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Food Travel / Ice Cream / Ben & Jerrys / Desserts / Boston / → All Tags

Mark Your Calendar For The Ice Cream Event of the Year

Casual ice cream connoisseurs may get revved up about Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day, but real ice cream fanatics know the frozen dairy event of the year comes a little later in spring, at the Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl in Boston.

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Little Italy / Restaurants / Butchers / Bakeries / Desserts / Food Travel / → All Tags

You Can Find New York's 'Real Little Italy' in The Bronx

Hundreds of tourists flood the tiny streets of Manhattan’s Little Italy every day, but we're not such big fans, mostly due to the overpriced lattes, mediocre meals, chintzy souvenirs and, well, hundreds of tourists.

But twelve miles to the North, New York has another, less heralded Little Italy, which is much more up our alley. What we like to think of as "The Real Little Italy," runs along Arthur Avenue in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx and it has largely avoided Manhattan-style gentrification, preserving an array of classic markets, butchers, bakeries and restaurants, almost all still family-owned and operated.

From turn-of-the-century cheese shops churning out mozzarella as soft as any you’ll find in Tuscany, to Italian grandfathers sipping grappa-spiked coffee in between contentious games of bocce, this is the Little Italy you've been looking for (unless you're just in search of an "I heart Italian girls" t-shirt – then head back down to Manhattan.

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Food Travel / Cupcakes / Desserts / Contests / → All Tags

Nestle's 'Cupcake Challenge' Seems Kind Of Awesome But Pricey

Commenters were aghast a few days ago when we suggested that the cupcake craze might be over. Now, as if on cue, Nestle is parachuting into Los Angeles to host an extravagant "Cupcake Challenge" at the Hollywood Renaissance.

The awesome: 18 of the area's best bakeries are competing on Sunday, March 29 from 1 to 4pm. You the customer will get the chance to go from vendor to vendor voting on who has the best mini-cupcakes. At the end the votes will be tallied and a Southern California cupcake champion will be declared.

The suck: tickets are $40 per person, an awful steep price to pay for indulging your sweet tooth. On the other hand, did we mention that 18 different vendors would be offering mini-cupcakes for people to sample?

If the ticket prices are a deal breaker, you can of course visit any of the competitors on your own time. The full list is on the Challenge site and includes perennial LA favorites like The Buttercake Bakery and Oinkster.

We also recommend checking out Sprinkles in Beverly Hills and Leda's in the Valley, neither of which are competing.

Related Stories:
· Are Donuts the New Cupcakes? [Jaunted]
· Cupcakes coverage [Jaunted]

Vienna Field Trip / Embedded Travel Guides / Food Travel / Desserts / → All Tags

Where to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth and More in Vienna

All this week, Carolyn Banfalvi will be taking us on a eat-and-drink tour of Vienna, Austria. If you have any questions or suggestions for Vienna Travel, let us know and we'll have Carolyn get back to you. Enjoy.

Vienna might be the world’s only capital city to have a cuisine named after it. Viennese cuisine tends to be a bit more refined that food elsewhere in Austria. It’s also a little more international, with influences from the other countries that once were part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

Most notably, the Hungarians contributed goulash (and you will find so many more variations on that dish here, than in more traditional Hungary). Vienna’s most famous dish, Wiener Schnitzel (a huge slab of breaded veal served with a lemon and potatoes), is a riff on Veal Milanese. Vienna’s other signature dish is tafelspitz, a big hunk of beef that has been boiled with vegetables in its own broth, and is usually served with roasted potatoes, minced apples, horseradish, and sour cream. The dish was said to be the favorite of Emperor Franz Josef.

And, of course there are the desserts.

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Walking Tours / Desserts / Restaurants / Food Travel / → All Tags

Find NYC's Best Treats...and Walk Them Off

If there's one over-covered travel topic that's been done to death more than them all, it's probably New York restaurants. Millions of pages (and bandwith) have been devoted to that never-ending quest of finding the best dinner in NYC. But in all the fuss, New York dessert is often overlooked. You can dine anywhere from a high-end, raved-about restaurant to a cult favorite hole-in-the-wall, and even the most obsessive food blogger is likely to finish a meal and realize "I have no idea if the dessert is good here."

Which is why we're pretty excited about Free NYC Dessert Fest, a once-monthly walking tour of New York's best dessert destinations. Each tour explores one iconic NYC neighborhood, soaking in the sites and hitting up all the area's best sweet spots. This month's tour takes place Sunday, February 1 (at 11:30am, so you can get back in time for the big game) in the Financial District, which on Super Bowl Sunday should be empty of bankers but full of sugar at stops like Christopher Norman Chocolates, Financier Patisserie and Bubby's Bakery.

The walking tour, which covers a mile, is free, aside from paying for whatever treats you pick up and asking that you donate $1 to a non-profit that helps feed hungry New Yorkers. So you can give in to your dessert cravings, get some exercise and soothe your conscience! Sounds like a sweet deal.

· Free NYC Dessert Fest [Meetup]
· Dessert coverage [Jaunted]
· New NYC Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]

Photo: [robobby]