The forbidden foods edition
Having a weekly newsletter is fun because you get to see me break the dietary promises I make to myself in real time.
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, I indulge in things that wreak havoc on my digestive system. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
Blueberry-lemon icebox cake with homemade blueberry jam at my place
Why not your place, too?
I’m the kind of person who says she can’t get pizza for lunch, and then goes home and makes a cake composed almost entirely of whipped cream. You may call it inconsistency, but I’d like to counter that it’s mere optimism, or perhaps damage control for the chaos I know I’m going to wreak on myself sooner or later. Or maybe I just like cake better than pizza? I definitely like this cake better than pizza. This blueberry lemon icebox cake recipe is from Bon Appetit and it’s such a dream.* Icebox cake recipes just always sound so charming. And they are: Somehow, plain ol’ graham crackers and blueberries morph into a visually stunning dessert with the help of nothing but heavy cream whipped with mascarpone cheese,** and a stay in the fridge overnight.***
*In the words of my coworker, “Your cake is outrageously good. It should be illegal.” And now I have a new Tinder bio.†
**I used whole milk greek yogurt, but mascarpone is definitely better.
***Note that for this recipe you first need to make a homemade blueberry jam, which defeats the no-cook magic of icebox caking. It takes a little extra time, but it’s worth it. The jam is thickened with chia seeds and has very little sugar in it, which makes it a nice tangy addition to all that dairy. Or, you could always substitute store-bought jam.
† Just kidding. I don’t have Tinder! Jokes on you.
Mint mojito cold brew at my place
Why not your kitchen, too?
The cool thing about being human is that you have enough cognitive reasoning skills to draw the line between cause and harmful effect, but not enough self control to stop your lizard brain from doing those things anyway. See exhibit A : Global warming, and B: Sophie still loves coffee deep down inside, even though she deduced that it was the cause of so many of what she thought were chronic health problems two years ago. Regular coffee is one thing; it’s easy enough to fool the brain with a mug of hot tea. But cold brew really has to be the most addictive substance on earth. This isn’t really helping my cause, *but* I also managed to come up with a DIY version of the famed mint mojito drink from Philz, and now I will share it with you, because I would love nothing more than to drag you into the caffeine-anxiety abyss with me. To make: Throw two big sprigs of mint and a spoonful of sugar into the bottom of a mason jar. Muddle with the handle of a wooden spoon, like you’re making an old fashioned, to release the oils. Once the sugar is nice and minty, top with 4 oz cold brew, 3-4 ice cubes, and top with oat milk (or whole milk, if you drink it). Screw on the lid, and shake until frothy. Enjoy, sans regrets.
Red bean ice cream at Chinatown ice cream factory
65 Bayard St, New York, NY 10013
When at Chinatown ice cream factory (which, for me, is not as often as I’d like), it’s important to get the OG Chinese ice cream flavor of red bean. My mom has fond memories of eating red bean popsicles growing up in revolution-era Beijing, and I, too, have memories of eating 小豆冰棍 in Beijing as a child on summer vacation, sitting on the top of the monkey bars at the playground. The red bean ice cream at Chinatown ice cream factory satisfies my craving for nostalgia, even if it could be a little stronger on the bean front. It also seems to melt at a mysteriously fast rate. By the time I walked out of the shop and into the subway, it was basically soup. All the more reason to eat it quickly!
Labneh at Pera Soho
54 Thompson St, New York, NY 10012
I’m going to regret sharing this, but Pera has the best happy hour deal in all of Soho, a place where it is incredibly hard to figure out where to go for a drink, according to my workplace’s chat logs. Not only do you get to sit in a fancy outdoor space, you can get fancy cocktails for just eight dollars (if you live anywhere but New York city this may sound like a normal price, but here it is literal pennies to pay eight dollars for a drink and no none of us can afford rent), and best of all you can get not one but TWO mezzes for eight dollars. The mezzes don’t skimp, either, my friend and I ordered the smoked eggplant with garlic yogurt and also the labne “Terleten,” and that was honestly a pretty solid dinner for two. The labne was pretty excellent, to a person who is definitely not an expert in labne and tries not to eat yogurt. Also, it was drizzled with what tasted like hot chili oil, complete with a dried Szechuan pepper, and served with half plain and half spicy pita chips, which made it fun and not boring.
Black and white cookies at Pasticceria Rocco
243 Bleecker St #4438, New York, NY 10014
These black and white cookies are technically not a forbidden food. But should any one human really be eating a cookie the size of a large toddler’s head? One certainly could, because the black and whites at Pasticceria Rocco, an old-school Italian bakery in the West Village, are pretty damn good. They’re very lemony, more so than the standard black-and-white, but I don’t hate it. The cookie part is nice and cakey, but not dry. There’s a thick layer of both vanilla and chocolate icing, maybe slightly more chocolate than vanilla, as it usually goes. The chocolate icing is fudgy, and there’s enough of it that if you bite down, there’s a bit of give, sort of like the surface of quicksand. For those who grew up outside of the radius of New York’s culinary influence, I very much enjoyed this video from Melissa Clark, which is a good recipe and primer on the cookie.
Keep calm and eat on,
Soph
P.S.: Five Things I Ate is going to ITALY in two weeks, for a much needed vacation! Please send your favorite places to eat pasta and GELATO in Rome and Florence.