You know you’re a dedicated food writer (or just fat) when you brave torrential downpours and hurricane winds for an ice cream festival at South Street Seaport.
A tiny cone of lemon verbena
The New Amsterdam Market is one of many markets in New York City that offers locally grown produce and other local edible goodies, such as wine, maple syrup, ice cream, and cheese. All the vendors come from the North East each weekend and bring their delicious stuff with them. They host special events and festivals all the time, so it’s worth checking back to their website to find out what’s on the menu for the fall.
Sunday’s ice cream festival featured New York staples such as Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream and MilkMade (mentioned here!), as well as Early Bird Cookery, Roberta’s, The Bent Spoon, and Marlow & Daughters. $20 got me 6 tiny cones of incredibly innovative flavors, some better than others.
Some bizarro but incredible flavors from Early Bird Cookery
Roasted peach with black pepper (by far the day’s winner! who knew sweet peaches with a spicy after taste of black pepper would be so divine?!)
Beet
Hay (yes… HAY) with local honey
Ginger and blackberry
Bourbon vanilla with sea salt caramel (more than 1 cone of this and I would’ve been drunk)
Fresh ricotta
Nectarine sorbet
Lemon verbena
The stand out flavors were the roasted peach with black pepper, as mentioned, the nectarine sorbet, and the fresh ricotta with an incredibly thick and creamy texture and perfect cinnamon/nutmeg/allspice blend. The rain was pouring down but I was radiating sunshine from within. See? That’s a happy face.
Double fisting!
Lauren E. is a food writer and recipe tester living in New York City. She is a regular contributor to Yumm.com and has been featured on The Martha Stewart Show.
You ever come to San Francisco I’ll take you to this place called Humphry Slocome. Been getting a lot of well deserved press lately partly for flavors like Peanut butter curry, and Secret breakfast (bourbon and cornflakes) But also for being generally amazing.