Amai’s Green Tea Sweet recipe is a finalist in the Best Bakery Recipe category for Pastryscoop.com’s Golden Scoop Awards. The three finalists in the category will compete in a blind taste test on June 14, and the winner will be announced on June 18, 2007 in an awards ceremony at the French Culinary Institute. I [...]

Two events are going on in NYC this weekend that will leave you full of good food.
The 9th Avenue International Food Festival & Street Fair
May 19-20, 9:30 am - 6:30 pm
9th Avenue from 37th Street to 57th Street
Contact: Ninth Avenue Association (212) 581-7029
www.hellskitchen.bz
Ninth avenue is closed to cars from 37th Street to 57th Street, [...]

We just delivered Tea Sweets and Botanical Brownies to the Amish Market on 45th Street. I will be there today giving out free samples from 12pm to 2pm. If you’re in the neighborhood stop by and say hello.
Also, if you’re looking for a Mother’s Day gift, Tea Sweets are 20% off through this Sunday, [...]

This weekend is the New York Cofee & Tea Festival, held at the Metropolitan Pavillion in Manhattan. Amai will have a booth, where you can try free samples and purchase all of our products. You can also drink tea and coffee from around the world, and attend educational programs throughout the day. The festival runs [...]

I usually eat my sweets around 3pm, but four new dessert bars scheduled to open at the end of April may encourage me to wait until after dinner. Three are from trendy, famous pastry chefs and one is by an unknown proprietor who is dedicated to chocolate. I admire them all, and always applaud the [...]

The secret ingredient to the recipe that won the Betty Crocker Baking Contest was…chips! Anna Ginsberg of Austin, Texas won the $5,000 grand prize for her Chocolate-Topped Peanut-Toffee Bars, a sweet and salty cookie bar made with a pouch of Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix and potato chips as a “secret” ingredient. It may [...]

The lease is signed and the plans are being filed for Amai’s first retail location! Our store will be located on 3rd avenue between 16th and 17th street - just east of Union Square in the Gramercy area of Manhattan. When I found the space and realized it could be ours, it was one of [...]

Every spring I eat one Cadbury Creme Egg, and this year, I had it fried. During Brooklyn Restaurant Week Andrew and I went to the Chipshop in Park Slope, where they offered a three course meal for $10.55. Choices for each course varied, but most of it was fried. One option was a fried macaroni [...]

I love the name “Amai”. It’s short, sweet and looks nice in print. Saying it to customers is another story, and I often get things addressed to something similar, but never quite right. I’ve collected a few of my favorite misspellings, and I thought I’d share them with you:

Armani (thanks, I wish)
Amai Tea & Baked [...]

On Monday I attended the donut class at Cha An, a small Japanese tea shop on 9th street. (If you haven’t been to Cha An before, I’d highly recommend it. They serve wonderful tea, light food and pastries, all made in-house.) I found out about the class while having tea at the store with my [...]