Category: Shopping List

Saw this advertised on the side of a food delivery truck today and I thought of you.

When I register for my unwedding, the Paco Jet will be somewhere at the top of my wishlist. It's a genius ice cream/sorbet maker which shave-purees anything you can deep freeze into a sort of ultrafine granité. Chikalicious uses it for their frozen desserts, like the flavorful corn ice cream that accompanied my cherry soup, or the smooth, milky quenelle of sweetly clean vanilla sorbet nestled atop the little cup of espresso gelee. The fresh peach sorbet is a contradiction in senses -- it tastes like a bite out of a soft but icy sunripened peach.

Imagine the possibilities! Apple sorbet that captures the fleeting perfume of crisp fall Macouns! Scoops of frozen-pureed celery and fresh horseradish in an icy bloody mary! Fresh arugula sorbet with parmesan and beef carpaccio!

Not that I'd actually make those things. I just love the idea.

Tired of drinking plain water, but don't want the sugar fix from sodas and juices? Try mugicha, Japanese barley tea. I buy the pre-bagged barley tea -- just stick a few bags into your pitcher of water, let it cold steep in the refrigerator for at least an hour, and pour. It brews up the color of iced tea but has a refreshing roasty, savory flavor. And it's caffeine free. You can get mugicha from Sunrise Mart, JAS Mart, or any other Japanese grocery store.

I rediscovered Vitamilk today at Chelsea Thai in the Chelsea Market. Vitamilk is a popular cold soy milk beverage in Thailand that you drink straight up from a glass bottle. It's definitely not for everyone. It doesn't masquerade behind a vanilla front. It's thick and creamy and has that lightly sweet traditional Chinese soy milk flavor that may be bit of an acquired taste. I only acquired a taste for it a few years ago. Vegans take warning -- Vitamilk is pumped up with milk powder. It's also super filling and nice as a meal replacement on a hot summer day. They're $1.50/bottle at Chelsea Thai.

Supply requests submitted from the Hudson house to sherpa Ganda for the second weekend:

Culinaria cookbook [12.7 x 11.1 x 1.9 inches, 8.08 lbs., hardcover]
Best Recipe cookbook [11.2 x 8.5 x 1.5 inches, 3.60 lbs., hardcover]
32 ounces semi-sweet Valhrona chocolate
Dutch-processed cocoa powder
recipe for Pecan Pie
recipe for barbecued ribs
puff paint

As a loyal adopted New Yorker, I am an adamant thin crust pizza supporter. I like my pies so thin and stiff that the acute angle resists gravity droop. But Sullivan Street Bakery's 1 1/2 inch deep, pillowy square pizza carciofi bowled me over. The crunch of the deep golden brown crust, the elastic pull of the tender middle, the perfectly browned spring artichoke heart halves, the saline burst of the rectangular rock salt crystals, the astringent bite of the garlic with the peppery olive oil -- it is a thing of beauty, total pizza perfection. Grab a slice or five while it's in season.

Sullivan Street Bakery
Sullivan and Broome

I don't drink soda often, but I love me some root beer.  I think all pizzerias should be required to have root beer on tap.  I saw a girl on the L train platform yesterday with a box of Thomas Kemper root beer and almost worked up the nerve to ask her where she got it.  For those of you who've never had the pleasure, Thomas Kemper makes the finest root beer I've ever enjoyed, with a nice foamy head and full body usually associated with dark alcoholic beers.  It's brewed by the Pyramid Ale folks out in Seattle.  They also make an excellent orange creamsicle sody. 

Here is a list of internet retailers who'll ship to New York.  But how cool would it be to show up at a barbecue this summer with a pony keg of root beer and a gallon of ice cream?

When I can incorporate smells into my blog, I will rule the universe by piping the aroma of Ito-En's Organic Temple Chai (om shanti shanti shanti) through your computers.  You will be powerless against the whole cardamom pods, the heady vanilla, the spicy, syrupy black tea. 

This heavenly chai is $3.60/oz. at Ito-En, and worth every last red cent.  It's even worth the trip to the (*shudder*) Upper East Side -- it's that good.  I helped myself to three cups today with a splash of milk and basically can't go to bed now.  But I got a week's worth of blog posts done. 

Ito-En
822 Madison Ave. btwn 68th and 69th

By the way, do any of you know where I can get some sobacha (roasted soba tea)?  The last of my precious stash from the Kurosawa restaurant in Tokyo (a gift from a friend) is gone. 

For the infantile foodie in your life -- completely useless but totally charming and wacky miniature replicas of food items from Japan.  Each toy box holds a few surprise items -- everything from miniature Kewpie mayonnaise to dried octopus.  Each box is (I think) $6 at Kid Robot. 

My friend Chris brought me a box from the Korean collection too, not yet available at Kid Robot (as far as I know).  A person could actually use those chopsticks, provided said person were gnome sized.

*Yes, yes, I am totally that person in your office with a dusty pile of figurines that the cleaning lady dare not toucheth.