As soon as I got back from New York, I had to turn around for a work assignment and head to Shepherdstown. I actually love traveling for work - and especially to cute cities in West Virginia that have good food!

I was doing a story on the farmers market, and needed to find a drink/restroom nearby. Fortunately, the Sweet Shop Bakery is just around the corner. Mmm pastries!

I got a blueberry muffin and a bottled shirley temple. The muffin was good - a little dense. Could have been fluffier. But I loved the actual blueberries and the nice atmosphere. Overall, a nice little pick-me-up and a cute shop!

Grade: B

My last dinner in New York City was reserved for Veselka, a Ukranian restaurant open 24 hours a day.

Veselka has been around since the 1950s, and produces about 3,000 pierogis every day. That is a lot of pierogis.

I ordered a large plate of the pierogi - which is seven total. You get to choose what kind you want, so I got one of each: potato, cheese, meat, spinach & cream cheese, sauerkraut & mushroom, arugula & goat cheese. I think I ended up getting two potatoes.

My least favorite is easy: the sauerkraut. Blech. The potato, cheese and meat ones were all good - but fairly standard. I really liked the goat cheese one because it was so different. I alternated between sour cream and applesauce. Love both.

I also got a potato latke, which was very good. I'm just glad this place isn't in Morgantown, because if a 24-hour place opened serving this kind of delicious grub, I'd be in trouble.

Grade: A

Another New York specialty is the egg cream. It is a beverage consisting of milk, carbonated water and chocolate syrup. No eggs or cream.




William Greenberg Desserts features not only the famous egg cream, but also tons of other goodies.



I was going to order a black and white cookie, as well as an egg cream. But then I was told the egg cream I ordered comes WITH a black and white cookie. Or, in this case, a pink and white cookie.


I took my egg cream and headed to Central Park.

I had ordered a vanilla egg cream (vanilla just sounded right?), and it is kind of like a vanilla flavored milk that's carbonated. In a really good way! It's quite tasty, but a bit different.

The cookie was by far the best black-and-white cookie I've had (of the two). The icing was perfect, and the cookie was not dry at all. It was quite good.

Grade: A

I've always seen "New York" style cheesecake on menus. What does that mean? Apparently it means a cheesecake that relies upon heavy cream or sour cream. It is rich and has a dense, smooth and creamy consistency.

After a bit of searching, Eileen's Special Cheesecake came up as a popular spot for cheesecake in the city. There are so many delicious goodies to choose from.

They have mini cheesecake tarts, which looked amazing. I got a strawberry cheesecake and pulled up a seat at a table.

The cheesecake was delicious! It was creamy, a perfect texture - not too solid, or too creamy - but a nice mix of the two. It was rich, decadent. Delicious.

Grade: A

Time for more bagels! When in New York, right?

Russ & Daughters is a family-owned shop specializing in high-end smoked fish, caviar and other foods since 1914.

Grab a ticket, get in line and figure out what you're getting. I keep wanting to try all these crazy things - like lox cream cheese - but I love the classic bagel and lox so much I have a hard time.

I once again went for a plain bagel, but this time I got scallion cream cheese, red onion, capers and belly lox. Belly lox is salt cured, which I didn't think much of. The guy making my sandwich asked me if I had had it before, and I said no. He warned me that it was salty. I said no problem, I'm sure it's fine.

After I received my sandwich, I noticed the famed black and white cookies. So, I grabbed one of those, too, before we headed outside to find a bench.

My first bite of my sandwich was good - I love scallion cream cheese. The bagel itself was good, too, and then once I got a mouthful of capers and the belly lox at the same time, and I puckered. It is SO salty.

Like, REALLY salty. I don't have an aversion to salt, but this was super salty. I'm pretty sure I got like a salt burn on the side of my mouth after eating this. My fault. I should have gotten a salmon that wasn't quite as salty - but I just didn't really know what I was getting myself into.

The cookie was good - crumbly, but tasty. And much welcomed after the salty sandwich.

Grade: B