NYC Food: Day 2

 

We decided to start the day with a bagel off.  Hubby had done his research and wanted to try Murray's Bagels and I just wanted to head to Russ and Daughters for something stuffed with smoked fish after having read about it from a fellow Gastronomer here.

 

I have to say the bagels from Murray's were superior; however, the smoked fish at Russ's was worth having the sub-par bagels.  Anyway, to me if it's not a Montreal (Saint-Viateur) bagel, it's all the same.  The Russ bagel had a healthy portion of the best smoked salmon I've ever had with a shmear of horseradish cream cheese, tomatoes and capers (I passed on the onions).  It really hit the spot and fueled me for the walk across Brooklyn Bridge.

We were planning to spend some time in DUMBO and grab a slice at Grimaldi's but the line was so long we opted out and grabbed a bus to two8two burger.  I had been recommended this burger joint during this Shut up and eat  event by the owner of Diablo's in Montreal and it did not disappoint.

I went with the two8two burger with roasted poblanos and cheddar but added bacon.  This was the best bacon in a burger I've ever had.  The bacon was thick cut and (deep?) fried to a tooth aching crunch which was perfect in the sloppy burger.  It was out of this world.  The sweet potato fries were oddly bland, nothing to write home about but I still dream about that bacon.

Having missed out on Grimaldi's we hit up Lombardi's, the so-called first pizzeria in NYC.  The pizza was ok, but lacked cheese for me.  The ceasar salad was really stellar though.  After this quick meal we were looking for something sweet and we headed to Chikalicious, a dessert bar (not to be confused with Chikalicious the Dessert Club literally across the street).

 

At this tiny eatery, dessert is the order of the evening and it is served in 3 courses like a meal: a starter dessert, a main dessert and a dessert dessert.  I was really looking forward to coming here after having read about it here.

We sat at the bar and following our order were immediately served a wonderfully light yogurt in a citrus 'soup' with tiny wafer rounds.  Milk cultures never tasted so good.

 

We had a choice of desserts, I went with the fromage blanc island 'cheese cake' and hubby went with the seasonal butternut squash ice cream brulée .  We watched as the pastry chef and her sous-chef prepared every thing to order right under our noses.

           

The 'cheese cake' is really in quotation marks because it has none of the dense, richness of traditional cheesecake.  It is all light and airy while tasting unmistakably like cheese cake.  While it was clearly sitting in a pool of heavy cream I felt like I was eating something very light.  Hubby was also very happy with his dessert, all I can say was the candied pecans that surrounded his dessert were laced with addictive substances.

The final course of mignardises were a perfect ending to a perfect dessert meal.