When The Astronomer and I visited New York City in the past, we’d arrive with long lists of places to eat, sights to see, and people to visit. Traveling to The Big Apple with June last fall, we took a more laid back approach. Instead of filling our itinerary with lots of “stuff” to do, we spent our days wandering and snacking around TriBeCa and the East Village. Here are some of the sweet detours we took along the way…

A trip to New York isn’t complete without a doughnut from Chef Fany Gerson. She opened a Manhattan outlet of Dough in 2014, which made it much easier for us to get our deep-fried high on this visit. Making the trek to Bed-Stuy would’ve been pretty tough with a baby.

The flavor that caught our eye was the Tropical Chile, a giant yeast doughnut glazed with a chili-spiked passion fruit icing. It was tangy, hot, and sweet. Delightful.

In addition to making some of the best doughnuts ever, Chef Gerson also makes outstanding paletas (Mexican popsicles). We picked up two flavors from the ice chest at Dough.

While the passion fruit paleta was totally refreshing, it was the slightly spicy, Fudgsicle-like Oaxacan chocolate flavor that we adored.

The Astronomer and I visited Billy’s Bakery back in 2007 for my first taste of red velvet cake. We returned this time for an equally sweet and decadent slice of carrot cake.

Generously frosted and moist as can be, Billy’s carrot cake totally hit the afternoon “cake break” spot.

Even though Van Leeuwen has ascended upon the City of Angels with multiple locations, we couldn’t resist stopping by their East Village shop for a scoop.

A single serving included two flavors, so we chose the mango with yuzu sorbet (a seasonal offering) and the ginger ice cream (a menu mainstay). The latter flavor, with its unmistakable heat and aroma, was creamy, dreamy, dazzling.

We dug into some decadent rice pudding at Rice to Riches. I adore rice pudding and was stoked to stumble upon a hyper-specialized shop serving the dessert in a plethora of flavors.

For him, the raspberry rice pudding. For her, the coconut rice pudding. Both were luscious and so, so rich. We couldn’t finish the thing, which is saying a lot considering how much we I love sweets.

On the same afternoon that we paid Van Leeuwen a visit, we also hit up Odd Fellows, because vacation calls for multiple ice cream stops per day.

Here, we shared a big scoop of miso cherry that was a touch sweet, a little tart, and totally intriguing.

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Billy’s Bakery
75 Franklin Street
New York, NY 10013
Phone: 212-647-9958

Dough
14 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
Phone: 212-243-6844

Newyorkina
Multiple Locations

Odd Fellows
75 East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003
Phone: 917-475-1812

Rice to Riches
37 Spring Street
New York, NY 10012
Phone: 212-274-0008

Van Leeuwen
48 East 7th Steet
New York, NY 10003
Phone: 718-715-0758