Bao Tea House Rose pudding bao: A special Valentine's day menu item at Bao Tea House in the West Village, these buttery rose pudding baos have a custard-like filling somewhere between whipped cream and pudding. It's light in texture, but quite rich in flavor and tastes deeply of rose On top is a satisfying crumble coating. Overall, the dessert stands out to me with its combination of baked and creamy textures, but it's on the rich side altogether. 3.5/5.0
recommended nyc dessert baoteahouse rose pudding bao 3.5
Fairway Kettle corn: Fairway is the great equalizer, with a mix of affordable conventional and organic produce and snacks that aren't easily found in other chains in NYC. Their kettle corn is more buttery than most, and the caramel coating is not overwhelmingly thick and crunchy. Overall, it's a good value snack. 3.0/5.0
nyc fairway kettle corn 3.0
Besfren Taro and matcha soft serve: I stumbled upon this tiny pastry shop on my way to Penn Station from KTown and was impressed with the quality of their soft serve. Served in a large but slightly pricy cup (at $5.50), the purple and green ice cream swirl is well balanced and perfectly smooth. The creamy, slightly vegetal flavor of taro works surprisingly well with bitter matcha. My only quibble is that the way the soft serve was swirled gave it a hollow center, so I think a third of the cup I received was just an air pock... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended besfren taro matcha soft serve 3.5 nyc ktown softserve icecream dessert
Mah Ze Dahr Gingersnap cookie: Overall, this cookie would have been just fine had it not been for the sugar coating, which made it too sweet. While the texture was certainly better than storebought, it had the same underlying flavor of decent ginger snaps, which is not to say it was bad, but not particularly interesting beyond what you would expect. 3.0/5.0
nyc dessert mahzedahr gingersnap cookie 3.0
Mah Ze Dahr Banana Bread: Mah Ze Dahr is a small bakery in Greenwich Village with pastries carefully organized on wooden boards and raised platters, somehow conveying both abundance (through its variety of baked goods) and scarcity (there are <10 of each). This banana bread was served in a sizable disc, like an enlarged, leveled-off muffin top, or an especially thick cookie. Unfortunately, while banana bread is one of my favorites, I found it to be a bit on the dry side, and the sugar coating on top made it far too... (read more) 2.0/5.0
desserts bakery nyc mahzedahrbakery banana bread 2.0
T-Swirl Crepe Creme brulee crepe: One of the mini-crepes available at T-Swirl, the creme brulee is filled with a custard-like creme filling and bruleed to order. The crepe was satisfyingly eggy and slightly chewy, while the creme brulee was a rich treat. The best part to me was the crepe, and I would have preferred slightly less filling, but overall this snack was a good value. 3.5/5.0
recommended dessert nyc tswirlcrepe creme brulee crepe 3.5