The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

I've long heard about the Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. It's been on many TV shows, and been featured in different travel tours. Last time when I visited NYC, my friend took me here, which was perfect, I've been meaning to try them out anyway.
This time I got a Pistachio cup. For $3.79 they give you a pretty big cup of ice cream. They have alot of flavors that you don't see at a normal ice cream shop. Such as Dan Tart. It's really a pastry with egg custard, but an ice cream?

They do sell pretty cute souvenirs, they have some DIY type bags, ranges makeup bag size to shopping bag size. They also have cute little onesies too.

The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
65 Bayard Street
Manhattan Chinatown
New York, NY 10013
Phone: (212) 608-4170
http://chinatownicecreamfactory.com/

Fong Inn Too Inc.

One of the little hole in the wall I remembered was Hung On.

They sell tofu treats, radish cakes, vermicelli, and most of all (what I was really there for) was boot jai go. It's essentially a sugar cake that I had growing up in Hong Kong. If you don't know what that is, this is a really good recipe of what I wanted to describe.
They come in plain white (from the white sugar), or brown (from brown sugar), or with/without red beans (azuki). Here at the shop, they charge 2 for 75 cents, well worth it for a trip down memory lane.

Fong Inn Too Inc.

46 Mott Street

Chinatown, New York City

212-962-5196

Unless you have a friend that speaks Chinese, don't bother calling, most of the people there are older Chinese that hasn't speak English long enough to help you with directions. But tons of pointing and smiling will go a long way.

Shanghai Nice Green Bo Restaurant

Alright, I just had a trip thru NY for a girls weekend, and tons of pictures to share. Since it's a ton, I'll spare you the wording, just a few descriptions here and there. Enjoy!

Chinatown for Shanghai food.

Shanghai noodle soup with mustard green and pork

Ma Po Tofu (no meat)

Shanghai Dumpling

Nice Green Bo Restaurant
66 Bayard Street
New York, NY 10013
212-628-2359

Baby Shower Macarons

So for my friend's baby shower, I decided to make a few flavors for her party. I'm not sure why, but the orange looks like a pale yellow and the yellow looks like green cookies. I swear in real life they're not what they look like here. That or I needed to make them brighter looking.
So the flavors for the party were: Plumcot - that's plum & apricot mix that I made into jam (orange). Lemon (yellow) and chocolate. All were ganache center. Nothing too fancy. I think that was a hit because that's the one thing I didn't have any leftovers. The ones I had, I packed them w/ the mommy-to-be. :)

Revival Cured Duck

We do go down to Revival quite a bit. We decides to give the duck a try. Don't know if I mentioned it before, they cured their own meat here. The duck is smoked and cured in house. As you can see it's pretty meaty and has a healthy dose of fat to go along with it.

I put it on top of my salad as my protein. The taste was delicious and the skin was better than I thought. They come in an airtight package, so it does keep for a little bit. Go check it out.

Revival Market

Telephone 713-880-8463

550 Heights Boulevard at the corner of White Oak
Houston, TX 77007

http://revivalmarket.com/

Pei Wei

So I haven't been to Pei Wei for a long time. They had a Korean beef dish that just inspired me to try it. The thing is, I didn't think I ordered beef to go with my shallots. You have never seen so many shallots in one dish, ever! Anyway, when you do get down to the beef of it, it's actually pretty good. This is a limited time dish, you should try it but ask them to hold the shallot.

Pei Wei

http://www.peiwei.com/index.aspx

Island Grill

For a little healthier fare, we went to Island Grill for dinner. They are really known for their juice bar. If you ever want to have a healthy afternoon snack, go for the N.R.G. which is blueberries, banana, vanilla yogurt, and energy boost.

Aside from that, they serve a full arrange of food there too. Anything from pasta, to Greek food, to breakfast, to lox and bagle.

The other night, I got the gyro platter, which was the biggest gyro sandwich I've seen. Most of the time, people give you half the size of gyro meat they gave you here. And they definitely make sure that they did not cheat you for the price you paid for it. The platter, by the way, does come with a drink.

Another night we went, I ordered the grilled chicken sandwich with gluten free bread. They started to carry Gluten Free Houston's products. Since they don't have burger bun, they gave me the bread and cut them up like a club sandwich.
But as you can see, it's more than generous with the size. I can barely fit it in my mouth to take a bite.

I like to support a local business if possible. Faysal is definitely happy to get to know his customers all from the neighborhood. I know they also have a Woodway location, to which he had said that one of his customers kid whom he watched her grow up to where she's inviting him to her wedding. So, a mom and pop style business definitely has its charm.

Island Grill & Juice
4024 Bellaire Blvd
Houston TX 77024
Ph:713-665-5388
http://www.islandgrillhouston.com/