No matter how full we are, women always leave extra room in their stomach for dessert. I don't have a huge sweet tooth except for my weakness for frozen yogurt. Luckily, there is an abundance of dessert cafe in New York City to satisfy my cravings. I stumbled upon a small Japanese bakery in Midtown East called Cafe Zaiya, where I purchased a swirl of Green Tea & Sesame soft-serve ice cream ($4.50).
The ice cream was a bit overpriced for the size, but I have absolutely no regret about getting this delicious treat. The sesame flavor was a bit overpowering that I couldn't taste the green tea flavor, but that was fine because I much preferred the sesame flavor anyways. The ice cream melted really quickly in the heat.
My friend and I went to an indoor market in Chelsea Market, where we found a booth that serves instant s'more. When you order one, they use the fire to melt the marshmallow and press them in between gingerbread-like graham crackers.
The s'mores were about the size of a small palm. There was a piece of dark chocolate underneath the marshmallow. The graham crackers were dusted with bits of sugar.
We walked around a bit and found these petite, alcohol-infused cupcakes. The cake itself didn't have any alcohol taste, but I could definitely taste some rum in the frosting. This chocolate cupcake with peanut butter brittle, I think, was the only non-alcohol cupcake. Just for the minors ;)
Both the blue and the yellow cupcakes had alcohol in them. I don't quite remember what they were made of, however.
I also bought a trio of desserts and brought it home for later. Clockwise from top are Red Velvet Cupcake from Sprinkles Cupcakes, Steamed Green Tea Bread from Cafe Zaiya, and Yakimochi also from Cafe Zaiya. The Yakimochi is baked glutinous rice stuffed with sweet red bean paste. The glutinous rice was chewy with slightly crunchy exterior, and I could definitely taste the sesames. The red bean filling wasn't too sweet.
Sprinkles Cupcake, the world's first cupcake bakery that opened its first store in Beverly Hills, prides in its handcrafted delicacies made from finest ingredients, "including sweet cream butter, bittersweet Belgian chocolate, pure Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, fresh bananas and carrots, real strawberries, and natural citrus zests.
The Red Velvet Cupcake I had was decorated with a piece of sugared clover leaf. This is its most popular cupcake made from Callebaut cocoa and red hue, and topped with rich cream cheese frosting. To be honest, I thought both the cake and the frosting was overly sweet. The cake was quite dense.
The Steamed Green Tea Bread with red bean fillings was really fluffy. Like the cupcake from Sprinkles, this bread was also dense and heavy.
Even though the top of the bread was moist, the bottom layer was dry. I would have liked the bread to have lighter, more "steamed" feel to it. The green tea flavor wasn't very strong at all.
The bread was filled with red bean paste like the yakimochi, but it wasn't as packed. Eating this whole bread could probably substitute as a meal, both in terms of calories as well as in satisfaction.
The final dessert is my own personal twist on an ice cream sundae. There are two scoops of Dreyer's fat free vanilla frozen yogurt, a handful of Honey Bunches of Oats with almond slices, and a drizzle of honey.
I had to eat this fast before the cereal got soggy. I didn't like the drizzle of honey because it didn't add much flavor. Besides, the ice cream itself was already sweet enough. I realized that ice cream is best in its purest form.
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