I have been mourning the closure of my absolute favorite food business in New York City: Chikalicious. The Japanese dessert bar (whose praises I have sang endless times on this blog) closed this past summer because chef Chika) was retiring.
I’m happy they closed on their own terms and that there is still a Japanese food business operating at that location, but my heart hurts for the loss of the great sweet dessert memories I had there.
Can anything take its place?
Absolutely not, but I had some of the similar food feelings (without the incredible mom/pop hospitality that Chika and her husband Don provided) at Lysée. This Korean bakery/dessert café has been on my radar since they opened a few years ago and I even stopped by once or twice for some take-out goodies (including an excellent chocolate chip cookie).
But it wasn’t until recently that I got to sit down and have a proper “meal” after dinner.
We ordered two of their signature mousse cakes and were really very impressed.
I expected to absolutely go crazy for the Corn, which got a lot of press when they first opened. The beautiful cake is striking and features a corn mousse, with a crunchy sablé and grilled corn cream. I’m a fan of corn desserts and thought this would be my absolute favorite thing.
I was wrong. I thought it was very interesting, but was a bit put off by the grilled corn flavor. It tasted much earthier (almost like fresh dirt) with less of the sweet corn flavor I was anticipating.
But even if I liked it more than I did, it would not have held a candle to their namesake Lysée.
This cake was just as attractive as the Corn, although did not resemble any other tangible item. This was more like a mosaic and reminded me of a set of tiles with a rotating light – almost like that old kids’ game Simon.
The “light” was actually a pad of gold leaf jelly that added a decadent touch to the luxurious cake.
Inside, the layers consisted of a toasted brown rice mousse (the right type of earthy), sweet caramel, crunchy pecan sablé, with added bits of praline throughout for extra texture.
It was just spectacular – soft, crunchy, sweet, slightly savory. It was all the most perfect things in the world wrapped up into one beautiful composition. A true work of art.
Not sure if I’ll re-visit Lysée as many times as I did with Chikalicious, but I’ll certainly be back since the desserts here are innovative and delicious. Just two of the things that made me love my long lost dessert bar. Price: $17
| LYSÉE |
| 44 East 21st Street (between Broadway and Park Avenue), Flatiron District |
| lyseenyc.com |
