Hi friends, welcome back to another edition of my monthly series showcasing all my delicious eats during the month. As you know, one of my favorite parts of living in NYC is the abundance of incredible food, and I’ve been on a mission to try all the best places and share my finds along the way. Disclaimer: these posts will cause hunger 🙂 If you want to stay up to date on all my foodie finds, you can follow my food Instagram here.
As usual, I went to Dominique Ansel to grab the monthly cronut flavor of Blueberry & Sweet Corn. It is described as “Homemade blueberry jam, fruity and tart and complemented by a creamy sweet corn ganache” and this was one of my favorites! I was a little nervous after being burned by the Black Truffle & Caramel Popcorn last month, but Dominique Ansel made up for it this month! I tasted the tart blueberry and then a hint of creaminess to balance it out.
My ordering so far of most to least favorite: Salted Caramel Pretzel, Lychee Ganache & Mascarpone Ganache, Blueberry & Sweet Corn, Ube Ganache & Thai Coconut Ganache Cronut, Strawberry Poppyseed & Buttermilk, Honey Peach Jam & Graham Cracker Ganache, Almond and Fig, Passionfruit & Vanilla, Caramel Flan & Orange Marmalade, Green Apple Butterscotch, and Black Truffle & Caramel Popcorn Cronut.
Jon and I went to Mister Dips for the July cone called Summer Patriot. It was vanilla soft serve coated with sweet cherry, bourbon vanilla, and blue raspberry. This was all over my hands in about thirty seconds. I love these cones, but they are so hard to eat in the summer with the hard shell.
I was invited to all of the following restaurants:
Nish Nush had some of the creamiest hummus I’ve ever had, it was delicious! The falafel was very filling too and a great spot for a quick, healthier meal.
Jon and I got to try Brooklyn Farm and had the most delicious Pad Thai and Ka Pao Gai Kai Dao (ground chicken, garlic chili, basil). You know something’s good if I forget to take a picture until after I’ve tried it.
The Tang is a Chinese noodle bar restaurant on the Upper West Side. I loved the Drunk Noodles (Braised beef soup mixed with Momofuku Hozon and chickpea paste, fried ground pork sauce, fried garlic, scallions and topped with beef shanks, sesame seeds, and chili) and Spicy Diced Chicken (Crispy diced chicken with red chili and Sichuan peppercorn). My friend enjoyed the Tang’s Herbal Chicken Noodle Soup. This restaurant is a bit far north, but the food is delicious!
Little Alley is a very popular Shanghainese restaurant in Midtown and earned a spot on the Bib Gourmand-designated restaurants list by Michelin. My favorite dishes were the Shanghai Stir Fried Noodles, Pork Soup Dumplings, and Dong Po Pork with Buns. We loved this meal and trying out a different cuisine than we usually indulge in.
I had so much fun at Peachy Keene, a 70s inspired restaurant in Midtown. It felt like stepping into a different decade and I loved drinking out of my light up disco ball cup while ABBA played. I’d say the drinks and vibe is slightly better than the food, but we had a great time! We tried the Crab & Corn Beignets, Truffled Mac & Cheese, PK Smash Burger (wouldn’t order again), Chicken & Waffle, and Groovy Vanilla Milkshake.
Black Tap is famous for their crazy milkshakes, and Jon and I stood in the rain for 45 minutes back in February 2018 to try this spot out. You can read about it here, one of my first blog posts when I didn’t know how to edit pictures, and as you can see my photo quality has increased drastically!! My friend and I went to a pop-up Blacktap location called Singles & Doubles where they have a shorter menu and the burgers are smaller than the regular location, but all the great taste! This is intended to be a delivery/takeout spot, but they have plenty of indoor seating and as you can see, the portions are still massive!! I got the Mexico City Burger (prime burger, pepper jack cheese, crispy onions, pickled jalapeños, chipotle mayo) and Black Tap Cheese Fries (queso, parmesan, smoked bacon, scallion, sour cream & onion)
The famous shakes: BROOKLYN BLACKOUT (chocolate frosted rim with mini chocolate chips topped with two chocolate brownies, whipped cream & chocolate drizzle), THE CAKESHAKE® (vanilla frosted rim with rainbow sprinkles topped with a funfetti cake slice, whipped cream, rainbow sprinkles & a cherry), THE COOKIE SHAKE (vanilla frosted rim with cookie crumbles topped with a ‘cookiewich,’crumbled cookies, chocolate chips, whipped cream & chocolate drizzle). These are very sugary so I’d definitely recommend sharing!
Cucina 8 ½ is an upscale Italian restaurant right by Central Park. It reminded me a lot of Lincoln Ristorante and was even featured in an episode of Sex and the City. We ordered the Meatballs, Focaccia Bread, Raviolo, Spaghetti Al Limone, Spaghettini, Braciola Di Maile (Pork), Zeppolas, and Gelato. Their summer drink is a Limoncello Spritz and this was so refreshing and delicious!
Insomnia Cookies now has their own brand of ice cream with their cookies mixed in. They only had mint and cookies n’ cream when I was there, but they both tasted yummy! Insomnia is such a classic, they had one at Michigan State when I was there and I loved stopping in during finals week.
Funny Face Bakery is one of my favorite bakeries in NYC and they have a limited edition banana, toffee, and chocolate chip cookie. It tasted just like banana bread in cookie form. I prefer their regular flavors, but this was fun to try!
What caught your eye this month?
You do live in the Foodie capitol of the world, Lyssy. Loved the look of the Italian place. We have a new fondness for Italian food, since our 2019 trip there. We are in the opposite kind of foodie center and we are still not doing much restaurant dining yet. We di enjoy a new donair place which was exceptional and I successfully baked a nice levain focaccia bread. Also, in honour of our Heritage Day holiday, I made Hungarian Langos (fried bread) because you can never have enough fried bread. Due to the small population of our city, there have not been many restaurant choices in the past, but we now have an Indian place and a Japanese sushi place will be opening soon. Things are looking up. Happy Friday. Allan
We are so lucky to have such a foodie scene! That is one of the things keeping us in the city still. Italian food is always good in my book, it’s very hard to mess up. Donair is delicious and it does sound promising to have Indian and Japanese soon. Focaccia bread sounds delicious, and so does Hungarian Langos, we haven’t ever tried making bread. Happy Friday!
I took the precaution of eating lunch before reading your post but was almost – but not quite – undone by this month’s cronut!
Very smart! The cronut was so good, but they seemed to be smaller this month than they usually are.
Oh no!
I skipped lunch and now feel really hungry!! Great share, thank you!
This post is definitely hunger inducing!! Glad you enjoyed, if only I could figure out how to let everyone try a bit through the screen 🙂
Haha, give it a few years and we will be able to “print” them off with some fancy replicator! 😉 Until then, we shall eat vicariously through your posts! 😉
Very true!! If only I could share the calories 😉
Haha, nope, please feel free to not send those – I have too many already! 😉
Such an amazing selection of desserts. An Italian is always a good idea. I think I’ll just wander casually to the kitchen and raid my fridge after all these amazing food shots and descriptions.
It was a good month of eating! I have so much content I had to put everything here instead of separate posts. Just writing it makes me hungry 🙂
It all looks delicious EXCEPT the stir fried noodles. It reminds me of a plate of squirming worms. Sorry, but visual was not my favorite. You have a strong stomach to be wiling to try all these kinds of food. Is there a type of food you don’t eat. I won’t eat coconut.
Luckily it didn’t taste like worms 😉 I don’t eat tomatoes or any chunk of tomato, I don’t like ketchup either.
Yes, you’re right, this post did cause hunger! OMG, those fries at Black Tap look SO good, and the burgers don’t look too bad either – just messy. All of the sweets would be right up our alley too. It’s probably a good thing we don’t live near all of these fabulous finds.
The fries were delicious and could’ve fed a few! The burger was definitely messy, but worth it. Sweets are my favorite 🙂 we are very lucky to have all these delicious options near us, but we have to be careful to balance it out with healthy foods during the week.
Those milkshakes! Definitely on my list for my next time in NYC.
Yes! They are a NYC classic!
dang, everything looks delish!
It was a yummy month for sure 🙂
Great photos and such yummy food Lyssy. Would have picked the Cronut!
Thank you! The Cronut was so good, this months flavor is mango and milk chocolate so I’m looking forward to that!
Mango and milk cho sounds even more delicious Lyssy!
Oooh Nish Nush really caught my eye! I going to have to go check that out when I get back to the city.
I am currently out in the Delaware Water Gap with very limited food options nearby but I found this amazing little cafe, Cafe Duet in Stroudsburg, PA. It’s just under 20 mins from where I am staying and I’ve been enjoying the occasional delicious sandwich there for lunch. Normally I’m not big on sandwiches but they were so amazing! The first one I had that got me hooked to keep going back was a pastrami and kimchi cabbage sandwich. It was also topped with roasted broccoli florets and a dab of mayo. I never thought to put kimchi or broccoli on a sandwich but it was so freaking good! I also had an amazing roasted mushroom and gruyere sandwich. It had baby arugula and was served on a croissant. They were so good I’m gonna have to try making dupes at home. I guess the secret to a fabulous sandwich is to keep it simple at four ingredients.
Nish Nush is great! Cafe Duet sounds amazing! It sounds pretty gourmet for being in the middle of nowhere. I’d definitely try both of those sandwiches, they sound delicious! I usually never eat sandwiches but on vacation for lunch they’re my favorite.
Yum Yum Yum. Those icecreams, the cookies….oh I need to go and eat something 🙂
Such a delicious month! Maybe one day I’ll have a post with samples haha
NYC is such an amazing city for food. I will have to reference your blog once I have the chance to go back!
Definitely! We are lucky to be able to get anything at any time 🙂
Everything looks so yummy!!!
Such a delicious month of eating 🙂
Oh my gosh; everything looks so delicious! You are lucky to be in a foodie’s paradise! I shouldn’t have read this just before bed though, I’m going to bed with a rumbling tummy! – kinsy
I am so lucky to live in a foodie paradise and get to try so many places 🙂
This food is soooo delicious.
So many yummy spots!
It all looks delicious! Restaurant hopping is hard in NYC ha!
So many good options to pick from!
I’m gaining weight just looking at the desserts!
The focaccia bread at Cucina 8-1/2 looks as inviting as a homemade pot pie. As much as I’m tempted by the sweets I think I’d try the Italian bread above everything else. When I read your Foodie Friday posts I can’t help thinking all of the food was consumed in a very short time (and you know the secret to never gaining weight). Have to remind myself you’re covering consumption from an entire month!
That bread was so good, especially with the dips. It seems some months I get invited to a lot of places and I have a hard time saying no. Other months are slower so we reign it in eating at home. We’re both pretty health conscious and exercise regularly, so during the week we eat healthy.