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

I’m still in the process of gathering my food porn from the trip, so in the meantime… thought I’d share a recipe with you. It’s probably my favorite recipe ever – a recipe that always seems to satisfy that sweet tooth craving. So as a somewhat farewell to summer… here’s my recipe for Blueberry Cream Cheese Pie (a wonderful summer dessert, especially if you opt to use fresh berries… but also yummy all year round…)

Enjoy!

For the crust, you will need:

1 cup flour

1 block butter, softened

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup macadamia nuts, chopped to your preferred “chunkiness”

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place flour in a mixing bowl and cut in the butter, using a fork or better yet, your hands, add in sugar and nuts and mix until flour is crumbly.

Place flour mixture in an 8-inch pie pan , making sure to break up bigger crumbles. Do not press the mixture into the pie pan, as you want to bake it as a crumbled mixture.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to break up the crumbs even more. You want to bake it until it’s a “golden brown”. Be sure not to burn the crumbly crust.

Remove the crumbled crust from the oven , pat to the sides of the pan, using the back of a spoon or a spatula, whichever works for you, and cool.

In the meantime, for the filling you will need:

1 jar Avoset or 1 cup whipping cream

1 – 8 oz. block of cream cheese, softened to room temperature

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 can Comstock Blueberry Pie Filling/topping

Chill your mixing bowl and beaters for your electric mixer. Whip cream or Avoset until it forms stiff peaks.

In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Fold the cream cheese mixture into the whipped cream mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pie crust. Be careful as you spread the mixture into the crust. The filling is pretty thick and the crust is not set into the pan. What you want to try to do is drop the entire filling down the center of the pie crust and spread outward, so that none of the crumbly crust will end up in the filling.

Chill for 4 to 6 hours or overnight, if you have enough self control.

Top with your favorite fruit topping.

Canned pie filling works perfectly fine, or if you’re over-ambitious, you can make your own topping using fresh fruits. Some variations: sliced bananas drizzled with chocolate syrup, apple pie filling drizzled with caramel sauce, crumbled oreos, crumbled heath bars… The options are endless.

This recipe makes one 8-inch pie pan sized pie. I usually double the recipe and make it in a 9″x13″ cake pan.

The first encounter I had with Yogurtland was in California a few months ago. Some friends of ours took us to the location across from the CSU Long Beach campus. It was a weekend night, around 10-ish, and the place was packed. SUPER PACKED. It seemed like an Under-21 club scene.

The line wrapped along the sidewalk, with hoards of college kids and more than a handful of high schoolers, some in line and some just hanging around. Not an open parking space in sight, unless you were up to doing a crazy hike clear across the parking lot and had enough energy to stand in the long line.

I love frozen yogurt – any frozen novelty at that – but my tolerance and patience for boisterous crowds have since dwindled. I can only take so much of status-conscious-gossip-girls saying things like “Omigod, like, is that a real Louie or did you get that from downtown LA?” and amateur rice-rocket-pilots muttering to each other “Dude, check out that car kit on that Honda. Dude, it’s hella tight!” before I start rolling my eyes in disdain… But I digress…

Sure I wanted some yogurt, but I didn’t want it that bad… So we left and headed home… (Oh man… I must be getting old…) Needless to say, it was a busy weekend for us, so we begrudgingly decided that Yogurtland had to wait till the next road trip.

That is… until I found out that Yogurtland was opening up shop here in Las Vegas. From what my friends have been saying, Yogurtland was much better than Pinkberry. I needed to find out myself. I anxiously wanted to see how they measured up to Pinkberry (the froyo shop lucky enough to pop my froyo cherry).

Bottom line – I LOVE YOGURTLAND. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. More than Pinkberry. Which I like. A little.

During the first week that the Town Square location opened, I visited Yogurtland about 4 times. I purposely spaced out my visits and went and different times for fear of a possible restraining order or job offer. The week after that, I visited twice. And then I just had to restrain myself from going to Yogurtland for fear that the novelty would wear thin and I would stop loving it as much as I do.

Yogurtland reminds me of a Sanrio store, just without the ever cute Hello Kitty mascot. It’s cute. And pink. And bright green. It makes me happy just walking in the place.

Unlike Pinkberry, Yogurtland is a self-serve yogurt place. You pick out the cup size you want – there’s 2 sizes: big and HUGE. Along one wall are the yogurt machines. They have about 15 or so flavors available at a time – most of the flavors rotate, so visit often. LOL.

At the end of the wall is the topping bar, where you can choose as little or as much toppings as you want. They offer the same toppings as Pinkberry, but also offer about 10 other different ones that Pinkberry failed to add to their topping bar – like chocolate syrup, caramel syrup and condensed milk. The price of your personal creation is based, then, on weight. At 30-cents an ounce, you can get a lot of yogurt and toppings for under $5.00. A much better deal than Pinkberry.

The yogurt at Yogurtland is also a lot creamier and not as tart as Pinkberry’s. So much so that at times, you forget that you’re eating yogurt. The strawberry yogurt is my favorite of all the flavors that I’ve tried – so far. It’s creamy and tastes and looks as if real strawberries were put into the mix. My next favorite flavor is the mango yogurt, which I was a bit hesitant to try, but so glad that I did. It’s refreshing, perfect for summer. As far as toppings are concerned, the mochi balls, Cap’n Crunch cereal, Coco Pebbles cereal and condensed milk never fails to impress.

There’s usually a line (and a teeny bopper crowd hanging out in front) at this Yogurtland also. Especially on weekends. But the line moves pretty quick and trust me, it’s well worth the wait.

So if there’s a Yogurtland in your neck of the woods, I highly recommend you stopping by for some really good frozen yogurt. Maybe I’ll bump into you at the one in Town Square. I try to visit at least once every 2 to 3 weeks or so. It’s not so much a staple in my diet like when they first opened. Now, it’s more like a well-deserved treat and a better alternative to Cold Stone Creamery, which is THE DEVIL… disguised as cold, sweet, creamy goodness…

But I like playing with fire, every once in a while… hahaha!

*****

Yogurtland, Town Square

6587 Las Vegas Boulevard South

Las Vegas, Nevada

(702) 822-1000

… more Las Vegas locations coming soon

(visit website)

That’s how they say “hello… how are you?” in Chinese.

Sorry I haven’t posted anything new in a while… Call it writer’s block, life related stress, heat exhaustion, whatever… but I’m back…

Every four years, the one thing I look forward to is the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics. And this year’s Opening Ceremonies in Beijing is by far, my favorite, and definitely will be the most memorable. Talk about SENSORY OVERLOAD!

So, in honor of the 2008 Summer Olympics… let me introduce you to Chinatown – Honolulu’s Chinatown to be exact… and where you can find the BEST EVER PORKY GOODNESS – EVER!

Honolulu’s Chinatown is like any other Chinatown in any other state with a big enough Asian population – crowded, traffic congested, full of character and the best place to get Chinese Roast Pork and char siu… among other things….

Pass the old residential area of Kalihi-Palama and across the bridge that crosses over a canal that feeds into Honolulu Harbor, lies Honolulu’s Chinatown district. No gilded statues or ornate Chinese gates reminiscent of San Francisco’s Chinatown greet you here. The only indication that you are in Chinatown are that the street signs are written in Chinese characters, along with the vernacular street names like King Street, Beretania Street and Kekaulike Street. Subtle hints like the names of vendors like Chun’s Meat Market and Lee’s Bakery and Kitchen (where they have the BEST CUSTARD PIE in all of Honolulu, if you’re lucky to get one before they run out) further remind you of where you are.

But this is not the Chinatown that I remember. Shops that were once owned by Chinese immigrants are now owned and operated by a growing Vietnamese population. Chinese herbal shops and acupuncture practices are still around, though hidden among the many Vietnamese jewelry stores and pho noodle shops, on nearly every corner. But the produce markets and meet vendors remain as they were, albeit, now run by a different population.

Oahu market brings great memories for me. Growing up, I remember weekend trips to Chinatown with either my parents or grandparents to get a week’s worth of vegetables, meat or fish. It’s where you went to get the freshest ingredients possible – produce straight from the farmers, meat from the ranchers and fish straight off the boats docked alongside the harbor. It’s also where you got the best Chinese style roast pork and char siu (Chinese barbeque pork). My favorite place to pick up these wonderful delicacies is at Chun’s Meat Market.

Chinese style roast pork is made by roasting pork belly that has been seasoned with salt and Chinese 5 spice until the skin is super duper crispy, but the meat is still moist and juicy. Chun’s Meat Market has what I think is THE BEST Chinese style roast pork – crisp, juicy pork belly with a meat to fat ratio that was pretty much hit or miss. Sometimes more fat than meat (good), sometimes more meat than fat (better for you) and sometimes almost equal amounts of each (pure bliss).

Char siu, on the other hand is made by marinating a leaner cut of pork (usually the shoulder) in a mixture of honey, Chinese five spice, soy sauce, hoisin sauce (plum sauce), Chinese wine and red food coloring. The pork is then either grilled or broiled. (In the picture below, the char siu is the meat stuffs hanging on the left; roast duck hangs to the right of the picture.) Chun’s char siu is also the best I’ve ever tasted – seasoned perfectly, with just enough char on it to enhance the smokiness of the marinade and not overpower it.

The roast pork and char siu are sold by the pound. You basically point to which piece or pieces you want from the meat hooks that proudly displays the goods and the butcher will chop it all up for you in seconds with his crazy-fast-super-sharp-butcher-knife-skills, then wrap it all up in butcher paper for you to take home.

I’ve since mastered the skill of opening up the tightly wrapped package to sample the goods in the car on the way home, then re-wrapping whatever is left into an equally tight package. Not an easy task, trying to keep all of the pieces of porky goodness on the butcher paper on your lap while the car is moving… but with practice, totally doable… just make sure you’re not the one driving… in which case, the opened package of porky goodness will usually sit open on the passenger seat all the way home and you’re lucky if there’s a piece left for sharing…

*****

Chun’s Meat Market

(Located in the Queen River Market)

157 N King St
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 533-0577

I’ve been in a rut lately… cooking, eating, blogging, reading and otherwise…

But I visited my friend Connie’s blog today and instantly I felt a little better.

CONNIE IS AMAZING – her mind constantly works in “creative overdrive” – it’s inspiring! I wish I had even just 1% of her creativity and drive.

I believe that we all have it in us to be creative in different aspects of our lives – be it in the way we dress, the books we read, the music we listen to, how we decorate our homes, how we think, how we do everyday tasks, how we cook, etc…. But most of us (ok… I’m talking about me here…) keep it internal, never letting our outward expressions showcase our inner genius.

But Connie – she does it all… She’s a wife, a mom to 3 beautiful girls and also has quite a successful career… and on top of all this, she can put together quite a wonderful cupcake birthday party for her oldest daughter.

Check out her latest post where she shows off some of her creative cooking/party planning genius, then check out some of her older posts where she shows off her Craft-Goddess-Ness.

In the meantime… I will look at that wonderfully decorated cupcake pictured above and smile = )

Thanks Connie!

*****

Connie’s website:  http://superwomanscrapper.blogspot.com/