eating with emak

Sweet Black Rice Pudding with Coconut Milk and Mango…..So Good! 

Serves up to 6 people

• 1.5 cup glutinous black rice
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/3-1/2 cup of packed brown sugar (to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
• diced mangoes or other fruit of your choice

1. Soak the black rice in water overnight or for at least 6 hours in a medium pot. This step helps reduce the cooking time.
2. Wash and drain the rice .
3. Add 5 cups of water to the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. 
4. Once boiled reduce the heat to medium and let it simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally.
5. Near the last 10 minutes, stir in the brown sugar. Keep stirring until desired consistency. It should have a thicker consistency sort of like porridge. If it’s too watery, you can either ladle some of it out or let it cook until it evaporates some more. 
6. I like to serve this at room temperature or chilled.
7. Add a drizzle of coconut milk and mangoes right before serving.

This dessert takes some work. You have to pre-soak the rice, keep an eye on it so the rice doesn’t boil over, and also have to remember to occasionally stir the rice. But the end result is so worth it. Mangoes seem to be in season right now since they are being sold everywhere in Chinatown the past couple of weeks. One of my favorite desserts. 

Earl Grey Flan and Mango Pudding from Cha-An.  So good!  Wash it down with a cup of Honey Phoenix Oolong tea…absolutely perfect! 

Cha-An Japanese Tea House, 230 E 9th Street, East Village, NYC

Photo courtesy of Matt taken on his Droid X. 

Gourmet Slushy from Kelvin Natural Slush Truck

Co-worker Candace and I needed something sweet after our lunch and decided to go check out the Kelvin Slush truck. I got the ginger slush with mango puree mix in. A touch of spiciness with the perfect amount of sweetness. Don’t slurp too fast or you’ll get brain freeze! :)

Kelvin Natural Slush Co.- check website or twitter for locations.

Everything Frosted is a small cupcake shop in the heart of Chinatown.  I first read about them from a blog, and then checked out their reviews on Yelp.com.  I immediately became intrigued when I read that they had “Asian” inspired flavor cupcakes like green tea, jasmine, red bean, etc…and also that their cupcakes are not overly sweet like Crumbs cupcakes.  I made it a mission to go try them out while I was in the city, and also to get my mom a treat for her birthday.

There were so many flavors to choose from; I had to refrain myself from wanting to buy each and every one of them.  I ended up narrowing it down to three cupcakes on this visit.  I got the Tiramisu cupcake ($2.50), Lychee cupcake (new item $3), and Jasmine Tea cupcake with mango frosting ($2.50). For some of the cupcakes, you can choose which type of frosting you like; for example, you can pair the cupcake with a chocolate frosting, strawberry, mango, jasmine, or black sesame, etc.  

OMG! The cupcakes are absolutely amazing! The cake is dense, but very moist. The flavors are perfect. The lychee cupcake was topped with a lychee frosting.  The frosting had small bits of lychee in it. It was so good.  I chose mango frosting to go with my jasmine tea cupcake. You can really taste the mango in the frosting. And the jasmine tea cake was superb! Finally, the tiramisu cupcake was just divine.  The coffee flavor was so good.  These cupcakes are perfectly sweetened, and the frosting is light and fluffy.  They are really the best I’ve had.  By the way, my mom loved them too.

They give you a card that if you buy 5 cupcakes, the sixth is free!  I’m definitely coming back to try the other flavors for sure!

Everything Frosted, 105 1/2 Mosco Street (btw Mott and Mulberry) Chinatown, NYC

By the time we arrived at the Bent Spoon, only 6 flavors were left.  I had a cup of coconut.  It was good; however a little too sweet for me.  Also stole a taste of mango which I thought was excellent.  

The Bent Spoon- 35 Palmer Square West, Princeton NJ 08542