Burro Bananas
Although half of the global banana crop and most of the bananas consumed in the US are of the iconic Cavendish variety, there are hundreds of other bananas out there--not all of them mild-flavored, yellow, or shaped like a telephone receiver. Compared to it's more ubiquitous cousin, the Central American "burro" banana is adorably stubby, like a well-used pencil, with a flavor that leans towards tartness and a firmer, almost crunchy texture.
Kue Wajik
A favorite street snack in both Indonesia (kue wajik) and Malaysia (kuih wajik), this simple rice cake showcases the quality of its three main ingredients: sticky rice, coconut milk, and palm sugar. Made from the sweet sap of various types of palm tree, the color, flavor, and texture of palm sugars can vary enormously according to the trace minerals that remain after processing. Search for images of kue wajik and you'll see cakes that look golden, tan, rusty, or as if they've been doused in barbecue sauce, thanks to minimally refined palm sugars like gula melaka or gula jawa. Made with the paler, more processed palm sugar from a Seattle grocery, my kue a little anemic-looking--but still delicious.
Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams
3-scoop cup, $5.50
On at least a hundred occasions I've filled a Baskin-Robbins' cup with one of the clashing-est combinations possible: one scoop of peanut-butter-chocolate AND one of daquiri ice. And never has a B-R server paused and gently suggested to me that perhaps the flavors I'd requested might not pair very well together. I had to go to Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams for that.
I first had Jeni's several years ago at the original location in the Columbus, Ohio covered market and quickly decided that a second serving would justify a return trip to Ohio. Since then the business has boomed and you can now find Jeni's outlets sprinkled around the Southeast.
The lines are long and slow, but even so the servers patiently encourage careful decision making and thorough sampling. Before coming in I'd read the profiles of all of the current flavors online and made a plan, but I still sampled almost everything--you know, just to be sure.
My first choice was Yazoo Sue with rosemary bar nuts: "Built from the ground up with a creamy, rich, and mellow cherry wood-smoked porter (by Nashville's Yazoo Brewing Company) and fistfuls of savory 'bar nuts'—peanuts, pecans, and almonds dusted with rosemary, brown sugar, and cayenne." Second, Black Coffee: "We steep Batdorf & Bronson's single-estate coffee right in the cream (rather than in water). Our process yields coffee ice cream that tastes as delicious as a cup of intensely flavorful coffee smells."
Last, I shoehorned in the flavor that my concerned server suggested might not play well with the others, Cherry Lambic Sorbet: "If your memory says, 'Skip it because it’s gonna taste like artificial, super-sweet cherry flavoring,' don’t trust your memory. In fact, our Cherry Lambic sorbet won the Gallo Family Vineyards award in 2008. We used the money we won from this award to begin direct-sourcing vanilla beans and pure vanilla extract from Ndali Estate in Uganda."
When I wouldn't budge, we came up with a compromise: my server used waffle cookies to craft a dam between the creamy flavors and the tart one.
Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams
1892 Eastland Avenue
Nashville TN
615/262-8611
Coffee Soda
Crema Coffee
I've always loved the idea of coffee-flavored soda but had yet to drink one that matched up with the nectar of my imagination. Then came Crema. Their coffee soda blows my expectations out of the water, in large part because it's not coffee-flavored, but actual coffee that they carbonate to order. A rotating selection of cold-brews get poured into some kind of Rube Goldberg carbonating contraption that requires a (trainee?) barista to shake it vigorously for several minutes. To that they add ice, mellow demerara simple syrup, and a zippy little twist of orange zest. Bring on the 100% humidity!
Crema Coffee
15 Hermitage Ave
Nashville, TN
615/255-8311
Red Velvet Cake
Make My Cake, $5/slice
What with its strong reputation and its, ahem, mouthwateringly retro logo (below), the Harlem-based bakery Make My Cake seems like a much older business than it is. Established in 1996, this southern-style scratch bakery ("We even crack our own eggs!") still relies on recipes brought north by Baylor family matriarch "Ma Smith" when she migrated from Mississippi to Harlem in the 1940's. Ma's descendants pride themselves on making commerical cakes exactly as they would in their own kitchens--or as Ma might have in hers.
Although the original Midtown store has since closed, two Harlem locations have become popular destinations for locals and tourists like. The newer St. Nicholas location is an upscale, dine-in dessert cafe, while the the take-out shop on Adam C. Powell stands in as an impromptu community center, with space available for meetings and children's parties.
Of MMC's many fine products, the pedigreed red velvet cake is a standout, recognized as the best in New York by a New York Times panel. At $5 per slice, it's something of an investment, but being nearly as tall and deep as a brownstone, it's plenty for two sittings or two people. The cake is blood-red, well-oiled, dense, and moist. The frosting is essentially whipped cream cheese cut with sugar and vanilla--sweet, unctuous, and as blindingly white as Tom Cruise's teeth. A scattering of pecan shards on the top adds texture, a nice roasted note, and a much-needed touch of nutrition.
Just down Adam C. Powell is another landmark that's equally delicious, if more savory. Cafe Veg offers vegetarian versions of soul food classics--perfectly cooked okra, beans, and greens, minus the bacon.
Make My Cake
121 St. Nicholas Ave (116th St.)
212/ 932-0833 2380
Adam C Powell Blvd (139th St.)
212/ 234-2344 
