La Abundancia

It's the last day of November, and yes, I went another two months without writing, and without much eating, and I do have some good excuses, I swear, but not going to get into them now. The important thing is that I did actually make one tiny little stop on Roosevelt Avenue during the month, and am finally sitting down and typing it up. After a filling and very cheap dinner at Lao Bei Fang Dumpling House (write-up to come) in Elmhurst with some fine eating companions (Rachel, Stella, and Helena) we were still looking for a little something sweet, as usual, and made our way down Broadway towards the corner of Roos and 75th, to the large, brightly-lit, green-tabled oasis that is La Abundancia Colombian Bakery for a slice of dulce de leche cake.


The roulade was a surprising dessert. I was expecting it to be dry and overly sweet, as roulades covered in dulce de leche can sometimes be. But the cake was dense and moist, the dulce was not cloying or overpowering, and the shredded coconut exterior added a nice textural contrast to the softness of the cake, saving it from becoming boring. But, you may be asking, how do four girls who have the capacity to eat as much cake as we do (see cake-off here) share just one slice? Well, we did get a few other desserts.

Flan, which we quickly concurred was far too eggy and a touch overcooked.

And a sweet bread that was filled with guava. A thin and crackly crust, then an even thinner layer of guava surrounding a sweet ball of dough. If we had a cup of coffee to dip into, it might have been more satisfying, but not our favorite.

The steam tables with daily lunch and dinner specials look tempting, with stews and rice and beans and that sort of stuff. The empanadas and other fried snacks looked tasty as well. But I went to La Abundancia for the dulce de leche cake, and stayed for the company, and the green tables. I love those tables.

La Abundancia Bakery
75-02 Roosevelt Avenue, Jackson Heights

Nieve Making at Viva Puebla!

I don't think that I can write often enough about how obsessed I am with the nieves at Viva Puebla, which I wrote about here (as well as their chicharron preparado, which I wrote about here).

So far I've tried the guava (my favorite)


then watermelon and lime together -


And today, I got the melon (canteloupe)....


and a chance to watch the nieve being made!


A very slow process in which the sweetened fruit base is placed in a barrel full of ice, and spun round and round, with periodical scraping, until the liquid becomes a smooth, sometimes creamy, sometimes icy, snow.
Once the summer ends there will be no more homemade nieve. A relief for this man, perhaps, but a sad day for me.

Viva Puebla
89-16 Roosevelt Avenue, Jackson Heights

Mais con Hielo, Halo-Halo, Tito Rad's

I love when corn is used in dessert. I've been dying to try mais con hielo (a Filipino drink/dessert which is exactly what it sounds like: corn with ice) for a while, but when I went to Ihawan and Krystal's a few months ago to search for it for my Corn Around the World post, it wasn't available. I knew that Tito Rad's in Woodside had it, but I haven't been for a while. Until yesterday. After a huge meal at Pio Pio Riko in Sunnyside with Shannon yesterday afternoon, we still wanted a little something sweet. She really wanted an icy Asian drink and I thought we were in the wrong neighborhood until I realized - Tito Rad's! Just a few blocks away, she could get halo-halo and I could finally try...mais con hielo.

Tito Rad's version tastes just like creamed corn. I think it is creamed corn. With ice, evaporated milk, a little sugar, and some whipped cream. The corn was warm, the ice was cold, it was more salty than sweet, and there was a little bit of crunch from the flaky garnish. It was interesting, and I expected it to be sweeter, but I liked it. $3.75.

Nothing not to like about halo-halo. I was more focused on the corn, but I did enjoy all of the delicious bits of jackfruit, red and white beans, young coconut and palm fruit, mixed in with every bite, of ice, milk, and ice cream - the scoop of bright purple ube ice cream that was beneath the surface was my favorite part. Really tasted like sweet, starchy yams. $5.50.

It's always nice when a wish is fulfilled. I dreamed of eating iced sweet corn. I can check that off my list now.