Tiny Urban Tidbits #11 – Sweets, Sweets, and More Sweets!

It’s been a sweet, sweet week! I feel like it wasn’t that long ago when my post started with the phrase “lot’s of chocolates for me to eat . . .” referring to the crazy boatloads of Swiss chocolates that Bryan had brought back from Switzerland for me.

We’re not even close to making a dent in those . . .

And then he went to New York. To Momofuku Ko, to be exact. Sorry, they don’t let you take pictures, so he has none to share from that experience, except to say that the food was amazing and one of his favorite dishes (which he kept talking about) was this lychee jelly + frozen fois gras shaving combination that worked really really well.

First There Were Cookies
He was nice enough to stop by the Milk Bar and pick up a crazy box of cookies for me. What’s with all the large quantities? This is why I do things like boot camp! How else can I keep up?

Top Row: Peanut Butter, Corn, Compost, Compost
Second Row: Chocolate, Confetti, Compost, Peanut Butter
Peanut Butter, Corn, Blueberry, Corn

I was surprised how much the corn cookie tasted like corn. I have no idea what he put in there, but it’s a really strong flavor, and I love it! I love corn to begin with, so it’s not hard to impress me with anything that really tastes like corn. Anyone who’s willing to pay $50 for a meal called “Dinner Devoted to Our Established Colleague: Corn,” will inevitably like this cookie. I also loved the chocolate cookie, which not only had deep deep dark chocolate flavor, but was also paired with some salt, which enhanced the flavor even more. Honestly, all of the cookies are pretty good and you can’t go wrong there. I still remember the first cookie I ever had from Momofuku and I thought it was one of the best cookies I’d ever had.

And then there was Ice Cream . . .
I also found out from Twitter last week that Whole Foods River St. was hosting a free Ice Cream Palooza! Six local vendors, including one of my favorites, was going to be there handing out free ice cream. It’s like the Scooper Bowl in Boston, but better because it’s free and everything’s local!

Vendors that were there: Sweet Scoops (frozen yogurt) from NH, Cold Fusion (gelato) from Sharon, MA, GaGa Sherbetter (Sherbet), Toscanini’s (ice cream) from Cambridge, and Chilly Cow (frozen custard) from Arlington, MA.

When I found out Tosci’s was going to be there (I first thought it meant they were opening a store at Whole Foods), I was soooo excited I was tweeting all about it. I was even more thrilled when Tosci’s tweeted back at me and said:

@tinyurbankitchn It won’t be a store but it will be free. What should we bring. Name your flavor.

If you’ve been reading this blog, you probably guessed that I requested the Olive Oil Ice cream. I also asked for Grape Nut (another one of my favorites), and Mango Sorbet.

I was even more tickled to find out he brought TWO out of the three that I requested! YUM! Now the whole world gets to try olive oil ice cream for free! Here I am with the first scoop (they didn’t whip out the tub until I arrived). 🙂 That’s Gus Rancatore on the left, owner of Tosci’s. Oh, by the way, you can usually buy the olive oil ice cream from Central Bottle and Wine in Cambridge. Gus uses one of their brands of olive oil, which explains why his ice cream had much better olive oil flavor than the one I made (using supermarket olive oil!).

Of course there were many flavors to try, such as this vanilla gelato from Cold Fusion. This is the same gelato that they sell at the Whole Foods on River Street. They don’t use any eggs in their gelato, so the consistency is  different. It’s thicker, creamier, yet weirdly lighter at the same time. I have always liked ice cream better than gelato, so even though it was pretty good, it wasn’t my favorite.

Tosci’s ran out of ice cream pretty early. After that, by far the longest line was at Chilly Cow for their frozen custard. This was my first time having it, and I must say I am a HUGE FAN. I love  this stuff! I can’t wait to go out to their location in Arlington and try some more flavors.

I guess it makes sense that someone who doesn’t like gelato as much (missing eggs) would love something like frozen custard that probably has TONS of eggs.  Loved it. It’s eggy, creamy, and just tasted absolutely delicious. If the line weren’t so long, I would have gone back for a second helping. Can’t wait to go back.

Needless to say, I was pretty full before dinner that night, even though we enjoyed yet another great meal at one of our favorite local restaurants.

Did I Mention the 12 boxes /5 bars of Chocolates I Ate?
More on that later, but needless to say, I’m just glad I had friends helping me. The things we do for this blog . . . .

Time for another detox?
Now that the Momofuku cookies are basically gone, the chocolates are eaten, and I’m slowing chipping away at the last of the avocado ice cream, I’m really thinking it’s time to get healthy again! Stay tuned next week for more posts about my farm share vegetables and my takes on some really really great new restaurants in the Cambridge/Somerville area.

Have a great weekend!