abbycomix

My latest cold dessert adventure brought me to Eton in Carroll Gardens. Click here to read it at The L Mag!

The L Magazine has posted my latest yummy comic! Click to read! It’s available on the stands all over NYC in the Fiction issue! It’s about an NYC summer-time fave, Chinatown Ice Cream Factory!

Big News! First of all I did a comic featuring three local food artisans that stood out for me at the Fancy Food Show. It is on stands now in The L Magazine’s “Sex Issue”. Free on every street corner in NYC! I cover Chocolat Moderne, Wine Cellar Sorbets, and Vere Chocolate. Click here to read it at The L now!Second of all, the new City Sweet Tooth site is up and live! Check it out! http://www.citysweettooth.com

I had the pleasure of attending The Fancy Food show last weekend and it was amazing! There were so many delicious gourmet food items throughout all of the enormous Jacob Javits Center, all with free samples on offer! Definitely a foodie paradise. Olive oil was probably the most popular item on offer (served with bread to dip it in), after that was the cheese. I’d never seen SO MUCH CHEESE! Good, fancy cheese, so many types of artisanal goat cheese, brie cheese, mozzarella, and all of it free to try! After that olives were the third most common food on offer, and then…chocolate. Needless to say I am working on a comic about some of the local sweets I found. But since it was such a huge show with all kinds of food from all over I wanted to do a little bonus post about the displays that stood out for me.

Some chocolates that were good but I didn’t get photos of : Sant Eustachio a cafe from Rome had these great chocolate covered espresso beans and a candy called Bon Bon al caffe which had liquid coffee candy inside a hard shell. Nashville based Colts Cocolates had several delicious items on offer like Bumblebees, Roy Rogers Happy Trails, and chocolate covered marshmallows too. Monbana Chocolatier had some lovely candies on offer. I liked the crunchy Crousti-Neige, it reminded me of a chocolate covered Kix cereal ball covered in milk and then white chocolate. I also scored one of my fave chocolate bars, Endangered Species Dark Chocolate with Hazelnut Toffee. Oh yeah! Some of the prettiest chocolates on display were from Ingo Wullaert Chocolatier of Florida. I especially enjoyed the Pomegranate Cosmopolitan truffle.

I totally loved Norman Love Confections’ Peanut Butter and Jelly Truffle. Just soooo good and exceptionally lovely truffles. They are also based in Florida.

One of the more unusual (and delicious) things I came across was German chocolate truffle eggs from Gut Springenheide that are somehow inside of actual egg shells. The shells are beautifully decorated and I favored the hazelnut chocolate filled one. I can’t find their website though. Here is a pic.

Another nice chocolate I tried was from Mademoiselle De Margaux, a French Chocolatier. Les Sarments du Medoc is a kind of wavy chocolate twig that comes in eight flavors. I tried the Dark Chocolate Mint one and it was amazing! They were displayed with coffee, so I presume it can be used as a stirrer to add flavor to coffee as well. Very nice! (image below from their site)

On the mainstream candy front, the new Jelly Belly Pomegranate jelly beans rock!

Another interesting thing I tried was Sence Rare European Rose Nectar. I see it more as something to mix with champagne or in cocktails, but it was pretty good on its own. Not like drinking perfume as I feared it would be. Also just beautiful to look at. Image below from their press kit:

Another beverage on display was Stirrings Cocktail Mixers and Rimmers. They had a huge, fun, and colorful display and I tried an absolutely delicious blood orange martini! (image from their site)

There were many other great beverages and beverage influenced items. Like Bali’s Best Coffee and Tea Candy! I especially enjoyed the Green Tea Latte flavor. Mmm…

Also on the tea end was Teapigs from the UK. They had some of the loveliest tea bags (or “biodegradable mesh tea temples” as they call them) I have ever seen and the tea tastes just as good as it looks. It’s made only with “whole leaves, whole flowers, and whole berries. No dust.” (as stated on their press kit).

On the ice cream front I tried this amazing ALA Port Wine flavored ice cream from Mercer’s Dairy. It’s part of their Wine Ice Cream line and despite it’s greyish color it was one of the best finds of the show. (Image below from their site)

Another great dessert find was Taste It Presents. They make high end international desserts including Tiramisu, Creme Brulee, Tres Leches Cake, Mango Mousse and more. I was bowled over by the Mango Mousse and the Creme Brulee. These are all items that are available frozen, but I couldn’t find a retail store list on their site. I’ll just keep an eye out for them I guess. (image below from their site)

Mrs. Prindables had an intense holiday display of candy apples, so big and delicious!

On the savory side I got some yummy Japanese crunchy Tempura flavored seaweed snacks from Tao Kae Noi. I’d buy them regularly if I can find them in a local store. (Image from their site)

Before finishing, I can’t neglect to mention the insane hummus sculptures that Sabra had at their booth:

What a fun show, I’ll be back next time for sure!

L’Arte Del Gelato has 3 locations:

Chelsea Market (75 Ninth Ave)

75 Seventh Ave.

Lincoln Center Plaza

Check it out, yummy gelato comic at The L Magazine!

If you’re in NYC remember to pick up tomorrow’s new issue of The L Magazine! The Levain installment of The City Sweet Tooth will be in there! You can find it for free in orange stands all over the City!

Levain Bakery has HUGE cookies!

Check out the latest City Sweet Tooth at The L Magazine!

Rachel from Cupcakes take the Cake, a very cool cupcake blog, posted about me and The City Sweet Tooth, yay! I will be covering cupcakes soon, I promise!

You can also click here for The City Sweet Tooth, featuring Tazza in Brooklyn Heights on The L Magazine’s site!

Update: Tazza no longer carries the mocha sandwich T_T but they do still have a LOT of yummy desserts including a giant oreo which is quite similar. They also just opened a second location (also in Brooklyn Heights)  at 72 Clark St. Congrats to them!

I’m thrilled to announce my latest project - The City Sweet Tooth!
It’s a column in comic strip format that will feature profiles of New York City’s finest pastry shops, bakeries, cafes, and unique treats. One of the best things about living in New York is the availability of one of a kind (sometimes legendary) desserts and snacks. The column will cover places both new and old, famous and less well-known. Those who know me know I love New York and I love sweets, so this a dream project!
The strip is on The L Magazine’s website and a shorter version is in today’s issue of the print magazine available for free all over New York City. Just look for the little orange boxes with a letter L on on it, it’s “The Free Issue”.

You can also see the comic here at The L:
http://www.thelmagazine.com/

by the way: www.citysweettooth.com is under construction and on the way!

Update : Madeleine Patisserie has added a lot of new seating and table service!