The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop & Lexie's Birthday!

Yesterday I finally got down to the brand new Big Gay Ice Cream Shop to celebrate the birthday of my friend Lexie (you know her from her blog belle nana sans banane)! The highly anticipated permanent location for NYC's favorite ice cream opened last Saturday. As Doug stated the goal of the shop is to be an emporium for special frozen treats in the city, and they accomplish it well. The menu is overwhelming, but Doug tweeted me some good advice yesterday: "I usually tell people to stop thinking so hard about the menu. Just pick whatever catches your eye, then come back again." 

When you get inside you'll be greeted by a super friendly and helpful staff- eager to help you make a selection, answer questions or (probably) chat about the lovely unicorns all around (please don't rub against the pretty unicorn on the wall! she wants to stay BE-dazzled not DE-dazzled!). The shop is petite. On Saturday it was without a bench, seats or bar to lean on. On Lexie's first visit she remembered some sitting or leaning furniture so hopefully that will return. There are also Big Gay Ice Cream t-shirts available to buy and some olive oil, too. It smells sweet inside and makes you hungry for some treats. 

Food Trucks: An American Tradition

On an uncharacteristically balmy Wednesday night in April, I had the pleasure of listening to and participating in a conversation about one of the biggest US food movements right now: Food Trucks. Heather Shouse's new book Food Trucks explores the ever-expanding patchwork of mobile kitchens in America. Complete with recipes, drool-worthy photography, and maps to ignite wanderlust in even native Americans the book takes its reader on a journey through  the wheeled fabric of food carts and trucks. Shouse did extensive research in each featured city and chose the very best vendors by region.

To promote the book, released just last week, Shouse is back on the road travelling to the cities she wrote about. At each stop she has invited a few of the food trucks and vendors to come serve and speak with her on a panel about the book and the process of starting and running a food truck/cart business. Fortunately for me, one of her stops was New York! 

After work I headed down to The Strand Bookstore for the event. Scheduled to begin at 6:30, I got there on time to have my first sweet from The Treats Truck (yes, the one on the Blackberry commercials!). Kim Ima, owner of The Treats Truck was outside serving up samples of some customer's favorite treats- I got to try to the Mexican Hot Chocolate brownie and bought an oatmeal chocolate chip. The Bian Dang Truck (Taiwanese for "lunch box," formerly NYC Cravings) was also outside serving up savory goodies like dumplings and fried chicken.