A short cab ride from the Lower East Side to the Upper East Side brought us to Serendipity3 for some late night dessert.  Serendipity 3 is somewhat of a New York City landmark, frequented by locals, celebrities and tourists alike, on a daily basis.  And most of them flock here for Serendipity 3’s signature drink, the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate.

I first heard of Serendipity3 when the movie Serendipity, starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, came out in 2001.  Then, a couple years later, Oprah mentioned that Serendipity3’s Frrrozen Hot Chocolate, was one of her “favorite things”.  Now, if The Oprah mentions it on her show, isn’t America supposed to listen?  Of course, we do!

Maybe it was the sappy chick flick that got Serendipity3 on my “things to do” list… Or maybe the thought that consuming the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate could possibly qualify me to be considered one of The Oprah’s best friends… Who knows?  All I know is that on one night, during my New York City trip, we ended up at Serendipity3 for dessert and I will regret it indefinitely.

Entering Serendipity3 was like stepping into a different time and place.  And personally, not in a good way.  Some may consider the place adorable, whimsical and quirky.  But to me, it seemed as if an antique shop threw up and the housekeeper quit 2 years ago and no one brought it upon themselves hire a replacement. It was tacky, old, musty, dingy, dusty and it made me wonder if we made the mistake of coming here for dessert in the first place. But I think that’s the look that they were going for, regardless of how unappealing it might be for some people.

We got there at 11:00pm on a Wednesday night and were greeted by an hospitable host, and that was one of the very few highlights of the evening. Within 5 minutes or so, we were ushered to our table in the upstairs dining room, even though there were many tables available in the main dining area downstairs.

We were then each handed an oversized menu that listed over a gazillion items available. We came for dessert and locating the desserts on their overly busy menu was truly a task. But we conquered, found where they were located, and decided on the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate and the Lemon Ice Box Pie.

Frrrozen Hot Chocolate

Of course we had to order this. It’s what brings all the boys to the yard. It’s their signature chocolate drink. Imagine a hot chocolate slushy and that’s what the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate basically is. A chocolate granita, so to speak. Why “hot chocolate”? Because that’s what it tastes like, hot chocolate, only it’s not hot, but frrrozen, sort of.

The Frrrozen Hot Chocolate is served in a huge goblet and topped with a mountain of whipped cream (which I enjoyed) and a light dusting of chocolate shavings. To consume this chocolate treat, they give you two straws and a spoon. I don’t know… Maybe it was meant to be shared, which is why they gave us two straws. Maybe it should be enjoyed with a spoon, which was odd because the thought of consuming this dessert like soup was just bizarre.

I expected this chocolate treat to literally oooooze greatness, but it was merely sublime. It’s totally overrated and something that can definitely be duplicated at home. Which I did. By accident. And without having to purchase the overpriced mix that they sell in their gift shop. And mine was better.

Lemon Ice Box pie

Sitting delicately on a light graham cracker crust was the most delicate of lemon or citrus pies that I have ever tasted. The lemon filling was light and creamy and quite refreshing. The lemon flavor was wonderfully balanced with the creaminess that it was not so overpowering or “hit you over the head and smack you between the eyes” pucker-inducing. It was fantastic! I could probably eat an entire pie of this and not even feel guilty.

This, I truly enjoyed and wished that I had ordered one for myself. I had a tiny forkful of this from my dining companion’s plate and if my manners didn’t take precedence, I would have graciously accepted his offer for me to take another bite. Then, I would have taken another and another, until there was nothing left for me to do but lick the plate, which I probably would have done, with no shame. But I didn’t, because graciously, I  declined a second bite, to my detriment. Tucking my tail between my legs, I finished my sorry ass excuse of a dessert, and internally sulked the rest of the time we were there.

Would I go here again? If I take the hospitable host and the Lemon Ice Box Pie out of the equation, ABSOULUTELY NOT. Their signature drink was overrated and sub-par and their bus staff sucks ass, which explains the “Help Wanted: Busser” sign that greeted us in the front window as we were entering the restaurant.

I hope that they find a busser that has a little more tact and customer service honed into him, unlike the one that attempted to clear our table before we were even done, then blatantly clicked his tongue at us and rolled his eyes as we told him that we were not done yet. This was brought up with the manager and our comments and concerns were merely brushed off, with the guilty busser standing there with his hand on his hip, waiting for us to leave.

We did and we won’t be back.

Happy Spooning and Forking….

*****

Serendipity 3

225 East 60th Street

New York, New York 10022

Phone:  212.838.3531

Though hidden on the second floor of a Japanese restaurant, Angel’s Share is far from being a “secret”. Well known to many Manhattanites and vistors alike, what keeps everyone coming back to this gem of a bar is its perceived exclusivity, its air of secrecy, its elegance, coziness and little bits of intrigue and romance all mixed in. It’s these elements that make Angel’s Share all the more special.

It’s a great place to hang out with a small group of friends to enjoy a couple of cocktails and the view of the street from a wall of windows, while a mural of angelic figures stare at you from above the bar. It’s even a greater place to take that special someone you truly want to impress. It’ll seal the deal, so to speak.

Going with someone that speaks Japanese is also a major plus as the servers and bartenders (at least the ones that were there that night) speak very little English.

This is the view from the street. There’s no signage on the building to indicate the existence of a bar upstairs.

First, find this awning. It sits between the Around the Clock coffee shop and a Japanese grocery store.

Go through the glass doors and up the stairs. Once you’re at the top of the stairs, you will find yourself in a Japanese restaurant that serves izakaya (Japanese bar food).

Look to your left and you should see this door.

Read the rules that are posted on the wall next to the door as they are highly enforced.

(No more than 4 people. No standing. No screaming. No shouting.)

Above the bar you will find this cool, though somewhat disturbing, mural of angels

(with horns…I told you that it was somewhat disturbing…).

(Forgive the “night vision goggles” picture, but we were asked to turn off the flash on our cameras…)

One of the drinks that I ordered was my usual chilled Southern Comfort with lime juice. Talk about lost in translation… This is what I got. This was a shot of lime juice (freshly squeezed – not the sweetened kind that you find in a bottle) and no Southern Comfort.

With the help of our Japanese speaking dinner guest that introduced us to this wonderful bar, I was able to get this instead – a shot of lime juice with a splash of Southern Comfort. I was expecting my drink in a lowball glass, but got a shot instead… Close… but not quite. I gave up the fight, enjoyed my shot of lime juice with a hint of SoCo and anticipated the arrival of my specialty cocktail.

These are the cocktails that we ordered from their specialty drinks section. All were special in their own right. Can’t say that I can choose which one I liked better over the others as they were all quite delectable …

Stardust

Grey Goose Poir, Limoncello, Fresh lime juice, grapefruit juice and a dash of Blue Curacao.

Don’t you just love that wonderful electric blue color! And look at their attention to detail. They cut out a star from a piece of fruit and added it on as garnish. Cute! Truly a cocktail to enjoy leisurely.

Groovy

Shiso infused vodka, yuzu juice, honey and muddled shiso.

A Japanese mojito, so to speak. The shiso flavor was intense and noted througout the entire drink. This went down like juice, which is a good and a bad thing. Good because it meant that I didn’t realize that there was vodka in it (vodka and I don’t get along at times) and bad because i really wanted to savor this drink and make it last longer because it was that good. They should serve this in a pitcher with long straws, to share…

Scenes in the City

Absolut Citron vodka, homemade lychee liqueur and grapefruit juice, garnished with lychee.

This one tasted so much like juice that you have to restrain yourself from drinking it in one gulp – or else this would have been gone in seconds. They should also serve this drink in a pitcher with one straw – no sharing…

Angel’s Share was probably one of the many highlights of my entire trip. It was such an unexpected surprise. And definitely a place that I will surely stop by to visit on my next trip to New York City.

Cheers…. and

Happy Spooning and Forking….

*****

Angel’s Share

(Inside Village Yokocho)

8 Styvesant St., 2nd Floor

(at 9th Street)

New York, New York 10003

Phone: (212) 777-5415

This was the scene we encountered on our way back to our hotel from Roxy Delicatessen. (That’s our hotel to the right of the line.) Surely with a line that reached the end of the block, the food from this tiny food cart had to be good and I definitely needed to find out for myself. I figured, what’s the worse that could happen from eating from a street cart – unwelcomed stomach turns, possibly nausea or worse, mystery street meat… but what the hell… there was a 24-Hour Duane Reade pharmacy down the block where I could pick up some Tums or Immodium, if I had to. So I made it a mission to try the cart out at least once during my trip.

The next day, after a morning spent touring uptown Manhattan, bits and pieces of Harlem and some shopping at Macy’s at Herald Square, on the way back to our hotel, we stopped by the Halal cart across the street from our hotel. (Halal food is like Kosher food. Except Halal food refers to Arabic/Muslim food and Kosher refers to Hebrew/Jewish food.) The cart has a fairly simple menu – chicken over rice, chicken over salad, lamb over rice, lamb over salad, or combination – over rice or over salad. I think they also had lamb or chicken gyros, but I wasn’t really paying that much attention.

What I couldn’t get over though, was the fact that there was no line, like there was the night before.

So I decided on the combination lamb and chicken over rice and when we got back to the hotel room, and opened up that little round foil container, this is what greeted me…

Half of the bottom of the plate was filled with a salad of sorts (mainly lettuce), the other half was filled with rice. On top of the rice was the lamb (bottom left of the plate) and the chicken (bottom right of the plate). They also give you 3 pita quarters, that were a bit dry, but decent enough to eat, since it was coated with the sauce. The entire plate was then doused with a generous portion of white sauce. The guy asked me if I also wanted hot sauce on the plate, but not being sure how hot it would be, I opted to have the hot sauce on the side.

I was pleasantly surprised. The lamb had a texture that was more like a ground lamb and was lightly seasoned with a bunch of spices that I could not quite pinpoint. No gaminess to it at all, which I was afraid of. The chicken was also lightly seasoned, though a bit on the dry side. The rice that the lamb and chicken sat on had a very faint orange color to it – saffron maybe, who knows, it could just be food coloring. But it was the sauce, I think, that held the entire dish together. I wasn’t sure if it was yogurt based or mayonnaise based, as it didn’t really have a distinct flavor that I could pick out. But without the sauce, this plate would have been sub par, edible at best. The hot sauce, unfortunately, had the heat, but lacked any flavor – the worst kind of hot sauce, if you ask me. The entire plate was pretty decent tasting. And no digestive problems arose = ).

That night, on our way back to the hotel after some cocktails on the Lower East Side, again, there was a line at the street cart.

Where was the line earlier this afternoon when we were picking up our late lunch? Could it be that the cart at night was somehow better than the one during the day? Night after night on our way back to our hotel, the lines were always this long or even longer. So finally we had a chance to do a comparison, on our last night in New York City. And let me tell you…. there certainly is a big difference between the cart that is there during the day and the cart that is there at night.

First, here is the line that we stood in. You should too. You will not regret it. Trust me…

The workers (at least 3 to 4 at a time) work at lightning speed, so the line moves pretty quick. By the time you try to figure out what you want, you’re already at the front of the line.

Here are some scenes from the front of the line. Make note of the guys’ YELLOW SHIRT WITH THEIR LOGO. I think it said something like 6th Ave. & 53rd St. Halal Gyro & Chicken. Also make note of the YELLOW BAGS WITH THEIR LOGO. Trust me… this is important.

Again, I decided on the combination lamb and chicken over rice – so that I could make a true comparison. And there was a significant difference. See…

First of all, let’s talk portion. This plate had a lot more than the one that we had a few days before. I could barely get the lid over the mountain of lamb and chicken.

Next, let’s talk visual presentation, texture and flavor. The lamb was browned a bit more and had more flavor than the one that we had a few days before. The chicken was not as dry and also had a bit more flavor. The pita slices were “fresher” and softer, I wish the pieces were a bit bigger though – this pita was good!

Next, let’s talk condiments. Instead of putting the sauce on for you, on the side of the cart are some squeeze bottles of this magical stuff. And the white sauce here was FANTASTICAL! You have the option of putting as much or as little as you want. You’ll want a lot of this stuff… (From the picture above, you can tell that I didn’t get the memo on how good their white sauce was… I wish I had put a lot more on my plate…) They’ve got squeeze bottles of hot sauce too, but be forewarned – this stuff is super hot. A little certainly goes a long way.

Here’s another look at my combination plate. I lifted some of the chicken off of the rice so that you could see the bright orange-ness of the rice. Pretty, ain’t it? I had maybe less than a teaspoon of the hot sauce sparingly sprinkled on the top of the plate and I was already grabbing my drink after almost every single bite. It was HOTTTT! And flavorful, too…

This was good! Like really good! You can’t find anything like this in Las Vegas. It’s the perfect cure for late night, after-bar-hopping munchies. I’ve been craving for this like you cannot even imagine – and it’s a craving that will remain unsatisfied until my trip back. I’m even a fan of theirs on Facebook – I LOVE me some CHICKEN & RICE…53rd and 6th!!!

I know… I’m a GEEK!

When I got back to Vegas, I did a little research on this wonderful cart located on 6th Avenue and 53rd Street, and it’s no question that this cart – the night cart – is famous – like UBER FAMOUS!

It’s got a cult following, which explains the long lines. Apparently, during the day, the cart is run by the “fake” halal guys, who try to pass themselves off as being affiliated with the night time cart. The “fake” guys have the run of the southwest corner of 6th Avenue and 53rd Street from 10-ish in the morning to around 6:30 p.m.

The real deal Halal guys start to set up shop around 7pm every night and the line already starts forming before they even open up. Every night, this corner was crazy busy. I almost expected a late-night rave to break out with the post-club/bar crowd that seemed to gather at this corner, with one weekend night even requiring police assistance to do crowd control. Check out this article that I came across. If you can get stabbed to death just for cutting in line, then the food has to be THAT GOOD.

I hear that the real guys have a cart set up during the day on the southeast corner of 6th Avenue and 53rd Street.

Look for the YELLOW SHIRTS and the YELLOW BAGS WITH THEIR LOGO imprinted on them. These are your only indications that you are at the right cart.

If you do not see the yellow shirts or yellow bags, run…. fast… and eat somewhere else….

Here’s one last look…

<- combination plate from the “fake” cart…

<- combination plate from the “real” cart…

Not too difficult a decision to make huh?!?

So if you’re in the neighborhood of 6th Avenue and 53rd Street anytime between 7pm and 3am, make sure to stop by and grab a chicken, lamb or combination plate from the Halal guys.

You’ll thank me for it…

Happy Spooning and Forking…

*****

The (Real) Halal Guys on 6th Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) and 53rd Street

Southwest Corner of 6th Avenue and 53rd Street

Between 7pm and 3am

Southeset Corner of 6th Avenue and 53rd Street

During the day (not sure what their actual hours are)