Taipan Bakery, Chinatown, NY

FS recently discovered her love for cake. She happened to find this bakery, which has her taro bun and... mousse cake, many different kinds of mousse cake, where chocolate was the unpopular one. FS had chocolate and it was light and fluffy and delicious.

On Yelp, it's Tai Pan, but as you can see from the sign, it's Taipan Bakery so FS goes with then sign.

Taipan Bakery (links to Yelp page)

194 Canal St
(between Mott St & Mulberry St)
New York, NY 10013
Neighborhood: Chinatown

Inside the bakery:

FS's purchased goodies (the trifecta of tea, chocolate mousse cake, and taro bun): 

Chocolate Mousse Cake:

Close-up.

The mousse cake has a thin cake wrap-around (the spotted portion). Inside, the top half is chocolate mousse and the bottom half is chocolate cake.

The taro bun:

The top part is actually flecked with small pieces of the same dough as the bun, but since the pieces are small, when baked, they become crispy. So the top part is nicely crunchy, which is common in most of Taipan's buns.

The taro inside is lightly sweet and very obviously mashed taro instead of a sugary taro paste, which might have less taro.

FS can't wait to go back to New York and sample more food.

Brandy Ice Cream: Two Flavors - Chocolate and Coffee

Food Scavenger too likes to haunt food blogs. The food blogs inspire her to fiddle around with their original recipes. Food Scavenger likes using whatever is it at hand. In this case, Food Scavenger often finds herself staring at David Lebovitz's Chocolate Banana recipe. She has followed the recipe down to the letter... and then found herself sans Bailey's liquor. She had used entire bottle without noticing.

Thus, the search began for a ratio of liquid to alcohol to banana to sugar ratio. Food Scavenger happened to have a gigantic bottle of brandy on hand. Food Scavenger likes brandy, brandy burns, adding depth and darkness to her experiments with chocolate or coffee ice cream.

Why, might you ask, does Food Scavenger eschue traditional ice cream recipes involving egg yolks and heavy cream?

Food Scavenger's guinea pigs i.e. family i.e. specifically her mother does not like the taste of eggs or cream in ice cream. Thus, store bought ice cream is not popular with her mother.

Also, Food Scavenger and her mother have high cholesterol. Runs in the family. Food Scavenger's grandmother died of a heart attack, because of this.

Hence, Food Scavenger's happy adherance to alcoholic ice cream*. Food Scavenger uses the Cuisineart ICE-21 ice cream maker.

Variant of David Lebovitz's Chocolate Banana Ice Cream 
2 c. milk
1/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 ripe bananas
1/4 c. brandy

Melt chocolate chips with one cup milk over a water bath. (Water bath: Place metal bowl on top of simmering pot of water. Melt ingredients as need be in metal bowl. Hold metal bowl with coaster or kitchen guard.) Stir occasionally with spatula until chocolate and milk incorporated (no sticky bottom of chocolate, just flakes throughout milk). Then, let cool.

Meanwhile, peal two ripe bananas. Deposit bananas and 1/4 c. brandy into blender. Add rest of milk. Now add chocolate and milk mixture. Blend. Pour into container and chill an hour in the freezer or a day in the refridgerator before adding to ice cream maker.

Follow ice cream maker's directions. For Food Scavenger, it's switch on ice cream maker so paddle will turn. Then add chilled mixture. Although not in the instruction manual, Food Scavenger likes to cover the ice cream maker in swathes of thick towels to speed up ice cream making time. That way she can make two batches of ice cream, each taking a 10 minute whirl in the machine.

Hazelnut Cream Coffee Ice Cream
1 c. milk
1 c. coffee
1/4 c. hazelnut cream (or 5-6 mini Hazelnut cream cups)
1 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 ripe banana
1/4 c. brandy

Dissolve sugar in coffee. Blend ingredients. Chill in container before adding to ice cream maker.

Food Scavenger's mother's favorite variant of brandy ice cream. The Hazelnut cream adds a nutty kick to the ice cream. Also, the aroma of decadent hazelnut makes the ice cream a heady experience.

Irish Cream Coffee Ice Cream

Replace hazelnut cream with Irish cream. Cool and refreshing, a lilting sweet contrast to the pungent hazelnut.

Coffee Milk Ice Cream

2 c. coffee
1/4 c. milk or plain cream
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 ripe banana
1/4 c. brandy

No one, but Food Scavenger can eat this. Too bitter, they all exclaim with a grimace on their face. Food Scavenger just smiles, because Food Scavenger finds its perfect, maybe a little too sweet? Ah, well.



Advance warnings, however, the consumption of too much of this ice cream may lead to a headache or a pleasant tipsiness. (Everyone's alcohol threshold is a bit different.)

Moreover, since the ice cream contains no egg yolk or cream, the consistency is more like soft-serve. The chocolate banana holds its shape the best, since it contains the retarding effects of alcohol and sugar and fat (the sugar and fat from the chocolate chips). The sugar and fat give it the heaviness and thickness of more conventional ice cream. The others while not the usual consistency of ice cream are refreshing and satisfying, a cool treat that kicks your taste buds into action.

*Technically, some people would not call this instead of ice cream since this contains dairy, but no eggs or the high fat content of conventional ice cream. So be it. But for Food Scavenger and family's simple life, this is ice cream. It goes in a cone. It's cold. It's biteable.