Skip to main content

A New York State of Mind....

By

With the Advent of the holidays, a must see seasonal attraction of New York City's infinitely fascinating facets sets up tent in Union Square & Columbus circle. The last time I had roamed this awesome bazaar was a decade ago in the waning days of  grad school. When the opportunity to do this again arose, boy! did I grab the opportunity. This time I had a mission, the food stalls! (not that the others were of no use, boy the kinds of knick knacks from all over the world on sale there, you have to see this to believe it!).
 For those of you who are wondering what the %^&^% I'm jabbering about, let me back track. The Union square Farmers Market is a part & parcel of life in New York city.. Remember the scene in 'You've got mail' where Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan grab a bag of Pretzels & fresh flowers & sit down wondering how they keep accidentally bumping into each other? That's the spot! (http://www.grownyc.org/unionsquaregreenmarket)
  The Holiday market is a seasonal event, with stalls set up between Thanksgiving & Christmas, a fabulous place to buy your gifts, & nosh on all the lil stuff that New York is famous for. There is NO way one can really indulge in everything thats out there, but here's a list...

1. Sigmunds Pretzel Shop (http://www.sigmundnyc.com/)


For those of you who think that pretzels are those dry chewy things hanging from vendors carts, Think again!
These look more like a bagel sized bialy, the only giveaway being the pretzel like texture peeping out from the generous fillings within.. My favorite, the goat cheese & olive


& this one is still waiting to be shared with my other half!
PS: Shared, Polished off & boy was it GOOD!!

2. Nibmor chocolates.  (http://www.nibmor.com/index.php)

 These guys had a stall with a crowd around it. SO obviously there was something good to be had there. Wended my way thru & figured out they had the right answer to a chilly day. Hot Chocolate. 2 flavors, original & 6 spice, which I was told had cayenne, cinnamon,  & well... they had me at cayenne. The drink was perfectly sweetened, rich with a creamy mouth feel,  with the flavor of the cocoa complemented by the spices without overpowering the chocolate, & the Cayenne released a perfect heat at the back of the throat that made this the perfect pick-me-up to sip while wandering around.

The Sample of the 6 spice that bowled me over!

In fact it was so good that the first thing I did when my friend joined me was to drag her here to try it.. It was then I was told that there wasn't any milk or cream in the hot chocolate, It was completely vegan & was made with almond milk!! So All you vegans out there, this one is a MUST HAVE!

Another indulgence I got to sample were the truffles from 'NO CHEWING ALLOWED',  (http://www.nochewingallowed.com/ ) at first the brand name sounded like a joke, but its worth obeying this command. the melting sensation of the truffles in your mouth is unparalleled & its not worth letting this decadent dessert melt away on the enamel of your teeth unless, by some mutation, you have sensory nerve endings on them!
Sorry no pics, would have been well worth it though!

 One of the things I really wanted to find out more about in New York City was the pink Himalayan Salt that seems to be in the news in the World of 'Haute Cuisine' these days. & yes there was a stall selling these as well! the website for this stall is http://www.candleladysusans-himalayanrocksalt.com/.

Although I did not buy any salt (they ran out of the size I wanted.) I did get a chance to taste it, & its so unlike the varieties of Salt at your local supermarket. Its the color of rose quartz (& looks a lot like it too), with a clean mild taste (in contrast to table salt that can feel grating on the sides of your tongue. I hope to get some in the near future to incorporate into my recipes.


 Other names of repute represented in the markets include David Chang's Momofuku bakery selling their signature cookies. Nope,  didnt get a chance to taste these, but they sure looked delicious!


Comments

Post a Comment

I'd love to hear feedback from you, your thoughts, ideas and suggestions.

Popular posts from this blog

Sputtering back....

By
I seriously feel like this scene from the movie 3 idiots .. remember this one? The way I kept racking up drafts and eventually stopped doing that as well. Lulled into complacence by the quick high from Instagram posts. Recipe measurements hastily scribbled into a Moleskine notebook faithfully depending upon my moods. The truth is that I keep over thinking the backstories needed to make the post more interesting while in reality the truth is that ideas and inspirations just occur spontaneously (like little itches , sneezes or twitches) whenever the opportunity happens to strike. Some really cool ideas that scare the beejeezus out of me and yet prove to be utterly delightful and simple in the end. Others, that seem so trivial that I feel it wouldn't be worth crowing about -- even if there are enough other recipes in that genre that get so much publicity simply because the author happens to have the right marketing knack. So in the past 4 years that I've been...
3 comments
Read more

Unusual Ingredients - Unripe Blueberry Achar

By
T'was just another Summer afternoon, The kids were home for the summer holidays, getting bored, there's only so much summer reading you can force them to do, and the Indian mommy in me could no longer caution them against going out in the afternoon  (I've solemnly refused to use that horrid excuse of 'You'll get a dark tan if you stay out in the mid day sun'), and so we decided to head out to Terhune orchards for the blueberry picking. The kids never say no to outings to the orchard, they LOVE the trip there, the cute yellow dogs and the cats,  the chocolate crinkle and Snickerdoodle cookies, and they positively trip over grabbing buckets and heading joyfully towards the berry bushes... ... And there it ends, the younger one loses herself in her delightful imaginary worlds where she probably thinks she's hacking her way through virgin Amazon jungle, sighing at every branch that brushes against her legs, picks 2 or 3 berries as if they were a new as ...
6 comments
Read more

Product Review: Ninja Mega Kitchen system and a recipe for Masala Dosa

By
 One of the biggest reasons for attending conferences is the priceless experience of meeting fellow bloggers and get an invaluable exposure to all things  culinary. This includes vendors with new products to savor and get inspiration from. I had no complaints about whatever appliances I had for making traditional Dosa (Traditional South Indian rice & lentil crepes) batter, a sturdy tabletop stone grinder that you could add the Urad dal, turn the timer on , and 30  minutes later, come back to a container full of fluffy, batter with the consistency of whipped egg whites. The The cons of this is the cleaning up, of the various parts, the roller, the grinding bin, the multiple trays on which the rollers need to be placed while transferring the rice & lentil batter, the invariable drips of thick batter on the counter.... you get the point, It takes quite a bit of time. I was pleasantly surprised when the appliance company, Ninja asked me if I'd like to try an...
14 comments
Read more