Scarfing Your Way Down Seventh Street

East Seventh Street in the East Village is one of New York's great foodie streets. It has some of Manhattan's best affordable food, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Step into these storefronts and you're more likely than not to find a line.

But these places are worth the wait, as you may remember from the times I've profiled them on this blog. Want a sampling of your own? Then visit New York and make an evening of it. Just follow this itinerary.

Appetizers
Pommes Frites
123 Second Avenue

While not technically on Seventh Street, Pommes Frites is just steps away, near the corner of Seventh Street and Second Avenue. These are without a doubt the best fries in the city, and maybe the crunchiest since they're twice-fried. If you're coming here for a pre-meal snack, be sure to split an order. I'm not gonna lie -- when Paul and I get separate orders, that pretty much is our meal.

Entree
Caracas Arepa Bar
93 1/2 East Seventh Street


Make sure to visit this Venezuelan restaurant when the weather is nice -- the dining area is small, there's no place to wait but outdoors and there's inevitably a line. Get a sampler platter to try a range of the stuffed corn cakes that lends this place its name, or opt for my favorite: La de Pabellón, a mixture of shredded beef, black beans, cheese and plantains.

Dessert
Big Gay Ice Cream Shop
125 East Seventh Street

If you like sweet and salty, go with the popular Salty Pimp: vanilla soft serve, with dulce de leche and sea salt, covered in a chocolate dip. But really, you can't go wrong here. Toppings like Nutella and elderflower syrup can only be very, very right. Feeling adventurous? Opt for the Choinkwich: chocolate ice cream and bacon marmalade stuffed between two chocolate cookies.

Dessert To Go
Butter Lane 
123 East Seventh Street

The. Best. Cupcakes. In. The. City. (OK, tied with Robicelli's, but they're not on Seventh Street!) For me, the frosting is usually the highlight of a cupcake, but at Butter Lane it's the cake that really shines. Don't get me wrong -- the frosting is delicious, with more than a dozen options to choose from, like cherry, pumpkin and honey cinnamon. Combine that with the vanilla cake, and ... nom, nom, nom.

After fries, arepas and an ice cream cone, you're probably too full to eat this straightaway. But you're in the neighborhood! Get one -- or better yet, two -- to go and say goodbye to East Seventh Street.

Big Gay Ice Cream Shop: Not Your Average Dessert

Bea Arthur and Salty Pimp cones

New Yorkers love their food trucks, and one of the city's most beloved is the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck.

Sure, it looks like your normal ice cream truck, but if the image of the cone beside the order window has rainbow stripes where the soft serve should be, you're in for a treat. Your options are no longer merely sprinkles and dips. No, indeed. You've entered the Big Gay Ice Cream world of sea salt and wasabi pea dust, dulce de leche and olive oil.

And so it is that the name grabs your attention, but the menu convinces you to grab your wallet. And while Paul and I haven't yet ordered ice cream from the coolest truck in town, we did recently shed our Big Gay Ice Cream virgin status with a trip to the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, which just opened in the East Village in September.

Follow the unicorn to place your order.

Paul ordered the popular Salty Pimp -- vanilla soft serve, with dulce de leche and sea salt, covered in a chocolate dip. I got the Bea Arthur -- vanilla soft serve covered in a layer of dulce de leche and crushed Nilla Wafers. 

Truly this was ice cream heaven, not fit for mere mortals. Smooth and creamy and delicious. We barely even minded the bite in the air as we took our cones to go. The chill was worth the treat.