Over the weekend, Chris and I finally made it down to the lower east side to try The Doughnut Plant. They have two types of doughnuts - cake doughnuts and yeast doughnuts. My doughnut knowledge is limited to Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme, but The Doughnut Plant is known for using fresh ingredients (they also make their own jam filling). Chris and I heard that The Doughnut Plant is definitely worth going to, so we decided to take the bus to the LES and check it out:

There was a long line and a lot of people were making large orders (probably for Mother’s day). Doughnuts are freaking $2 - $3, but a lot of people were buying more than one, so I’m guessing it wasn’t a big deal to anyone else but me. They make all kinds of interesting doughnuts, including fresh strawberry, banana pecan, tres leches, and coconut glaze:

We decided on three doughnuts - fresh strawberry, the blackout (a chocolate doughnut with a chocolate filling), and the tres leches. Our strawberry doughnut:

The glaze is made with fresh strawberries, which tasted really sweet, but the doughnut was very dry and oily:

I think it’s because the doughnuts were made earlier in the morning and they were sitting in the display for the majority of the day (we went in the late afternoon). The other doughnuts had the same oily taste - especially the tres leches:

The doughnut was not moist (it was a cake doughnut) and made me incredibly thirsty for milk:

Surprisingly, the tres leches had a condensed milk filling:

But the filling was very inconsistent and we got huge bursts of filling and then lots of dry doughnut. The last doughnut we tried was the blackout:

The blackout had a chocolate filling, but it was really inconsistent and since it was our third doughnut, we ended up picking it apart and only eating the parts where it had gooey chocolate filling. The Doughnut Plant’s doughnuts are definitely different from the ones you’d find at Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donuts, but I’m not sure that’s a good thing…the ones at Krispy Kreme are really chewy and taste especially good when they’re fresh (and they always give you a free doughnut if you ask nicely). I suppose I’m used to the artificial ingredients from Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts and can’t appreciate The Doughnut Plant’s freshly made doughnuts!

Tip: Go early in the morning to get a fresh doughnut so it doesn’t taste so oily!

How to get to The Doughnut Plant:

The Doughnut Plant
379 Grand Street between Essex Street and Norfolk Street
New York, NY 10002
212-505-3700

Shopsin’s, located in the Essex Street market, is well known with the New York crowd. The owner, Kenny Shopsin, is a grumpy old man that runs the small restaurant with his family (two daughters and a son). They relocated from the west village to Essex Street market a while ago, but their fans followed them and continue to put up with the service because supposedly the food is fantastic. Calvin Trillin even wrote an article about him that was published in The New Yorker. I’ve read about the place a lot and we finally made our way down to the market a while back.

We only waited 10 minutes for a table (which is not too bad for a Saturday afternoon), but we didn’t know what we wanted to order since their menu is SO incredibly large. A lot of the menu items don’t have explanations, either, so I started asking one of the daughter’s a couple questions (which was a huge mistake). I was limited to three questions (but the menu is so f-ing large!) and we settled on the banana walnut chocolate chip pancakes:

The pancakes were a little gummy but not bad - they tasted like something you would make in your own kitchen (if you wanted to put in the effort). Part of the charm of Shopsin’s is that it’s a very small operation and the cook (Kenny), makes comfort foods that are easy enough to make yourself but at a premium that hipsters will appreciate.

Chris ordered Cubano 1:

The cubano had great chunks of sausage and melted cheese paired with a great hunk of bread. (Maybe my second favorite cubano, trailing The Spotted Pig’s work of art).

Shopsins:

Shopsin’s is in a small corner of the Essex Street Market, but all of Kenny Shopsin’s cooking ingredients are kept in the restaurant (how does Kenny do it?!). If I ever go back, I’m studying the entire menu beforehand so I know can use my three questions wisely.

How to get to Shopsin’s:

Shopsin’s
120 Essex Street, Stall 16
New York, NY 10002
212-924-5160

Prune is one of those places you want to go to because you’ve read about in magazines, you’ve heard your friends rave about the food there, and when you actually make it there, you realize it HAS to be good because the host declares it’s going to be a two hour wait and there are at least 20 people standing around with their fingers crossed (at least the host doesn’t pick favorites; Parker Posey and her friend tried to get in but the host, Dan, said it would be close to a two hour wait…well, can you really call Parker Posey a celebrity?). My brother, Chris, and I headed to Prune, hoping to score a table in the little restaurant that only seats about 20. Luckily, we only had to wait an hour and a half (yes, we were the fortunate ones).

The menu is simple and has staple brunch items - steak and eggs, eggs prepared in any way you’d like, pancakes, and bloody Mary’s prepared in 10 different ways. Since we added my brother to our usual brunch festivities, we were able to order a third dish to try (and for me to write about - yay!).

I started off with the pancake:

More like a cake than anything, it’s one huge piece of dough that is topped with blueberries and sour cream (with syrup on the side). It was a pretty huge piece of cake - not bombarded with sweetness, but it gets its point across. The sour cream and blueberries complemented the pancake well - they probably used a lot of buttermilk because the cake was slightly tangy. I thought the pancake was excellent - but it’s no Clinton St. Bakery (which, in Prune’s defence, I don’t think they’re trying to be).

David ordered the steak and eggs:

Dry aged steak with eggs (any way you want them) and a hash brown. The steak was a worthy competitor of any steak house in New York - very juicy, very tender, and VERY delicious. The steak was topped off with a butter and scallion mixture (I usually take it off because I don’t like anything interrupting the flavors of the steak, but in this case, I made an exception). David’s steak and eggs were huge, but somehow, we managed to finish/

Chris ordered the eggs Benedict:

I had half of Chris’ order and I must say - I LOVE Hollandaise sauce! I mean, what’s not to love about the fatty sauce that you drip over EGGS, HAM, and an ENGLISH MUFFIN? The side pancake style blob is a piece of hash brown (piece - is that the right terminology?) Slightly burnt, in my opinion, but very crunchy and VERY delicious. Chris liked the dish, but he thought that his order size was a lot smaller than expected.

Prune is a solid brunch spot that I’m sure people will want to try - I don’t see myself going back anytime soon because I just don’t have two hours on a Sunday morning to spare (sleep is important!). Parker Posey, on the other hand, may have time to go back during the week, when everyone else is working.

How to get to Prune:

Prune
54 E 1st St between 1st and 2nd Ave
New York, NY 10003
212-677-6221

I took my brother out to Schiller’s Liquor Bar for lunch one Saturday afternoon after walking around the city looking for a place to take us without a reservation. Clinton St. Baking Company said we’d have to wait TWO HOURS, so we walked over to Schiller’s on the LES for brunch. We were seated pretty quickly and got right to ordering. My brother order eggs benedict with hollandaise sauce and hash browns:

Schiller’s hollandaise sauce was really creamy and delicious and tasted so good with the potatoes, the eggs, and the bread. It was AMAZING!

I ordered waffles with berries. Last time we went to Schiller’s, I ordered the same thing and they came with grapes….I HATE warm grapes! This time, I specifically asked the waiter if there were only berries with the waffles or if it came with other fruit…he told me it was only berries and this is what I got:

WHY DID HE LIE?! This time, I actually didn’t really enjoy my waffles. 1. because there were so many freaking grapes and 2. because the syrup tasted like there was too much liquor mixed with it. BOO! They did taste very fresh - like they were just pressed in the kitchen.

Chris ordered cheeseburger with fries:

Good, nothing memorable though. The service was okay (a bunch of out of work actors/models/artists) and my brother enjoyed his stay in the city, so overall, it was a good backup place to go for lunch. Not a place I’d look forward to all week like Pearl Oyster Bar or Balthazar, but a solid restaurant to take friends.

How to get to Schiller’s Liquor Bar:

Schiller’s Liquor Bar
131 Rivington St between Norfolk and Suffolk
New York, NY 10002
212-260-4555

Side note - even though I promised updates from Berlin/Copenhagen, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. I need to organize all of my pictures (over 1,000 already!) and think about what I’m going to blog about before rolling out the Berlin posts. For now, enjoy an Economy Candy post that I’ve been storing for a rainy day!

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One thing I love is Candy. Candy candy candy. When I was a kid, I used to hide my Halloween candy under my bed and eat it after my mom tucked me in. I had six cavities when I was only five years old. Impressive, I know. So when I heard about Economy Candy, I knew that I HAD to go!

Economy Candy has all kinds of hard to find candies (nostalgia candies, if you will), without the frills of Dylan’s. When I walked in, it was definitely a sensory overload…see below:

OMFG! AHHHHHHHH!!! It was AWESOME!! Seriously, there is candy up and down the walls and all over the place. I couldn’t believe my eyes!! Seriously, I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen so much candy…not even in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! They have all types of awesome candy there, including hard to find brands and stuff from overseas. Look at how happy I am:

Office reference:

Michael: I am really proud of you.
Pam: Thank you.
Michael: What?
Pam: Do you have something in your pocket?
Michael: A Chunky. Do you want half?

HA!

Economy Candy even has their own cat:

If he could talk, he would say: I’m in your candy store, eating your halvah! Check out icanhascheezburger for more funny cat pics!

We made out like bandits with candy that I used to eat all the time when I lived in Pittsburgh and some candy I found in Europe, including KINDER EGGS:

I absolutely LOVE kinder eggs because it’s just the right amount of chocolate and creamy insides AND there’s always a toy inside! I thought they were banned in the US because the toys were too small and kids kept swallowing them, but apparently they’re still available at Economy Candy! I’m seriously going to Economy Candy every single day to pick up a little treat - their prices are a LOT better than Dylan’s and their choices are a ton better, too!

How to get to Economy Candy:

Economy Candy
108 Rivington Street between Essex and Ludlow
New York, NY 10002
212-254-1531