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RICE PUDDING AS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT


Fat Guy

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The problem with wild rice is that it isn't rice. I think that would make it offensive to the integrity of the restaurant's founding principles. Perhaps the way to go, in terms of expansion, is brown rice. Also rice cakes. Like real cakes, but from rice -- not the crunchy health-food rice cakes. That would be good for PR: "Rice Cakes, for real!"

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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That would have been the title of the press release had I written it.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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  • 3 weeks later...

This place has one hell of a good publicist! There's a mention of it in the May/June 2003 Australia Vogue Entertaining + Travel. Well, granted, the writer of the piece is based in NYC. But still, the editors thought it worth including. :blink:

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  • 1 month later...

Last time I inquired, I was told the restaurant is serving 1500 portions a day. When I wandered by, it was totally slammed.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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I've tried the mango, the pistachio, and the vanilla.

They take a basic diner dessert and bring it to a new art form.

I also love the shovel type spoons and bowls in coordinated colors to the rice pudding.

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  • 1 month later...

Just went there today. it feels like a ice cream parlor for the Jetsons but with rice pudding. I agree with Jason about the six month life expectancy, or we'll be seeing franchises everywheres.

I love the ultra cool container they come in though and managed to fanagle a few out of the staff.

Edited by Bond Girl (log)

Ya-Roo Yang aka "Bond Girl"

The Adventures of Bond Girl

I don't ask for much, but whatever you do give me, make it of the highest quality.

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Thanks for the update, BG. Did you eat anything?

The Rice to Riches Web site is now online, by the way:

http://ricetoriches.com/

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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It's hard to imagine this taking off in New York. Then maybe we're not getting the whole picture. For example, Istanbul is full of 'pudding' shops with dozens of different types of milk puddings including many based on rice. The names of them aren't half as seductive as the ones described above, but despite the lack of seductive names, these shops have been in business for decades and are very popular as hangouts for singles and lovers.

“C’est dans les vieux pots, qu’on fait la bonne soupe!”, or ‘it is in old pots that good soup is made’.

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Ooops, totally forgot. hmmm, may be that's an indication of how memorable it is. I tried the apple rice pudding, the praline rice pudding, a taste of the mango flavor one and the plain old vanilla flavor rice pudding. It was all right. Like I said , it reminds me of being in a rice pudding equivalent of a Basket Robbins. May be I was jaded, but the food part just didn't blow me over.

Ya-Roo Yang aka "Bond Girl"

The Adventures of Bond Girl

I don't ask for much, but whatever you do give me, make it of the highest quality.

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I was there a couple of weeks ago. I tasted the lemon, but went for the coffee collapse and vanilla. The whole place is kind of wild. The front window of the shop is shaped to look like a grain of rice and they carry the shape throughout. I also thought the packaging was impressive.

As for the product -- I liked the texture. The coffee with ok, but I couldn't discern any cardammom. I really liked the vanilla. I found the lemon was intensely flavored. I would go back and try other flavors.

We were in the store for about 20 minutes and the traffic was steady. They seem to have found a market for the product.

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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  • 3 months later...

Stopped in here on Sunday evening. This place is amazing. I think it’s the cleanest place in NYC. There is one person whose job it is, to just clean. I caught her cleaning the trim of the main counter. I’m not really a big rice pudding fan, but one of my friends got the strawberry and it was very good.

It was also pretty crowded.

Mike

The Dairy Show

Special Edition 3-In The Kitchen at Momofuku Milk Bar

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I forgot about this thread. :sad: But we tried it during the summer. Tasted lots of preciously-named flavors and finally ended up with half-and-half maple and coffee for HWOE, and a full portion of lemon for me. I have to say, they were all excellent, and I could eat the lemon anytime. :wub:

And I want to get a full set of the containers. :raz:

The place may be gimmicky to the nth degree, but they make a terrific product. That alone would keep me coming back.

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  • 1 month later...

I finally went yesterday, and have to say the maple and the coconut flavors were just wonderful, and the texture is the best I've ever had, even more amazing than the Austrian-style molded rice puddings found in Eastern-European cafes (or in my case, very good home cooks).

And yes, the place was overrun, mostly by college students, tourists and the tragically hip. Me I'm just a rice-pudding junkie that had to at least try it once.

I knew it'd be expensive, I knew it would be a wacky place, but I wasn't expecting the product to be so great. I would have been surprised if it were even very good. But hey, they really make a very good product here (side note, the "solo" really is 2 human portions, esp. considering how rich the stuff is.)

I'm waiting for a cookbook... if I can get the recipe for the $6 brownies from the Hamptons, then I should have a right to try my hand at $5 puddin' :hmmm:

Edited by laurenmilan (log)

"Give me 8 hours, 3 people, wine, conversation and natural ingredients and I'll give you one of the best nights in your life. Outside of this forum - there would be no takers."- Wine_Dad, egullet.org

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I knew it'd be expensive, I knew it would be a wacky place, but I wasn't expecting the product to be so great. I would have been surprised if it were even very good. But hey, they really make a very good product here (side note, the "solo" really is 2 human portions, esp. considering how rich the stuff is.)

I'm waiting for a cookbook... if I can get the recipe for the $6 brownies from the Hamptons, then I should have a right to try my hand at $5 puddin' :hmmm:

Part of my problem is that as a "fast food" shop, in the way that a fine ice cream cone shop is a fast food shop, I'd expect to be able to get a portion that was satisfying to the extent an ice cream cone is satisfying and about the same size. There should be a half size portion in a walkaway cup. I wonder how much those custom designed plastic bowls and spoons add to the cost of a portion. I don't find they add to the pleasure and I would buy the product more often if it was sold in a smaller size.

Robert Buxbaum

WorldTable

Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.

My mailbox is full. You may contact me via worldtable.com.

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