NEW YORK DAY 2: FOOD TOUR!
I had planned out a full day of eating in New York. But we got a late start in the morning, and instead of heading to Caffe Fallai for breakfast, like I had planned, we made a quick stop at Almondine Bakery, an adorable French bakery around the corner from my cousin's condo, where we grabbed delicious sandwiches and pastries. Then it was off to SOHO to start our food tour. I needed to do a modicum of work during this trip and had heard that a new chocolate shop had opened east of SOHO on Broome street. Unfortunately it was closed. But as we trekked back, we ran across Despana. (Which literally means from Spain). We had noticed the the leg of Jamon Serrano in the window while walking to the chocolate store, but I didn't recognize the name until we were heading back.

I'm familiar with Despana because I always attend the Fancy Food Show and Despana imports a lot of foods from Spain. I've wanted to go, but for some reason, I thought it was uptown, so it was quite fortunate that we stumbled across it. When we entered, it was clear that they had just opened. On the left they had shelves of Spanish products, like olive oils, olives, etc. and lots of samples out to try. On the right, they had two large display cases, one filled with sausages and others with cheeses (and samples galore!) and at the very back, they had another small case filled the tapaps and pinchos, like the ones I'd seen last summer in Barcelona. There was a tiny table and I wish we had more time to stop and samples some tapas. (We'll do it next time) But I did encourage Tom to try the sausage samples.
He ended up getting two types of sausage and we brought them back to Boston so he could share them with a friend.

Our next stop was Kee's, my favorite chocolate shop in all New York. I hadn't been in quite some time. The last time we went to NY we didn't have time to stop and Kee's is always closed in July when I'm there for the Fancy Food Show. (Not surprising, July is our slowest month, too.) Tom (my cousin, Jeany's, husband, who's also a fan) had warned me that Kee's had changed a bit, and he hadn't seen her in a while, so he wasn't sure what was up with the place. But I'm here to tell you that all is well at Kee's. Let me backtrack a bit. Kee's opened in 2002, when I still lived in NY. I would go there to buy chocolate whenever I had time and I loved the tiny space (probaby 50 sq. feet) which included the minute production area and shop. There wasn't a time that I've gone that Kee wasn't there, selling chocolates or doing production, and I continued to visit even after I moved to Boston.

Skip foward five years and Kee's is still going strong. She's expanded into the neighboring space, which is equally tiny, but now the production area is separate from the retail area. Plus she has lots of employees now. In the retail area, we bought two large boxes of chocolate, with a bunch of new flavors that I'm excited to try. (like the smoked salt) I also peeked next door, and there was Kee, working away with two assistants. It makes me feel really good to see a small business succeed, and yet, Kee hasn't blown up and expanded like crazy. She's still a small neighborhood shop, working away and making what I consider the best chocolate in Manhattan.

The one request that Tom made during this visit was a trip to the Excellent Pork Chop house. So we walked over and joined Jeany and Juliet for a simple lunch there. I got my usual bowl of noodles and fried chicken. It was delicious as usual, especially while there was so much snow on the ground. And after lunch, we continued on our food journey. Our next stop was Il Laboratio del Gelato, in the Delancey area. And while walking up there through Chinatown, we stopped for some freshly made cakes. (Translated into English, it literally means small chicken egg cakes). My little sister loves these things, and they sell them on the street in Taiwan. $1 got your 15 little cakes, which come out steaming and delicious.It actually wasn't such a terrible thing that there was so much snow on the ground. Though it was certainly cold, slushy and messy, it also required more effort and more calorie burning. So we were able to continue eating throughout the day. Pretty soon, we had arrived at our next destination, Il Laboratio del Gelato. This is another place that I visited when I lived in New York, but it was a rare trip, since it's not the easiest place to get to. It was started by the founder of Ciao Bella who after selling Ciao Bella, started a much smaller operation that creates incredible gelato. (small batches, fresh flavors). The prices are pretty high ($20 a gallon), but it's worth it for the quality of the gelato. Here's a pic of the case.I got a small cup with espresso and chocolate. Both were wonderful, especially the espresso, with it's little particles of coffee bean ground in. Tom tried a more unusual flavor, rice, but I enjoyed his toasted sesame more. And Juliet's hazelnut was also great. It might've been close to freezing outside, but this gelato could be enjoyed in any weather.

Our last stop for the afternoon was the Essex Street Market, just a few blocks for Il Laboratio. There's been a lot written about Essex Street Market lately, and being a great fan of markets (especially the outdoor kind) I wanted to have a look. Essex Street used to appeal much more to an ethnic, working class clientele, and that's still apparent today. It reminded me of a smaller sized Reading Terminal Market. It was filled with vendors selling impeccably fresh produce, meats, fish and cheese. And it wasn't too expensive, either. Here's a shot of some produce.
And a huge trash can full of cherimoyas. It didn't look like the cherimoyas that I was used to in Taiwan. The skin was smooth and these guys were unusually large, but it was great to see a different fruit being sold.

Lastly, here's a shot of the famed Saxelby Cheesemonger's aging room. I just thought it was cool that they had an aging room right on site. Had we not been stuffed full at this point, we may have tried a few things, but we needed a break from all the eating. We went back to DUMBO to rest up, help build furniture and read trashy magazines and to get hungry enough for dinner at Tory's.