We wanted to devote another post to showcasing some cool food we’ve had around New York City, so here goes:

Last month we decided to try what’s on offer at La Newyorkina, a small shop featuring Mexican desserts.  Of course Cyril got all adventurous and decided to get their most famous and complicated food item, chamoyada.

As you can see, it’s got a lot of stuff in it:  shaved fruit-flavored ice, spices, plum sauce on top, and a candy stick coated in tamarind paste.  This is what it looked like in real life:

La Newyorkina also sells other, less complicated desserts – namely paletas, or Mexican ice pops.  They have a huge selection of different varieties to choose from.

Miriam ended up getting the Oaxacan chocolate, which was delicious.

We also had a chance to visit a very new place, Mr. Panzerotto, which only sells, well, panzerotto.  What, might you ask, is a panzerotto?  They’re the Italian version of fried dough pockets, usually stuffed with red sauce, cheese, and other toppings.  Cyril got a Mr. Prosciutto and Miriam had the standard Mr. Panzerotto with just mozzarella and sauce.

This is what they look like when they’re fresh cooked.

We also decided to split a sweet panzerotto, the Miss Nutella, which has a mixture of nutella and ricotta cheese inside.  We weren’t sure how a dessert panzerotto would taste, but it turned out to be very tasty.

And finally, right before the holidays Miriam went and took another cake-making class from Momofuku Milk Bar and came home with a Christmas-themed cake to share.  This was her Grasshopper Cake:

And here’s what in it:  a layer of white cake with plenty of chocolate chips mixed into the batter, then a drizzle of milk mixed with vanilla and peppermint extracts, a layer of frosting made with marshmallow fluff and mixed with chocolate pie crust crumbs, then larger chunks of pie crust crumbs, then mint cream cheese frosting, then a chocolate cake layer, another splash of the vanilla-mint milk, more marshmallow fluff frosting swirled with pie crumbs, more bog pie crumbs, another layer of mint frosting, one more piece of chocolate chip cake, marshmallow fluff and pie crumb frosting, and then a snowflake design on top made with big chocolate pie crust crumb pieces.

Whew.

This was really fun to make and it had a ton of different flavors.  It was a little on the sweet side, but it turned out to be an interesting dessert to serve for Christmas.

We hope you’re inspired to check out some of these places, and we’ll follow up with more delicious restaurants periodically!