New York City’s excellent walkability has always made it a perfect place to crawl – to bars, galleries and ‘Sex and the City’ film locations. There are so few places that cannot be reached on foot. (Governors Island footbridge when?)
I’m always looking for a new crawl. And since dessert and pastry could be a full-time job, I was happy to find three bakeries in the East Village area that all offer their own unique treats. Let’s start with…
Librae Bakery
Pronounced lee-BRAY, this new bakery in Cooper Square sees itself as a cross between Middle Eastern ingredients and Danish bakery culture. How do these elements mix at Librae? Well, there’s the sourdough bread served with strawberry-sumac jam, as well as flaky croissants filled with orange blossom pastry cream.
But the clearest indication of this mixing of cultures is the lumee babka made with a key ingredient in Bahraini cuisine: black lime, a lime that has been completely dried out. Librae doubles that sharp citrus taste by finishing it off with lemon curd. The result is a babka that is not sticky sweet, but rather clear and tangy, like a morning roll with lemon or orange zest. I can guarantee you that it is unlike any babka you have ever tried.
La Cabra
Once you brush up on that babka it’s time to walk the six minutes to La Cabra on Second Avenue. There will almost certainly be a line; but it gives you time to ogle at the neatly organized pastry shop and wall of loaves of bread, and watch the baristas fuss over expertly made lattes.
This Danish bakery makes impressive versions of patisserie favorites such as croissants, choux and canelés, but the real draws are the cakes, morning rolls and sandwich biscuits. They are delicate and beautiful, and I think they are best enjoyed in the tranquility of your apartment or in Tompkins Square Park rather than in the small bakery sitting area. My favorite is the rye pie, a hand-sized offering in a fragile bowl filled with an earthy hazelnut sponge and praline, and topped with a barely available rye panna cotta and mousse. But nothing I tried on a recent visit was a miss.
(A tip: if you prefer to skip the line, the West Village cafe and wine bar St. Jardim sells a small tasting of La Cabra baked goods daily.)
Lady Wong
With your third wave of coffee in hand, head south on Second Avenue and take an immediate left at East Ninth Street. Half a block later you will find Lady Wonga Southeast Asian bakery where any delicious pastry you’ve tasted thus far will literally pale in comparison to the colors on display here.
Seleste Tan and Mogan Anthony, the chefs behind Lady Wong, don’t shy away from shades of lilac, mint green or poppy red in their creations with flavors like pandan, passion fruit, sour plum, ube, calamansi and durian. The number of options can be overwhelming, so here’s what I enjoyed the most: the black sesame passion fruit pie, which hides a bright, fruity center under a dark, crunchy, nutty dome; the pandan panna cotta topped with a cane sugar crackle; and the mango curd pudding, which will have you wondering if you’ve ever had a good mango dessert.
And while it’s not sweet, try the angku kuih, a gooey glutinous rice-based “turtle” shell filled with mung beans. It symbolizes longevity, strength and tenacity – and couldn’t we all use a little of each right now?
In other news…
Openings: Al Coro fills in part of the old Del Posto space next to Mel’s in Chelsea; New Jersey’s Cornbread Holdings comes to Crown Heights, Brooklyn; Mezze by the river offers food inspired by the Mykonos hotspot Nammos, two outdoor terraces and water views in Battery Park City; and more.
With his mobile cart, the oyster man known as Moody hopes to bring oysters back to ubiquity in New York City and honor the legacy of black oyster men, Korsha Wilson reports.
Julia Moskin wrote about the Cheesemonger Invitational in Brooklyn in 2022, where the competition was narrowed down to five finalists tested on everyday cheesemonger skills.
For those who like to eat out but may not feel comfortable in their own kitchen, these 10 new recipes will teach you how to cook.
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