A few months before going to New York City, I heard about a new bakery whose rugelach and babka were getting a whole lot of attention.  (Thanks Niko of DessertBuzz !)  On to my “must” list it went.  But this time, I didn’t actually have a long list of places to go and sweets to try while in town (even if that is inevitably what my trips always consist of).  This trip was all about quality time with my family and introducing our baby girl to friends, both her size and ours.  That said, a couple of weeks into my trip, after yet another colorful stroll through the Union Square Greenmarket, I excitedly hopped over to Breads Bakery (with family in tow) to try a few things…

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You all know of my love for markets.  That means at home in Zürich, every Tuesday and Friday morning at my beloved Bürkliplatz, as well as the local markets in Sicily, Berlin, France’s Basque Country and really, anywhere my travels take me around the world. And right now, that means New York City.

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It probably begins about three weeks before my arrival to New York City. The emails start coming in at a more rapid pace, and a recurring theme is unmistakable. What do I want for dinner ?

My parents count down the days to my arrival, as do I.  And they want to know…  Any special places I want to go to ? Any reservations to be made in advance ?  But to their disappointment, each time, I don’t really have a list of the hottest restaurants of the moment that I want to go to, that they would need to call as soon as they wake up one month prior to the day for dinner reservations.

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For those of you who are familiar with bagels, this could be a very divisive post: New York City vs. Montreal. But this is no simple battle of H&H vs. St-Viateur (each city’s most famous bagel maker, respectively), nor is my very favorite bagel from either of those two places. Unfortunately, it’s not from Zürich either, where I live. So on my transatlantic travels, I often bring back bags of bagels in my suitcase. Into the freezer pre-sliced (a must), they toast perfectly and taste almost like fresh. So where do I go for the best bagel ? Great Neck.

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When temperatures were soaring in the 90′s here in Zürich recently, I could think of only one place I’d rather be… Queens, New York.

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Whenever I visit a new town, I’m not only on a mission to discover the sweet scene, but also to spend time at a local market.  It’s a perfect introduction to the culinary landscape, and always so interesting to observe the exchanges between proud vendors and their loyal customers, and most of all, see what people eat there !  What seems completely normal and mundane in one country (like the Swiss’ multicolored hard-boiled eggs) can be exotic and exciting – or just weird – to another.

Right now at the markets in Zürich, bright red strawberries and stalks of rhubarb are in the spotlight, but fat, white asparagus are taking up a lot of prime real estate too. While the latter has become common for me, living here in the German part of Switzerland and making regular visits to Zürich’s Bürkliplatz and Oerlikon markets, white asparagus were once strange and unfamiliar.  For me, asparagus were green, showing again that one person’s apple is another person’s rambutan.

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“I would take the trolley car over the Brooklyn Bridge, get off at Essex Street and visit my grandmother on Eldridge Street.  She would put two pennies in a brown paper bag with a string on it, and drop it out of her window to me from the 3rd floor.   I’d take the bag and walk down the block to get a kasha knish.”

I love hearing stories told by my grandmother of her childhood in Brooklyn and on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.  The streets during those years have certainly transformed since then, with the growth of trendy neighborhoods, apartment buildings,  stylish stores, restaurants and bars.  But thankfully a few of the original food shops remain, including two on East Houston Street – Russ & Daughters Appetizers and Yonah Schimmel’s Knishery.  The latter is where my grandmother’s two pennies were always well spent.

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Let’s put on our New York City thinking caps and play word association.  Ready?  I say Jacques Torres, you say… chocolate.  I say City Bakery, you say… pretzel croissant (or hot chocolate, since it’s their 19th annual hot chocolate festival this month).  I say Serendipity 3, you say… Frrrozen Hot Chocolate.  I say Dorie Greenspan, you say… Baking? Paris? French cuisine?  But if I say Dorie and Josh Greenspan, you say… cookies!  Mother and son’s outrageously popular CookieBar pop-up in 2010 had New Yorkers lining up for freshly baked cookies until they sold out – which they did rather quickly.

Well… they’re back!  CookieBar 2.0 is popping up again in time for Valentine’s Day, and will be at Mizu salon on the Upper East Side during the week of February 7th.  This means two things: 1) New Yorkers and visitors to New York City during this time are lucky.  And 2) my parents have to make room in their freezer again.

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I hope 2011 has gotten off to a sweet start for everyone! It is certain to be full of new discoveries and adventures for me, with travels near and far.  We’ll be home in Zürich, bouncing around Switzerland and going beyond the borders to wherever the train may take us.  Perhaps heading to more exotic destinations too.  And let’s not forget all the adventures in the kitchen. Many food bloggers have been compiling their “best of” lists and sharing their favorite travel and food experiences of 2010, which naturally got me thinking too. It’s fun to browse through photos of past trips and recall memorable tastes that demand to be recreated.

What are your travel and food highlights from the past year? Here are some of mine…

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When it comes to any place that?s food related, I?m easy to spot, usually excited like a kid in a candy store. Well, just imagine if I were actually in a candy store. Or a chocolate shop. Or a date shop even.  It was certainly the case when I was recently at Economy Candy in New York City, exchanging oohs and aaahs with Dorie Greenspan about our favorite candies and growing nostalgic as we shared memories of our family’s top picks.

More oohs and aahs followed when simply walking the streets of Manhattan, taking in all the sights and smells of the city.  Smells?!  Perhaps not quite what you expected, but I’m talking about one aroma in particular.  Nuts 4 Nuts!  I don’t actually like nuts in baked goods, but when they’re crisp and coated in sugar on their own, or mixed into chunky sweet granola, what’s not to like?  And who can really resist that smell of vanilla sugar that wafts from these nut stands below their orange umbrellas, those nuts caramelizing away, tantalizing you to buy those small, white, wax paper bags for a couple of dollars?

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