I judge that the azygous champion dessert a idiosyncratic tin person aft a satisfying edifice repast involves walking 5 to 8 metropolis blocks to a adjacent ice-cream shop, to get a treble scoop connected a waffle cone. But, if the temper astatine the array is rollicking and worthy prolonging, oregon if determination are nary bully ice-cream shops wrong an due radius, it’s clip for the second-best post-dinner dessert: an ice-cream sundae. Despite its inherent maximalism—the ocular complexity of piled-high ingredients of varying textures and colors and temperatures and viscosities—a sundae is the astir emotionally elemental of desserts, and the astir honest. It makes nary pretense toward nutrition oregon subtlety: it is simply a plainspoken connection of delight. The crockery is simply a staple astatine eating establishments of each genres, cuisines, and terms points, owing, successful ample part, to worldly factors—it tin beryllium enactment unneurotic without the beingness of a dedicated pastry chef; its ingredients tin beryllium store-bought and volition support virtually forever—and truthful uncovering an particularly excellent, bespoke specimen is thing worthy celebrating. Most sundaes are satisfying; lone a prime subset are genuinely special. These 3 are, to me, among the astir exemplary successful New York, serving arsenic superb finishes to immoderate meal—or, arsenic summertime truly kicks into swing, arsenic mini-meals unto themselves, eaten connected their own, astatine the bar.
Chow Nai Sundae with Pork Floss, astatine Bonnie’s
Like truthful galore of the things connected the paper astatine Bonnie’s, the cook Calvin Eng’s edifice of creatively reënvisioned Cantonese cuisine, the ice-cream sundae is referential, rigorous, wacky, and wondrous. A basal of vanilla crystal pick is astir invisible beneath an avalanche of toppings: toffee-like buttered peanuts, dusky, husky, malty Ovaltine blistery fudge, and bronze cubes of fried milk, a Cantonese dainty made from sweetened beverage acceptable into a wobbly custard, past sliced into pieces, battered, and deep-fried, truthful that the exteriors are crisp and the insides sweetly gooey. The cherry connected top—there’s an existent cherry connected top, appropriately sugary and neon-red, but I mean this metaphorically—is an optional add-on of pork floss, crumbled bits of salty-sweet pork that’s been shredded and dried until it takes connected the airy texture of fabric candy. It’s a potent, complexifying addition, lending the sundae a thrumming savory underlayer that lifts each constituent astir it.
Passion-Fruit Sundae, astatine Gramercy Tavern
The pastry cook Karen DeMasco is simply a fable among dessert slingers, and a genius of frozen treats. She astir ever has a sundae of immoderate benignant connected the paper astatine Gramercy Tavern, but she adapts its particulars to the seasons. Right now, earlier the summertime nutrient explosion, she’s utilizing passionateness fruit, with strata of caller pulp studded with poppy-crunchy seeds, vanilla crystal cream, passion-fruit sorbet, coconut tapioca pearls, and shards of lime-scented meringue. Each wound delivers an abundance of flavors, shapes, and temperatures. The crockery is undeniably a sundae—it contains crystal cream, sauces, toppings, adjacent a crowning flourish of saccharine whipped cream—but its riot of textures and sophisticated, intoxicating astringency elevate it beyond the emblematic sundae’s nostalgic Americana. It brings to caput a pavlova, an ultra-messy Eton mess, the fruit-and-condensed-milk swooniness of Korean bingsu—even, fleetingly, a mall-kiosk Orange Julius.
Harry’s Hot-Fudge Sundae, astatine the Odeon and Café Luxembourg
When it comes to a hot-fudge sundae, sufficiently bully crystal pick positive sufficiently satiny blistery fudge tin output thing adjacent to perfection—neither needs to beryllium peculiarly top-tier, arsenic agelong arsenic the textures and temperatures are right. The hot-fudge sundae served astatine the sibling restaurants the Odeon, successful Tribeca, and the Upper West Side’s Café Luxembourg goes further. It begins with scoops of ultra-creamy house-made crystal pick successful your prime of flavors—I somewhat obscenely similar the peanut butter—plus sugary chunks of praline almonds that adhd crunch and toasty depth. The dark, slithery-hot cocoa condiment has a bittersweet borderline that makes the full happening consciousness dimensional and a small spot electric. Like the restaurants themselves, Harry’s sundae has an aura of immortality to it: it’s a dessert of an earlier age, a dessert with a cardinal glamour, a dessert that volition ne'er consciousness wrong. It’s worthy noting that astatine some spots, for 3 dollars more, you person the enactment to adhd banana. This banana is the quality betwixt specified greatness and glory. Add the banana. Always, erstwhile presented with the option, adhd the banana. ♦
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