I think I’ve fallen in love with New York.
My first time visiting was actually earlier this year in April, when I got to go on a work trip for two days, but I didn’t get to really experience much. This time around, I got to spend a full week, which was more than enough time to get a taste of all the sights, smells, and bites Nueva York had to offer.
We had noodles, dumplings, pizza, ice cream, even more pizza, arepas, bagels and lox, and of course…even more ice cream. I’m pretty sure I ate my weight in pizza and ice cream while I was there.
It was a super last minute trip, but we managed to snag a really affordable airbnb in Hells Kitchen just two weeks prior to leaving, and it was great to see how close we were to just about most of the places we wanted to visit.
We had bagels and lox every morning, because out where I live in Southern California (Riverside), the only place where you can find a bagel, is at Panera. Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee Company was our go to spot while we were there. We had their Nova sandwich which came on an everything bagel with nova lox, scallion cream cheese, red onions, tomatoes and capers. Every bite of this sandwich was perfect. I’m crying just thinking about how much I miss it.
We also had pizza, because you can’t go to New York and not have pizza and out of all of the places we tried, Prince Street Pizza was hands down the best we had. We stood in line for about 10 minutes, looking at all of the pictures of the celebrities who had eaten before, skeptical of wether or not the place would be worth the hype. But it was. The pepperoni was thick and plenty, and the crust was nice and crispy with just the right amount of cheese on it.
For ice cream, we tried Van Leeuwen’s which was nothing to rave about, Big Gay Ice Cream which became a melty mess as soon as the cone was handed to us, Amorino Gelato which was good, Seed + Mill which was also good, and of course Milk Bar which was very good.
I left the city feeling inspired, and very full and when I got home a few days later, I got to work and decided to make a cake inspired by our trip. It’s a take on Milk Bar’s Christina Tossi’s concept of her naked birthday cake with crumbs, but it’s even better because it’s horchata flavored! The cake itself is a moist cinnamon cake, drizzled with an horchata soak and topped with an horchata buttercream and topped with crunchy crumbs and sprinkles. The recipe is pretty easy, just make sure to give everything enough time to come to room temperature, or you’ll get stuck with a broken buttercream like I did!
I was trying to keep this post brief so I didn’t mention a few other places we ate at, but I couldn’t go without mentioning Xian Famous Foods and their amazing noodles, and Levain Bakery which had the softest and most gooey cookies I have ever had in my life.
This cake is a winner, and I hope you get to enjoy it as much as I did. Everyone was left asking for seconds, which is always a sign of success if you ask me.
Nos vemos pronto! Stay chingonx!
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