Posto

Yes, I know I haven't posted in a while (thanks to all of you who so kindly reminded me), but I was sucked into the Olympics coverage. I'm trying a new indian restaurant tonight with the family, so I'll report back on that, but for now I thought I'd pass along info on one of our favorite places.

Pizza is one of those foods there is an abundance of in NYC. (If you're looking for value--and want to be shocked by the largest slice you've ever seen-- be sure to try Koronet Pizza at 110th & Broadway.) One of my favorite pizza places does super thin crust pizza, and it's one of those cozy hole-in-the-wall places that can only seat about 30 people at a time. My friend Mike introduced me to it a few years ago, and Mike knows his pizza. His diet consists of plain chicken (no sauce or flavor of any kind--just salt and pepper), some carrots, and any kind of pizza. Living in Manhattan, he found himself eating the latter quite often. Therefore, when he told me he'd found the best pizza in town, I believed him. So, one chilly winter evening after work, he introduced Ash and I to Posto.



Posto is on the corner of 18th St. and 2nd Avenue, and it is perhaps the thinnest crust pizza I've ever had. That being said, it stays crispy, and you can eat a LOT more than you think you can. They also have great garlic bread, but it has chunks of fresh garlic, so if you are trying to make a good impression on a first date, steer away. The ambiance is nice--it has a tavern feel-- slightly dark, wooden tables, and mini booths that seat 2 comfortably, 4 with a squeeze. However, if you go later than 7:00 on a Friday or Saturday, expect to be waiting for a while. (There isn't much room to wait inside, so chances are you'll be waiting outdoors.)

While you're there, be sure to order the root beer-- by far the best root beer I've ever had. It's made by Saranac, and I've only found a few restaurants in the city that sell it. If you go during the summer, they have some picnic tables outside where you can usually get a seat pretty quick.

As for price, it's certainly not cheap. Dinner for Ash and I usually consists of 2 root beers, 1 large or 2 small pizzas, and an order of garlic bread, and we typically pay close to $45 after tax and tip. Considering the fact that it's pizza--it's not cheap, but we find ourselves visiting often. The quality of the food and the cozy atmosphere is just too hard to turn down.

Mike is one of my favorite people--a true friend who always knows what to say. And he knew that on a cold winter day, there's not much that makes me happier than a cozy restaurant, good company and perfectly cooked pizza. (On a personal note- congrats on the super marathon, you crazy, crazy man.)

PS- When you're done, you can walk to Sixteen Handles or Max Brenner for dessert!

16 Handles

My husband is adorable. Not only does he shrug and go along with whatever I feel like eating, he actually looks around for new places he thinks I may enjoy. So, when I received a phone call last week in the middle of the day about a new yogurt place, I knew it had to be good. He had gone and scoped it out, as he didn't want to get me excited about a place and have it end up being a disappointment. (He is usually on the receiving end of my immature tantrums--why go through the pain if you can avoid it?)

After a nice dinner at Thai Terminal with our friend Ashish, the three of us headed over to get dessert. It's on 2nd Ave. around 9th St., and it's called "16 Handles." Super cute. It's pay-by-the-ounce (46 cents/ounce), so you pick up a cup and fill it with as much or as little yogurt as you'd like. They have 16 flavors and a fairly large toppings bar, including chocolate and caramel sauce. Since it was my first time, I obviously had to fit as many flavors as possible into my cup. I tried:

Irish Mint (yum!)
Cheesecake (eh)
Chocolate (just ok)
Coffee (not bad, but an odd aftertaste)
Plain (similar to Pinkberry, but sweeter and softer in consistency--I liked it)

You cannot sample the flavors, but it's fairly easy to put a little bit into your cup and try a bunch. (Just make sure you pay before you start eating!) I believe the flavors change, as Ash tasted some flavors that were no longer available. They also had Peanut Butter, Very Berry, Mango Tango Sorbet, Banana, Strawberry Tart, Euro Tart (tangier version of the "plain")...and a few more I can't remember. The toppings bar had just about anything you could want--nuts, chocolate, candy, fresh fruit, brownie bites, coconut shavings, marshmallows, fruity pebbles (yes Priya, they have real fruity pebbles), and many others. I loved that they had chocolate and caramel sauce--many yogurt places are lacking in the sauce department. The blog post below has some pictures:

New York Magazine- 16 Handles

Overall, it was a great place! Probably second only to Forty Carrots in my mind--it's kind of fun to fill your cup with whatever you want and pay by the ounce. The yogurt may not be amazing on its own, but the whole experience makes for a good time. We paid less than $13 for the three of us, so it's probably in the same price range as other yogurt places, but you can mix and match flavors and toppings as you choose. I highly recommend it. Ash--good job honey. :-)

Who does that?

Ash and I were taking the train to Albany on Friday, so I figured I'd pick up a small sandwich at Penn Station. I went to Hot & Crusty (that name still seems odd to me), picked up half of a chicken salad sandwich, and then saw a small cup of chocolate mousse. Now, Hot & Crusty is half a bakery, so it wasn't completely out of the blue. In fact, on their website, they call themselves "New York's best known and finest bakery." (I beg to differ, but that argument is for another day.) If you've read my earlier post, you know I can't pass up chocolate mousse, so I bought it along with my sandwich, grabbed a spoon, and headed onto the train.

After eating my below-average sandwich, I was really looking forward to my dessert. I opened the container, dug my spoon in, and took my first bite.

(Pause.)

Not good. At all. Not so bad I had to spit it out, but it really tasted like whipped chocolate pudding. I quickly became disappointed, and commented to Ash that it was well below the already low expectations I had in mind.

I thought for a moment and realized that maybe my initial disappointment had clouded my judgement. Perhaps it wasn't all that bad. I dipped my spoon in for the second time, and when I pulled it back out, covered in whipped pudding, you won't believe what I saw.

Cake. Not even chocolate cake. Yellow rum-type cake. It was like someone had read my earlier post and decided to taunt me. If I wasn't on a moving train, I would have made a huge scene. Now, to put things in perspective, this mousse cup was clear. As in transparent. No where could you see any cake in the clear plastic (I always examine my mousse carefully), and so I was happy to plunk down $4.50 for what I thought would be extremely mediocre chocolate mousse. Instead, I was holding whipped chocolate pudding with tiny pieces of yellow rum-type cake...and I was livid. It didn't even have layers of cake--it just had random cake crumbs strewn about, as if specifically intended to aggravate me. (Random pieces of yellow cake in a chocolate mousse cup--who does that??) Ash was actually scared to talk to me for the next several minutes--the scowl on my face and the near-full container thrown into the garbage said it all.

Just a word of caution--steer clear of the chocolate mousse from Hot & Crusty. This may be one of the few times I will not give an item a second chance.

PS- I ordered a chocolate mousse "dessert shooter" at Applebee's last night (we were at Woodbury Commons). It was $1.99 and came in a large shot glass, with whipped cream and some Oreo bits. It was a pleasant surprise...half the price of Hot & Crusty, and more than twice as good. If I was at Applebee's, I'd definitely get it again. (I think they might be $2.99 in NYC, however-- keeping in mind the tiny amount, I'm not sure it's worth the extra buck. On a side note, if you're in NYC, what are you doing eating at Applebee's??)

Best. Kulfi Bars. Ever.

Found them at Whole Foods-- bought the Saffron and Mango flavors. Saffron--amazing. Mango--still pretty good. I'm dying to find the Malai and Faluda ones, but so far have been unsuccessful. They are pricey--something near $6 for a box of four bars, but totally worth it.

Kool Freeze Kulfi Bars

Keep in mind, they do not beat the "real" kulfi from India, but come pretty darn close. They come in the following flavors (with my lovely commentary):

Pistachio-- Not a fan of pistachio, so I haven't tried the bar
Mango-- Tried it, pretty good
Malai-- Will cry soon if I can't find it
Coconut--Haven't tried it, but blah
Faluda-- See "Malai"
Strawberry-- Kulfi? Seriously?
Chikoo-- I can't even stomach the fruit properly
Saffron-- Ah-maze-ing

Yolato

I must preface this post by saying I'm not a huge gelato fan. I enjoy good frozen yogurt or ice cream, but find something about gelato's consistency slightly unappealing. That being said, with my recent yogurt obsession, I felt I owed Yolato a chance.

We walked in to the store on Broadway and 82nd, and I saw about 20 flavors. (The website touts a much higher number--apparently they rotate.) Yolato sells yogurt-based gelato, and after speaking to the exceptionally nice server, I found out that their best selling flavor was based on "Ferrero Rocher." (Heads up--she said they typically sell out of that one by 9:00 pm at the latest...and this was a random Wednesday night.) After handing Ash a tissue to recover from the fact that they had sold out of the flavor "made for him", I settled on purchasing the pink grapefruit and lemon sorbet. I agree it was a slight cop out to not get the yogurt-based gelato, but I was not disappointed. The pink grapefruit was tangy but sweet--very refreshing after the italian meal we had just eaten. It reminded me of the pink grapefruit I tried at Grom a while back, but sweeter. The lemon was good, but it doesn't compare to the lemon sorbet from Eli's. Eli's puts lemon zest in their sorbet--the frozen pieces totally kick it up a notch.

Ash loved the pink grapefruit so much he ordered it as well, along with coconut. (I didn't try the coconut--I'm not such a fan of that flavor.) I'll go back to Yolato, but only because Ash will drag me back to try their Ferrero Rocher flavor. I prefer the sorbet at Eli's (though the pink grapefruit was good), and would go for Forty Carrots yogurt over gelato in a heartbeat.

PS- I purchased the frozen "Yolato Bars" you can get at the grocery store a while back. The one with pomegranate sorbet...I wasn't a fan, but Vinny thought they were good. So, if you're the banana cream pie type, you may want to give them a whirl.

Chocolate Mousse

Could there be a more perfect dessert? I believe my obsession started at a restaurant called "Garcia's" (the Albany clan will know this place), where Priya and I always ordered it for dessert whether we were hungry or not. (We secretly knew my Dad would eat a few spoons of it--he's also a big dessert lover--so we were really just doing the family a favor.) It came in an ice cream dish with whipped cream and a sopapilla on top (I didn't think it was odd at the time...), and would be devoured in a matter of minutes. It was not quite pudding, not quite whipped cream--a delicate balance between the two, with small flecks of chocolate.

Yes, I realize now that excellent chocolate mousse is not supposed to have flecks of chocolate, but we were talking about a restaurant known for their tex-mex fare. Can you really expect a place that has pinata donkeys hanging from the ceiling to have exceptional french desserts? Better yet, do you really expect a ten-year old to appreciate the difference?

When I moved to New York, it was a different ball game. If chocolate mousse is ever on the dessert menu, I will order it. It is the one dessert that trumps all others in my mind--and there is no better end to a meal than a wonderful dessert. My only problem comes when I order chocolate mousse and receive something that resembles a cake.

(Pause. Deep breath.)

Really people? Since when did the world's most perfect dessert get demoted to the level of frosting? Chocolate cake with some layers of mousse is not the same thing--they should put a disclaimer on the menu: "This is not actually chocolate mousse. Since we don't have the ability to make mousse that is good enough to stand on it's own, we've stuffed it between two layers of chocolate cake so you hopefully don't notice the difference. The mousse will be firm, as its role is to keep the cake from collapsing. Enjoy."

Just don't get in my way if I order mousse and end up with cake-- you might be wearing it.

Back to the mousse, however, I've tried it at a number of places, but my all-time favorite still belongs to Payard. It seems logical that a french-trained pastry chef has mastered the art of making a perfectly smooth chocolate mousse (without the flecks of chocolate, I may add), and I find myself going there so often that the pastry waiter gives me a knowing smile every time I walk in. Since they don't sell the mousse in "to-go" containers, I drag Ash there, fork over my $7 for the world's best dessert, and then give him a "you better order your own" look when he attempts to share. (Fine, I let him take a little bit, I am a decent wife.) I've heard rumors that Payard's recipe just uses chocolate, soy milk and tofu...next time I go I'll get the full scoop.

However, if you are also on a chocolate mousse hunt, Serendipity is not a bad option. It's not fantastic, but certainly not horrible--but at $9, it is $2 more than Payard's perfect dessert. If you are there and need to fill a chocolate craving, my favorite thing is (surprise surprise!) their frozen hot chocolate. Oddly enough, another restaurant is a small one called Harry's Burrito's on the Upper West Side. Their mousse is nowhere near perfect (remember the chocolate flecks?), but for some reason it takes me back to eating chocolate mousse at Garcia's. Nothing like a chocolate-fleck filled dessert to remind you of home.

Lots of hype about Red Mango!

Ever since I've mentioned 40 Carrots, I've been told by Rupa & Rahul and Camala (from France!) about Red Mango. Whereas 40 Carrots has sweetened yogurt as well (the coffee and chocolate flavors taste more like ice cream than yogurt, but are fat free!), I understand that Red Mango is more of a Pinkberry-type place.

Though I do like Pinkberry, I know that the toppings either make or break the yogurt. So, I'm asking those who have been before--what topping(s) should I get on my Red Mango yogurt? Let me know, and I'll report back once I visit!