Serious Eats: New York
Grape Cotton Candy at STK in the Meatpacking District
Some enthusiastic children go to the circus to see trapeze artists fly through the air with the greatest of ease. Not me; I was meek, and the only thing that didn't terrify me was the elephants. Being the foodie that I was, I tended to bury myself in—or during especially frightening exploits, behind—a huge cone of cotton candy.
So I waxed a bit nostalgic last Friday night when I exclaimed to my dinner companions at STK that cotton candy was on the dessert menu. Turns out the special flavor of the evening was grape—my favorite! Although $10 seemed like a lot for cotton candy, it was worth it for the gorgeous, enormous ice cooler full of fleecy violet spun sugar—the grapiest, softest cotton candy I've ever encountered—that went through an instant metamorphosis from solid to liquid sugar as soon as it hit my tongue. It was so perfect and refined that it made my childhood treats look like a bunch of circus freaks.
Has anyone else tried the other flavors?
STK
26 Little West 12th Street, New York, NY 10014 (b/n Washington Street and Greenwich Street; map)
646-624-2444
stkhouse.com