bar offered us a sample of these we were a little uncertain, but she was so excited for us to try them we gave them a shot. And...they were amazing! We both immediately bought some and a couple of bags ended up in my luggage to bring home. Hmm, I wish they had these in Australia!

How could we pass up Ben & Jerry's. While this is now sold in Australia we definitely don't have many of the different flavours that they have in the USA. This the 'Late Night Snack' that I tried Vanilla bean ice cream with salty caramel and fudge covered potato chip clusters. I know it sounds weird, but the combination worked really well together with the sweet and salty.

I loved the time of year that we were there, summer had just ended so we still had amazing weather - all beautiful sunny days, but we got to enjoy some of the benefits of Autumn (fall). The shops were full of pumpkins, Halloween decorations and candy were starting to come out in stores and Starbucks had their pumpkin spice lattes in. While I enjoyed the mixture of the pumpkin and spices (and coffee!!) I found it was a little too sweet for me. 

Magnolia Cupcake Bakery

I'm sure by now that most (if not all) of you have heard of Magnolia Bakery and about the amazing cupcakes and desserts that they make. There's probably not much I can say that hasn't been said before, but that the reputation is well deserved. I heard about Magnolia Bakery years ago and so when I decided to go to New York it was quickly added to my list of places to go. I had wanted to visit their famous Bleecker St store, but my friend and I were wandering past the store near Rockefeller Centre and decided we just had to go in.

Here are my two purchases - a red velvet cupcake and a vanilla whoopie pie with maple cream cheese frosting.

Rhe red velvet cupcake was great, very fresh and moist but I thought the frosting was a little too sweet. I prefer a cream cheese frosting on my red velvet cupcakes. I do love the way they swirl the frosting on top of the cupcakes, I'd love to learn how to do this.

My favourite would have to have been the whoopie pie though, very sweet thanks to the maple flavour but so so good.

It was nice to be able to finally taste a truly American whoopie pie. I've made some myself in the past but they didn't turn out like this and I didn't have anything to compare them to. It's made out of two very soft biscuits, sandwiched together with lots of frosting.

Magnolia Cupcake Bakery

Rockefeller Center

1240 Avenue of the Americas at 49th Street
New York
Tel.: 212.767.1123
Store Hours:
Monday-Thursday: 7am-10pm / Friday: 7am-12am / Saturday: 8am-12am / Sunday: 8am-10pm

Lunch at Cafeteria, New York

And so getting back to my goal to create a blog post for my overseas adventures. I know the time between each post and my trip is getting further and further away but I'm determined to get through each place. This is going to be a quick post on a great little cafe/restaurant called Cafeteria. I don't know why exactly I wanted to go there - I had it in the back of my mind as somewhere I needed to go and knew that I'd heard about it from a tv series, maybe Sex and the City? And it was definitely worth the visit, especially for that fantastic bathroom (which I unfortunately didn't get photos of). You can visit their website and see their menu here.

[photo from Cafeteria website]



As you can see, the inside of the restaurant is very simple but very chic. I love the comfortable couch like seats and all the white. As soon as we were seated my friend and I ordered an iced latte. We were spoiled with beautiful warm weather while we were in New York so there were lots of those consumed! The iced latte was very different from the iced coffees we get here in Australia and not exactly to my tastes. It was like they'd used perculater coffee and then added milk, rather than espresso coffee and milk. We realised on the many occassions that we ordered coffees that we really are spoiled with our coffee here in Melbourne. Ordering a coffee anything like what we have here tended to take a while - Can I please have a tall double shot latte with skim milk? Yes hot. lol

[Iced Latte]

I had a list of foods that I really wanted to try in New York, and Macaroni & Cheese was one of them. When I saw it was on the menu here (not surprising as Cafeteria serves a lot of comfort food) I had to order it. They had a few different types that I was struggling to choose between, but there was also an option on the menu that I chose to go with called Mac Attack Tasting of 3. The three flavours that I went with were Chedder & Fontina cheese which was quite simple but yummy, Smoked Gouda and Bacon which was my favourite, it was very rich and finally Buffalo Chicken and Blue Cheese which had a nice level of spiceyness to it.

[Mac Attack Tasting of 3 $14]

 And.....close up!

Cafeteria

119 7th Ave

New York, NY

10010

http://www.cafeteriagroup.com

Ph. 212 414 1717

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Shake Shack, New York

I know I promised a series of posts about the restaurants and food places that I visited while I was overseas and so far it's only been one post.....which isn't exactly what you'd call a series. So here's post #2 - The Shake Shack!

This was another of my favourite eateries in New York. I love eating outside and this place (in Madison Square Park) had a really great, relaxed vibe. I could have just sat there for hours, taking in the views of the Empire State Building, watching the cute squirrels and enjoying the delicious food. I ended up dragging my friend S back there for another lunch, but I wish I could have gone more often! That whole two weeks was a case of too many places to eat at and too little time.

This is the double ShackBurger - so good that I'd have to say it was one of the best burgers I've ever had. That burger meat was so soft and juicy. Also in the middle there is, of course, the fries which as you can see are crinkle cut and so so good. And for the drink I chose a peanut butter shake - very strange, very yummy but also very rich. 

And of course because close ups are vital! 

Hmm look at those chips. Drool!

This was our view of the Empire State Building from where we were sitting. It was incredible watching it change colours as the sun set. That tree in front had a little squirrel that spent literally hours sitting up there (I imagine) defending it's stash from other squirrel 'invaders'. Very entertaining. 

The Shake Shack

Southeast corner of Madison Square Park

near Madison Ave & E 23rd St

New York, NY

Opening Hours:

Daily, 11am-11pm

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Balthazar, New York

When I told my hairdressers that I was planning a holiday to New York, the first thing both of them told me was that I had to go to Balthazar, at least once, while I was there. Over the year or so of planning and booking, whenever I'd go back for my hair appointments they always told me the same thing - go to Balthazar! Once in New York though, I just didn't get the opportunity to go there - I knew that if I was going to go there that I'd want to spoil myself, and that my friend I was travelling with probably wouldn't have been as interested in that as I was. By the second week I'd started thinking that I wouldn't get there, but....maybe next time.

On the second last day in New York my opportunity came - I had some shopping to do and my friend had some things to do as well so after exploring the shops for a few hours I was ready for a late lunch and headed over to Balthazar to see what all the fuss was about.

And I'm so glad that I went. I wish that I'd gone earlier in my stay so that I could have gone back. I had such a great experience there - you know when you're having such a great time, when everything just works and you get that happy buzz...... sitting in Balthazar I got that buzz. I was just so....happy, that I didn't know what to do with myself :)

Here's my table for one :) I did get seated next to another girl from Sydney who was on her own too, so we were able to chat and I got some great coffee place recommendations.

I can't remember the name of this cocktail that I had, and I can't seem to find their cocktail menu on the Balthazar website, but it was delicious. It made the lunch that little bit more special.

 

Yes, this meal deserves two pictures. It's the Balthazar Bar Steak with pommes frites and bearnaise sauce ($28) - a simple but fantastic meal. The steak had a smokey flavour to it and the bearnaise sauce was creamy but not too heavy.

Dessert was a must, although it was difficult to choose from what was on the menu. I decided to go with a classic - the Creme Brulee ($9.00) which was lovely, and followed that up with a Cafe au Lait ($4.75). The coffee actually wasn't too bad, which is saying something - it's hard to find a really good coffee in New York!

 The finishing touch for me was when the waiter approached me during my meal and announced that it was the restaurant's policy that any ladies dining alone should have a complimentary champagne. What a nice way to make a girl lady feel special!

 

 

Have you ever had an amazing experience in a restaurant like this? I'd love to hear your stories and experiences!

 

Balthazar Restaurant

80 Spring St

New York City, NY

10012

(Between Broadway and Crosby)

Reservations: +1 (212) 965-1414

 

                           
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