Who cares about mashed potatoes when you can get an even better version of the famous spud.  Purchased somewhere in Idaho, and brought back to me by a friend, this coconut-sprinkled, chocolate-covered and cocoa-marshmallow filled candy bar was AWESOME!!!  I could eat a hundred of these things!

 

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Picture 1 from 3: In addition to the dozen or so regular flavors on offer, Earl Grey Tea was the daily special.

On a side street in NYC’s SoHo neighborhood parks an artisanal ice cream truck called Van Leeuwen.  The flavors are pretty straight-forward: mint-chip, pistachio and chocolate, for example.  But, the ingredients are not.  Each flavor is made with incredibly high quality products–Sicilian pistachios and Michel Cluizel chocolates to name a few.  The creme de la creme of ice cream, if you will.  And for nearly $5 a cone, they should be!

This is Danny Devito’s Limoncello, quick-frozen with liquid nitrogen.  You’ll have to take it on faith, those are the gloved hands of Danny himself.  While the Limoncello itself, is delicioso, frozen like this is not my favorite; too much liquid nitrogen perhaps?  Ah well, Tales of the Cocktail continues to be a full-on blast-in-a-glass.

I grew up drinking this drink, as it was a favorite in my childhood friend Ali’s household.  Her mother, who was a great cook, turned me on to lots of Cuban treats (like chicken soup made with chicken feet and boiled yucca!). Guanabana nectar is made from the juice of the soursop fruit, and it is thick like pear juice, but has a mild pineapple flavor.  It is very commonly found in the Caribbean, Central America and Southeast Asia, and washes down spicy tacos or chili-laden noodles quite well because its cooling qualities counteract the effects of hot peppers.  The can in the photo accompanied a jalapeno-laced pork sandwich, which was a life-saver for my burning tongue!

I’ve eaten lots of chocolate-covered snacks.  But, until picking up a tube of these candy-colored seeds, I had never tried this sweet variety of sunflower seeds!  They remind me of a healthier, slightly less sweet version of the ever-popular M & M.  If you happen upon them at your local corner store, give them a try!

There is nothing better that seeing one of my childhood favorite breakfast items making a comeback on brunch menus.  I remember many a Sunday morning with my family at our neighborhood pancake house, my brother and I sharing an apple dutch pancake bigger than our heads combined and covered in a blizzard of powdered sugar.  We were in heaven on those weekend mornings and challenged each other to see who could eat their entire half.

This is my latest retro dutch pancake find.  It was served in an individual caste iron dish and baked with the season’s first crop of local berries.  Light, fluffy and delicious.  I love brunch.

Lemon Verbena, is a fantastic herb, that has a very sharp lemony flavor that is balanced with a delicate, floral and green, herbaceous quality.  It’s often used to scent perfumes and toiletries, but even better when used in cooking.

I like to steep the fresh leaves in an ice cream base to make lemon verbena ice cream, or to tear the leaves over a bowl of fresh berries to make a fancy fruit salad.  It is one of my favorite ingredients to use during the spring and summer and I really look forward to finding new uses for it!

These are gorgeous Ruston, Louisiana peaches.  Once upon a time, there were a number of Louisiana peach varieties and a number of growers.  Nowasdays, there is one big commercial grower remaining, and a handful of much smaller farms, growing Louisiana peaches.  This is a homegrown food in crisis.  Louisiana peaches are unique, with a sweet, almost spicy flavor and an aroma that can only be described as heavenly - floral and softly earthy.  The meaty-firm texture of Ruston peaches stands up to being grilled, or peeled and sauteed in a lovely Peaches “Foster,” or as I’m want to do, eat out of hand standing over a sink, letting the juices run down my chin, hand and arm.

My favorite foodie friend Arianna brought me back a bottle of Loganberry Liqueur after visiting Clear Creek Distillery in Portland, Oregon.  And along with that bottle, she told me how the loganberry came to be.

Contrary to what I would have guessed, the loganberry is not a wild berry but in fact a cross between a raspberry and blackberry.  It was originally created by a horticulturist named James Harvey Logan in Santa Cruz, California, sometime in the late 1800’s.

We tried to make Loganberry margaritas with the liqueur, but found that the flavor or tequila was a little overpowering.  Maybe next time we’ll keep it simple and just sip it on the rocks with a sprig of mint and a little sugar.

While walking on 23rd Street towards the Hudson River to catch the display of Fourth of July fireworks, my friends and I stopped for an ice cream cone at one of the many trucks dotting each corner along the route from subway to river.

I ordered my favorite, a simple vanilla soft-serve cone dipped in chocolate.  But, in a moment of genius, I asked the ice cream man to top my dipped cone in coating of chocolate sprinkles!  Delicious!  A perfect marriage of textures and flavors!  How did I not think of this as a child?!

Because I now feel like I have to make up for nearly 30 lost years of chocolate-sprinkled ice cream cones, I’m certain that I will have a problem in the warmer months ahead.  Even though the ice cream truck that is parked outside my restaurant everyday is very convenient, I’m not sure my belly will appreciate this new endeavor…