Accursed holiday conventions aside, my ever-so-patient man deserves treats. (Nope, this is not mushiness--this is an admission of guilt on the part of an irrational, food-crazed unladylike-type.)
So if the V-Day makes it easier for The Man to get his comeuppance, then HURRAY!
Enter Roni Sue's Chocolates...yup, I wrote about them last Valentine's, too, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Where else are you going to find 6 handmade truffles for $10 (or $2 a piece, $18 for 12 pc, $22.00 for 15 pc), honey-and-tea lollipops ($1.50 each), or the CrackerJack™-cum-pig creation, BaCorn ($5 a bag)?
A $5-bag that goes WAY TOO QUICK, in my humble opinion; molasses-y popcorn that's not too sweet, with a scattering of chile-seasoned pine nuts and candied nuggets of bacon (of which there were too few, sayeth The Man--in a positive way, not a I'm-feeling-deprived way). Love means being unembarrassed about your yen for candied pork.
The Man was tickled about the truffles I'd picked out too; no snoozy or overly fancypants fillings here, RS is willing and ably embracing chocolate-minded booze hounds.
L to R, top row then bottom: Dark-n-Stormy (ginger and rum), Manhattan (Knob Creek bourbon, sweet vermouth, bitters & a cherry), Chocolate-Covered Pretzel Caramel, Portly Fig (dried figs infused with Port wine), Pomegranate (Poma liqueur), and one Three-Layer Hazelnut Truffle (Dark, white & milk chocolates, each mixed with hazelnut praline).
Ladies and gentlemen, singles and couples, that's a lotta love for $10.
But what if you're not the candy-buying type? What if an eyelid-sagging, satisfying brekky says l'amour to you?
Well, it's Pancake Month over at Clinton St. Bakery, and in honor of forced seasonal intimacy, on Feb. 13th and 14th, the special featured pancakes will be decked in Strawberries and a Champagne Zabayon. I hate waiting in line for food more than your average chowhound, but the Clinton St. pancakes...they do something to me. Check out the chocolate-chunk specimen ($12) that I shared with the Soft-Spoken Feisty Lady!
Tender, moist, studded with bittersweet chocolate, these somehow managed to be indulgent but not cloying. We were sad to see them disappear so quickly (but happy to be the lucky co-culprits). Pancakes are usually something SSFL and I avoid--I'd rather Benedict than have to soak dry disks of dough with liquid sugar to make them palatable--but these babies didn't even need the warm syrup doodad (butter rum?) off to the side. Yes, yes, a thousand times, YES!
And speaking of Benedict, they managed to churn out an off-the-hook variation of that, too:
'Twas another special of the day, the Corn-and-Clam Fritter Benedict ($15). It's as exactly as dirty as it sounds--hot hush puppies with chopped clam and corn topped with poached eggs and an Old-Bay spiked hollandaise. Though I couldn't really taste any clam besides a welcome hint of brininess, and the eggs were done a little hard (medium, no oozy yolks) it was still damn good, and went perfectly with the pint-o-peppery Bloody Mary ($9).
Plate-licking most certainly crossed our noggins, but somehow SSFL and I managed to show some restraint.
But YOU won't have to!
**Wink**
Have a Happy-Bloaty Valentine's!
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Roni-Sue's Chocolates
at Essex Street Market (#24)
120 Essex Street (at Delancey)
NYC, NY 10002
LES (Lower East Side)
Ph: 212.260.0421
Hours:
Mon-Sat: 11 AM - 7 PM
Clinton St. Bakery
4 Clinton St
(btwn E. Houston & Stanton)
NYC, NY 10002
LES (Lower East Side)
Ph: 646-602-6263
Fx: 646-602-6264
Hours:
Mon-Fri: 8am-4pm & 6pm-11pm
Sat: 10am-4pm, 6pm-11pm
Sun: 10am-4pm
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