Restaurant Name: Puddin' By Clio
Location: 102 St. Marks Place, New York, NY
Price Range: $10 and under (depending on size)
JCL Rating: 7.5/10
JCL's Choice: Banana Cream Dream
As I was wandering in the city aimlessly, I suddenly remembered there were a few spots in St. Marks I saw last time but didn't try yet. Puddin' wasn't one of them. But when I walked by, from the corner of my eyes I caught the name "Puddin'." I had to walk in and see what that is all about. I was just going to look around, but the warm welcome by the cashier/pastry cook caught me off guard. It would feel awkward if I just walk out empty handed. Their puddings are separated into two types; puddings and Clio's signatures. The signatures are already pre-plated. As for the puddings, you can add any toppings to it.
Puddin' is a very tiny spot with 3 stools. The pastry chef Clio Goodman thought of the idea of having a pudding shop when a friend requested a childhood treat, butterscotch pudding. Everything is order to go. I asked which one is their best seller, and the cashier said the banana cream dream. So I ordered that and one more to confirm its consistency. I picked lemon pudding and a salted caramel sauce as topping.
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| Banana pudding on top and bottom sandwiching the crumbs, fruit cake and whipped cream |
The Banana Cream Dream consists of real banana pudding, graham cracker crumbs, banana fruit cake, and dollop of whipped cream. Dollop of anything just means a lump/small amount of it. A super strong banana flavor. I guess all the other ingredients in this pudding was just for the texture since I couldn't taste any of it. The mouth feel was very rich but gentle. Extremely creamy. I had a regular size banana cream dream. That was a bit too heavy for me. I had to force finish the last few bites. But If I had ordered a mini, it would have been perfect.
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| Top layer is lemon pudding, bottom is salted caramel |
Lemon is one of my favorite ingredients of all time; regardless if it was savory or dessert. The refreshing smell cleanses your senses. The acidity with a touch of tender sweetness pulls all the underlying flavors of the ingredients. It is truly an amazing ingredient. Anyways, when I saw lemon pudding I automatically relate it to savory. They just happened to have salted caramel sauce, so I had to get it. The pudding itself is very light with a medium touch of lemon flavors. No tartness at all. The salted caramel acts like a bridge that intensifies the sweet and lemony tastes. I just wish it had a deeper acidic taste to it instead of being all sweet.
Oh, Puddin' also has cookies, cakes and drinks.
It was certainly a treat to have walked in here. I would come back next time to try some other flavors... maybe the coconut or butterscotch. The roots of this pudding centric shop grew from the thought of butterscotch after all...
On a side note, the post title's "in" refers to trendy. Inspired by the "In" tab in their website.
