Stand {New York, NY}

After dinner at Num Pang, despite being grossly full, we needed to end our night with something sweet. And what better than the famous Stand4 toasted marshmallow milkshake?! It was literally right across the street so we had to get it - I mean, it was staring us in the face!

We heard about Stand4's famous milkshake through The Best Thing I Ever Ate, which you know, of course, is one of my favorite shows. After watching Michael Psilakis drink two in one sitting, I was sold. 

All in all, this is THE best milkshake I've ever had in my entire life. To me, a perfect milkshake is the combination of great texture and great flavor. This milkshake isn't too thick where you can't suck it up the straw but is thick enough to feel rich and creamy - which is due to their use of premium gelato rather than ice cream. 

Also, toasted marshmallow? Umm, yeah, best flavor ever!! It was sooo delicious. But what I loved even more about this shake was that it was perfectly balanced, not overly sweet so you didn't feel sick after drinking it. We also tried the apple pie shake, which was delicious as well, but the toasted marshmallow will always have the #1 spot in my heart. 

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Num Pang {New York, NY}

Num Pang, I love you.

Quite simply.

Num Pang was my FAVORITE meal of my trip to New York. It's so me! Asian based with some nice fusion ideas mixed in. The sandwiches were all delicious, and I really mean all of them. After finishing our meal, we were stuffed, but it was so good that we contemplated trying more of the menu. We didn't - but we definitely will on our next visit!

It's funny because we all got a sandwich and sneaked bites of each others' but we each liked our own the most! My favorite part about the sandwiches though, was the bread. It was so perfectly chewy and delicious - one of the best I've had.

Five spiced pork belly with pickled rhubarb: utterly tender pork with my favorite pickled carrots. Sooo delicious.

Roasted cauliflower with Chinese & Thai eggplant spread: this one had a nice kick with a spicy sauce and was my ultimate favorite. I've never had a cauliflower sandwich before, and I can say now, I will have plenty more.

Peppercorn catfish with house made sweet soy sauce: with a delicious creamy sauce and tender fish, this sandwich was perfect. 

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Sigmund Pretzels {New York, NY}

I've always dreamed of the days of getting my hands on a real, authentic, New York pretzel. Finally, my time has come...

I was wandering around Madison Square Park looking for the Kelvin Natural Slush Truck, which was no where to be found, when I stumbled upon the open market - a serendipitous surprise! So when I saw Sigmund Pretzels, I knew this was my opportunity to get my NY pretzel.

I got the salt pretzel, which was just as a pretzel should be: chewy, with a nice crust. It was delicious but I don't think that much different than pretzels here in California. The mustard was a surprise though, more similar to a Chinese version and had a nice kick, which I enjoyed.

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Sullivan St. Bakery {New York, NY}

Let me just start by saying, I love you Sullivan St. Bakery.

Bread is one of my big time loves and Jim Lahey at Sullivan St. Bakery has perfected it. We headed to the bakery for lunch but came a bit early for the sandwiches so we decided to snack on a few of the breads and pizzas, near the end, we practically ended up eating the whole menu because we could not stop eating! We even bought more to bring home - at the risk of smelling like garlic on the long subway ride home.

We also got to meet the baker, Jim Lahey, who was incredibly nice, warm and funny to boot! Please give this quaint little bakery a visit - you won't regret it.

Savory brioche with proscuitto and gruyere - how could it not be delicious?

Cauliflower pizza: best invention ever. Cauliflower on a pizza? Who knew? Anyways, really, best invention ever.

Mushroom Pizza with thyme. If you love mushrooms, you will definitely love this pizza. Thin crust, topped with oodles of mushrooms - delicious.

On to the sandwiches: mozzarella and prosciutto. Simplicity at its best. This sandwich really let the simple ingredients shine - especially the bread. Oh gosh - best sandwich bread I've ever had - crispy but perfectly chewy on the inside.

Roasted beets, arugula, goat cheese, olive oil. Honestly, the things that Jim Lahey does with such simple ingredients is amazing. He uses the best of everything so it just tastes so fantastic!!!

Bresola, heirloom tomatoes, arugula, olive oil, olive puree. The heirloom tomatoes in this were sublime! They had this salty, sweet flavor that was delicious.

Sullivan St. Bakery, I'll say it again, I'll say it forever: I love you.

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The Doughnut Plant {New York, NY}

The Doughnut Plant was probably the one place I wanted to try the most because I simply love doughnuts. Unfortunately, my anticipation got the best of me. I just wasn't impressed by these doughnuts at all! Though the flavors were innovative and I loved the concept, the taste and texture just didn't deliver.

The flavors I got were:

1. Jam-filled with vanilla glaze

2. Tres leches with creme filling

3. Pumpkin pie with candied pepitas

The tres leches was probably the best out of the three because it was cake rather than yeasted. For some reason, their yeasted doughnuts had this weird, chewy (but not in a good way) texture. I liked the creme in the tres leches, but again, it didn't WOW me. The pumpkin pie donut had great pumpkin flavor but I couldn't get past the weird texture.

Maybe I didn't enjoy these doughnuts because I've been spoiled to the likes of Bob's & The Donut Man.

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Kee's Chocolate's {New York, NY}

Another "Best Thing I Ever Ate" find!

Kee's is famous for their Creme Brulee truffles but unfortunately, they were out of them by the time I made my way to the store :( Instead I purchased some other items: green tea-mango truffle, passionfruit truffle, soursop macaron, rosewater-lychee macaron and passionfruit macaron.

I was so excited to try the macarons because of their innovative flavors - especially the soursop! Sadly, I was really dissapointed, the macarons were not good. The shell seemed stale, was empty and was not chewy like it should be on the inside. Thankfully, the truffles were awesome! I think Kee's should just stick to her chocolate.

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Chinatown Ice Cream Factory {New York, NY}

Ice cream - universally loved by all! Asian flavors + ice cream = my dream world. I just love Asian flavors in typically non-Asian things. 

My favorite part about this place was that under the "exotic flavors" they listed what most would consider the normal flavors such as butter pecan and under "regular flavors" they listed the Asian flavors, which most people would consider not normal.

The flavors we tried were the mango-papaya sorbet, lychee ice cream and adzuki ice cream. The flavors were all spot on. The lychee flavor really shined through and had actual chunks, which was awesome! The mango-papaya sorbet was soooo perfect. The adzuki had a really delicate red bean flavor which was nice on a cool day.

Overall, we all really enjoyed the flavors but all agreed that Chinatown Ice Cream factory could stand to improve on their textures. The ice cream was not as smooth as we like and had a bit of iciness.

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Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles {New York, NY}

Again... another Best Thing I Ever Ate find. Shameless, I tell you, shameless!

I just love that photo of the chef literally hand-pulling these noodles because it just makes the noodles that much more satisfying! The noodles themselves were perfect. You can get them thin or wide or super wide, but I just chose the standard thin size. The chewiness was specular and you could really taste the love put into them.

Overall, the soup was lacking a bit in flavor for me. It wasn't the perfect bowl of soup I imagined it would be, but I think its delicate flavor would be perfect in the winter when stuck at home with a cold. Still, a meal thoroughly enjoyed.

Mmm noodles.

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La Bella Ferrara {New York, NY}

Ah, mistakes. They have to happen sometimes huh? On my list of things to visit on this splendid day in Chinatown and Little Italy, was Ferrara Bakery, famous for their cannolis and Italian baked goods. Walking through the city, we happened upon what we thought was Ferrara, but just another location. Turns out it was actually 'La Bella Ferrara' and completely unrelated to the Ferrara we were looking for.

As a morning treat, I decided upon a chocolate cannoli and a hot coffee to help get me through the long day. Sadly, the only thing I enjoyed was the hot coffee, but that's probably because I was so tired. I've never tried cannolis before, so I don't know if I just don't like cannolis or if this one was just not a good one. 

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Russ & Daughters {New York, NY}

Haha, I laugh over how obsessed my sister and I are with The Best Thing I Ever Ate. We just had to, HAD TO, visit as many of the show's spotlights as we could... even if it meant eating five meals a day, which if our stomachs couldn't handle, were made to handle.  

I love, love, love smoked salmon. It's briny, salty, and delicious. I also love, love, love bagels and it's perfect that they go so well together! Did I mention that I once worked at a bagel shop? Well, I did, and when I worked there I inhaled just about 3 bagels a day. I also gained 3 pounds a day... haha.

The spread of fresh cream cheese and lox was more than I could bare. It was all so gorgeous. We decided finally on an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese and an onion bagel with lox, cream cheese, red onion and capers.


The Gaspe Nova (the lox we chose) was so utterly unctuous. Quite possibly, the most buttery lox I've ever had - so delicious. The bagels were nice and chewy but my favorite was the everything because of the salty kick it had and all of the delicious flavor. Mmm I love bagels and lox - I should have been born Jewish.

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