Pola Gelato Shop

New York spoils us with ice cream shops. One of several perks of the sweltering summer is regular after-work trips to one of the fancy ice cream spots nearby (Van Leeuwen and Ample Hills are our well-loved go-tos). So heading somewhere even more sweaty and sunny means ice cream's a daily necessity. Except in Mérida, ice cream's swapped for fruitier, more refreshing sorbet (when the fruit's this good, you'd be silly to choose anything else).

Pola Gelato was our first stop (after dropping our bags at our Airbnb) of the trip, and yes, there were many more trips back. Our favorites of the maybe too many that we tried? Mango and chili (it had a really spicy kick!), mamey (our new fave fruit), and pineapple & tamarind. And with those pretty tiled floors and a beautiful square two steps away, this little shop was an ice cream-loving photographer's heaven.

Pola Gelato Shop, 467D, Calle 55 x 62 y 64, centro, 97000 Mérida, Yuc., Mexico 

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Tarte Tatin at Great Queen Street

Happy New Year! I hope you all managed to find some time for peace and laughter over the holidays. 

The silence around here is a result of being back in old Blighty for the Christmas week. Any spare moments where the internet was functioning were spent working, and not blogging. But now we are back in wet and cold Brooklyn, and normal life will resume. So now, before the crazy January period begins, I wanted to share a totally non-resolution-focused, totally undetoxing treat we ate the one day we were in London last week.

We nipped into London to celebrate Grandma's 80th birthday with lunch at Great Queen Street. I've written about this Covent Garden gem before, so won't repeat the details, but last time we didn't discover this tarte tatin. But don't worry, almost two years later we now have. And I encourage you to go and eat it sooner than 2019.

The tarte is made for two, and before it's bought to the table, a serving spoon and serrated steak knife are set down between you and your pudding partner. This is a promising sign. What follows is tarte tatin perfection. Layers of buttery puff pastry topped with soft apples, which still just hold their shape, and a deep, dark, grown-up caramel. A melting scoop of calvados ice cream perches on top, to add a boozy, chilling contrast to the sweet, warm, winter-perfect tarte underneath. Forget those New Year's resolutions, head to Great Queen Street, and order tarte tatin. You're worth it.

Great Queen Street, 32 Great Queen Street, London, WC2B 5AA

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Creamy Cocoa and Sweet Potato Soup

When you work for a soup start-up, your life becomes more focused on soup than you could possibly imagine. Trying to think of something to make for dinner other than soup is like trying to win the final of a Spelling Bee. I dream about soup, write about soup, eat soup, and that Mighty Boosh song is stuck on a loop in my head. 

I'm not complaining — I'm just trying to convey the all-encompassing nature of soup start-up life. The fact that I get to spend two hours every Monday morning filming a Facebook Live of my boss making soup is a total dream. Writing about mindful eating and living every week is hugely refreshing after so many slideshows about tailgating. And it means I can eat delicious soups for lunch every day of the week.

In my second week on the job, we celebrated Halloween with this sweet dessert-style soup. Steamed sweet potatoes are mixed with cocoa, coconut milk, a dash of chili, and served over black rice. Yep, don't worry, I was skeptical too. But it's delicious. It's like rice pudding but with chocolate and natural sweetness and chewier, less jelly-like rice. I've been craving it ever since, and think it may have to make an appearance at the breakfast table on Sunday morning. It's so simple, can genuinely be made in 20 minutes (we proved that here), and will fuel your day with so much energy and goodness. Happy souping!

You can find the recipe here, but if you are a keen souper, buy Nicole's book here.

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Mansoura

A trip to Mansoura sat on my list of things do for the entire summer. It's not that we didn't think about going every weekend, but they're not open on Saturdays, and they're closed every Sunday in July and August, so for us working folk, with terrible amounts of vacation time (nope, I still haven't got used to that!), we weren't going to make it until summer was over. And now that summer really is over, we finally hopped on our bikes, and cycled down Ocean Parkway to Gravesend.

If you didn't know what you were looking for, you could all to easily walk past the storefront which sits on traffic-filled Kings Highway. But when you step inside, and see the lines, rows, boxes, fridges, and sheets filled with baklava, chocolates, candied fruits, and praline, you know you've found something special. The friendly brothers who run the store will likely be working behind the counter, you'll be able to peak into the kitchens to discover they really do make all that they sell in this one space, and when you ask what they recommend you get one simple response: 'Everything'.

As you go round the shop, peering into boxes of chocolate-coated candied fruit and trays of freshly made, super sticky baklava, looking to see what jeweled pistachio treats are hiding away on the back of the counter, and not-so-gradually filling up your chosen (inevitably too small) size of box, you'll pick up snippets of information from either Jack or David. These two young brothers run the store, and bake everything they sell, having taken over from their parents a few years ago. They'll proudly  explain that they've been selling pastries in this exact spot for over 60 years (at least double their lifetime), and that the almond roll baklava is particularly good, and that I should make sure to tag them in my Instagram photos. 

Having now eaten my way through almost everything we bought, I can confirm that, unsurprisingly, as we were told, everything is the best. All the sweets are made with honey rather than glucose, it's all made by the brothers themselves, and they follow recipes and make the same sweets that their family started making 200 years ago, when they first opened a pastry shop in Aleppo. Since that time  the family have gradually moved across the world, baking all the way, until they arrived in Gravesend in 1961. Lucky for us, they've stayed. And if you live in New York, you should definitely go and visit. The stunning food culture in this city, the hidden gems which you need to seek out, will never cease to inspire and amaze me.

Mansoura, 515 Kings Highway, Brooklyn NY 11223

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Moo Moo's Creamery, Cold Spring

Sunday was a perfect day. Fall has arrived in New York. The air is crisp, the skies are blue, there's a light breeze, the humidity has disappeared, and the leaves are gradually, gradually darkening, yellowing, and falling to the ground. In other words, this was the perfect day to head upstate for a hike. So at 8.30am on a Sunday morning with our bags filled with homemade lunch and plenty of water, we hopped on a train at Grand Central (sadly, no Serena van der Woodsen sightings this time) and headed up along the Hudson river until we reached Breakneck Ridge. 

Unsurprisingly, this popular hike was more than a little busy on this dreamy day, so we scrambled harder and faster than everyone else up the sheer cliff face that makes up Breakneck Ridge, and kept going up and up, over the rocks, higher and higher above the river, until we'd lost the crowds, had reached the summit, and were seemingly on top of the world. All we could see around us were miles and miles of dense forest, a wide, bending river, and bright blue skies.

Not ones to be sensible when it comes to walking/running/exercising/taking the easy route in life generally, this one climb wasn't enough. So we followed the path down through the trees and then wound our way up to the summit of Bull Hill, stopping briefly for lunch looking out over the vast canopy of trees, before putting our knees and ankles to the test as we clambered down until we finally arrived in Cold Spring. After a well-earned drink at Cold Spring Depot our tummies were rumbling, so we went on a hunt for ice cream. Thankfully, Moo Moo's Creamery wasn't too many steps away. 

The line winding outside the door of this shop in this quiet, idyllic town was a good sign. After walking for many, many hours, spending five minutes waiting in line, admiring the genuinely ginormous ice creams that all the smiling customers were walking out the door with, wasn't too hard. We finally ordered a single scoop each (B was adamant he didn't want a cone, and I was adamant I did, so no sharing was going to happen): golden oreo for me and maple walnut for B. This single scoop (which was actually multiple scoops, but apparently qualifies here as a single scoop) of ice cream was genuinely the biggest ice cream I've ever been given. Thankfully, the top secret family recipe, and fabulous flavors meant eating it, while we sat watching the sun sparkle on the river, was no challenge. 

Moo Moo's is an amazing little spot, especially after a super long hike. Their ice cream is all homemade, made fresh daily, and their are 16 flavors available every day. The cow print covering the shop and its interior are just an extra reason to smile. Apparently the ice cream store was opened by a guy called Alexi, who graduated from Syracuse University, started training to be an accountant, realized he hated being an accountant, and decided ice cream would make a better career choice. He made the right decision. I hope he knows that. If you're ever up in Cold Spring, and in need of a post-hike treat, don't miss out on the opportunity to eat an ice cream as tall as the mountain you just climbed.

Moo Moo's Creamery, 32 West St, Cold Spring, NY 10516

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Oddfellows Ice Cream Co.

As those of you who follow along with my life on Instagram you'll be well aware of my love of ice cream. And since arriving in New York 51 weeks ago, I have undoubtedly eaten more ice cream than in the rest of my life put together. This city has made ice cream a key life source for me, and, with this endless hot summer, ice cream adventures are a favorite weekend activity. We do our best to venture past our hyper local and totally superlative Van Leeuwen, and the slightly less local but totally wonderfully fun and bonkers Ample Hills. So, in the midst of the heat bubble, we dipped into Oddfellows, to get a taste of another of New York's top ice creams.

This Oddfellows store consists of red stripes, bar stools, and the perfect balance of old school kitsch and Brooklyn hipster. With flavors ranging from pink lemonade sorbet, to miso cherry, to coffee crunch, these ice creams are exciting enough to intrigue you, but not so fancy and mixed up that you're fairly terrified about trying them.

We took a seat in the satisfyingly air conditioned, stripy room, and our overflowing cup of blueberry buttermilk and strawberry olive oil rapidly disappeared We managed to restrain ourselves from ordering more and forced our satisfied tummies back out into the sweltering heat. Next stop: Oddfellows' Manhattan outlet, which serves exclusively ice cream sandwiches. You've been warned.

Oddfellows Ice Cream Co, 175 Kent Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11249

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