Café Bustelo and I go way back. As a child, my best friend’s mother, Reina (born and raised in Cuba), used to make Ali and I café con leche for breakfast, served alongside buttered saltines. So when I came across “Bustelo Cool,” a canned café con leche—espresso, milk and a bit of sugar. I had to give it a try.

It’s quite tasty and makes for a nice coffee on the go (especially when you don’t have time to wait in line at your local coffeeshop). However, it doesn’t quite replace my childhood Sunday morning breakfasts…

I never would have imagined that this “Fudgie the Whale” ice cream cake I received on my birthday was well known enough to have its very own wikipedia entry.  I guess it goes to show that, although I am a pastry chef who knows lots about obscure desserts, I certainly have not seen it all!

And if you have children, please be sure to celebrate at least one birthday with this frozen treat.  After eating mine this year, I realized I missed out on 28 other opportunities to have eaten a Fudgie the Whale…

While browsing a few of the many beachfront souvenir shops on the Isle of Palms, I came upon a bag of “shrimp poop.” Of course, I had to buy it. But not too worry; it was just a bag of chocolate-panned peanuts labeled “certified fresh from the producer…”

Instead of a traditional bread basket served while waiting for dinner, at a small Charleston seafood joint, we were given a bowl of boiled peanuts to munch on.  They were delicious!  And after reading the recipe for boiled peanuts on our website, I’ve decided to make them at home myself!

Charleston has introduced me to a new cocktail—the Raspberry Ice Pick. It is made with sweet tea, spiked with raspberry vodka and is garnished with a lemon wedge. It is absolutely delicious and quite refreshing. And although it is southern inspired, its ingredients are easy to source and certainly would make a great cocktail for me to order when back in the Big Apple.

Just this past Saturday I arrived in Charleston, South Carolina for a weekend visit. After an entire afternoon of sunbathing on the sandy beaches of the Isle of Palm, I decided a local seafood dinner would be fitting. As I looked over the menu at Hyman’s Seafood—a well-known seafood joint located downtown—I found myself unable to decide what to get. So, I decided to order with gusto and get everything I thought sounded good (after all, I am on vacation…)! Thus, my seafood extravaganza at Hyman’s Seafood began.

Dinner included “she-crab” soup, hush puppies, fried green tomatoes, alligator sausage, buffalo fried oysters, crab cake stuffed mahi mahi, shrimp and grits, and red rice (luckily they forgot to bring my order of mac n’ cheese or I would have needed a wheel barrel to get me out of the restaurant!).

Although the entire meal was good, the she-crab soup was top-notch. It is a soup that is quite famous here in Charleston, and I now understand why. It is a rich cream based soup, made with lump crabmeat, seasoned with mace, black pepper and dry sherry, and finished with crab roe (otherwise known as eggs, which is why it is called “she” crab soup). If you’ve never had the soup before, it is reason enough to visit this charming little town.

With rents being sky high in New York City, it’s no wonder food served from carts, booths, stalls and trucks are parking themselves on neighborhood street corners all over the city!

One of my favorites is Calexico, located in SoHo, which serves California-Mexican style tacos for a few dollars each. The tacos are made with fresh ingredients, and cooked-to-order by the cart’s owners—a couple of guys from southern California. But, the best perk is the view. Once you have your tacos in hand, and park yourself on a storefront stoop, the people watching cannot be beat. My idea of a perfect lunch for under $10 in NYC!

I stopped in for a quick breakfast at City Bakery this week to find a very different pastry in their case—an apple-miso muffin! I’d never had miso for breakfast, but knew it was a traditional breakfast food in Japan, so I thought I’d give it a try.

The muffin was delicious! The salty miso flavor paired well with the tart apple filling and sweet coarse sugar sprinkled on top of the muffin. It was so good that I think the flavor pairing might find its way onto a plated dessert I create this fall! Perhaps a spiced apple cake with vanilla ice cream and a miso-caramel sauce would be nice?

Cucumbers are one of my favorite veggies, so you can imagine how much I love great pickles. And today I discovered I could get delicious pickles just around the corner from my apartment! This afternoon I bought a mixture of “full sour” and “three-quarter sour” pickles from my local pickle seller, Dr. Pickle, who operates a small booth at my neighborhood farmer’s market.

The full sour variety was a little less crunchy than I prefer, but the flavor was intense and could not be passed up. The three-quarter sour had the perfect snap when biting into them, but were a little less pickled, giving them a more subtle vinegar flavor. I thought the blend of the two would balance out nicely.

In addition to selling barrels of pickles at a variety of NYC farmer’s markets and street fairs, Dr. Pickle also sells through mail order. So if you also have an affinity for vinegar-soaked veggies, give Dr. Pickle a try!

While reading a local paper a few days ago, I stumbled upon a full-page advert about how several New York City farmer’s markets are now accepting food stamps.  And as I perused the stalls at my neighborhood farmer’s market this morning, I thought about how the produce I was purchasing was far superior than what my local grocer had to offer, but with a lesser expensive price tag.  It really feels good to be able to eat healthy foods and save money while doing so.  Kudos to NYC for making this more available to everyone possible!