Dining and Sniffing in New York City - Part 2

Our first stop after Seppi's was the Japanese department store Takashimaya where we found a spread of cupcakes from Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery and glasses of sweet tea and water. I believe we were offered their full selection of goodies, at least as far as I could tell - many were missing by the time we made our way to the table!

Sunshine: Yellow cake with vanilla buttercream
Bob: Yellow cake with chocolate almond buttercream
Ooey Gooey: Chocolate cake with chocolate almond buttercream
Sexy Red Velvet: Red velvet cake with “The Moose”
Sassy Red Velvet: Red Velvet cake with chocolate almond buttercream
Black & White...Just Right: Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream
Pistachio: Pistachio cake with “The Moose”
Pumpkin: Pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing
Lemon Yummy: Lemon cake with lemon buttercream
Coconut: Coconut cake with meringue

I had a pistachio cupcake - because I can't resist green things! The cake was light and fluffy, and the icing was beyond decadent. "The Moose" is a satin buttercream that is extremely unctuous and fluffy at the same time. I really wanted to be a complete pig and have an Ooey Gooey as well, especially after seeing a fellow Sniffa roll his eyes in ecstacy, but I behaved myself.

The crowd at Tak proved to be a bit too much for Andree and I, so we left and cooled our heels at an Irish pub until it was time for our last department store of the day, Saks.

Back at the hotel, we decided we were hungry (hey, we did a lot of walking!) so took a cab to the West Village. Bleecker and 7th, to be exact. We didn't wander far before Andree spotted the Gandhi Cafe and asked if we could eat there. I know she doesn't get much Indian food on Maryland's Eastern Shore, so I agreed. It was nearly 8pm, and the tiny restaurant was packed. Lucky for us, there was one table available. I was pleasantly surprised how cheap the place was, and hoped the food would be good. And it was.

We started off with eggplant pakoras and a mixed tandori grill of lamb, chicken, and shrimp. Andree had an extremely tomatoey chicken tikka masala for her entree, and I chose mushroom saag (or shag, as it was spelled on the menu). These were accompanied by an extremely hot and fluffy naan. The mushrooms in the saag were of the small button variety, and it almost seemed to me that they were canned. Maybe not, but they looked that way. Tasted fine though. And the tomatoeyness of the tikka masala sauce was borderline Campbell's soup, but not quite. We ate it all. The pakoras and chicken appetizer were the tastiest items, and the naan was superlative.

Our check came to a grand total of $31 and change. The prix fixe at Seppi's was $30 each. Not bad, either way.

For dessert (not that we needed any) we went to my favorite NY bakery, Rocco's, just down the block on Bleecker. We shared a rhum baba stuffed with cannoli filling and bought some cookies to take back to our husbands. All in all a delicious day.

Next time: Eggs-cellent.