Sweet eats.: Frozen treats save steamy day.

I went down to the city for a Tuesday night concert, but once I knew I could bring a backpack in with me, I decided I was on a mission. A weird produce mission. Specifically, I was looking for the beautiful, exotic, alluring mangosteen, but really, anything new would do nicely.

I got in to Grand Central a little after noon, and needed something to tide me over for a few hours:

Subpar lo mein from Feng Shui in Grand Central. It was unbelievably salty and I didn't finish it. That never happens. I should have just stuck with my tasty GCT standby, Cafe Spice.

A few hours later, after hanging out with a good friend until she had to go to work, I was hungry again. Getting your eyebrows threaded for the first time is a surprisingly effective way to work up an appetite.

I wanted to take one of the green trains (4? 5? 6? I'm still learning, folks), so I headed back down to GCT to first snag a refreshing blast of Ciao Bella, where, in the past, I'd had a revelation of mint gelato (it tasted like fresh mint, not mint flavoring!), among other flavors. I ordered the papaya-crème de cassis, expecting unicorns to come charging out of the cupcakes at one of the bakeries and flower petals to rain into the food court, and for world peace to be achieved and cancer to be cured.

It didn't quite live up to that. I was so meh about it that I didn't even take a picture. Of course the papaya-crème de cassis gelato was okay, but I have really high expectations of Ciao Bella. Unicorns, people. I demand to be blown away.

Several hours and a walk to and fro on the Brooklyn Bridge later, I had made my way to Chinatown. It was probably about 6:30, and I wondered after the fact whether it was late enough that I missed the really weird (to me, you know) produce. I really wanted to find mangosteen... Hell, I don't know if they're even in season. Dragonfruit would have been cool. I remember seeing some spiky melon that I think ends in -iya when I lived in San Diego. It was not to be - I could ID pretty much everything I saw. (I'm no expert; there just wasn't that much.) Note to self: Don't worry about the Brooklyn Bridge. Just go to Chinatown with hours to kill.

Fruit and veggie stand in Chinatown. I was probably there later than the really intriguing markets would be open and/or have really intriguing produce.

I wound up with lychees (which I seem to recall my dad ordering at a Chinese restaurant in the East Bay, where we lived til I was 11)...

Lychees. I don't know what to do with them, yet, other than chill, peel and pop 'em. Maybe some kind of granita?

Starting to make up for earlier: barbecued pork buns, or char siu bao, from Excellent Dumplings in Chinatown.

I demolished those buns.

I walked and ate... Classy. From Chinatown I hoofed it up to the DessertTruck...

Dessert Truck scene

... where my day redeemed itself immediately, and wholly:

Lavender-peach sorbet, with crème frâiche, almond meringue and fresh berries. Unbelieveable. Best six bucks I've spent in at least a month.

From Dessert Truck to Webster Hall, every spoonful of that amazing concoction contributed to this stupid grin spreading across my face. Suddenly, the Brooklyn Bridge blisters and ridiculously heavy backpack (why did I buy so many damn lychees?) seemed a million miles away. Lavender-peach sorbet, with crème frâiche, almond meringue and fresh berries = SALVATION IN A CUP.

Concert. Pete Yorn. Eye and ear candy.

The show ended with time to spare before I had to get back up to GCT for the 12:08 train home. I could grab a slice of pizza, I thought, or... I could go to Daydream (which I keep wanting to call Dreamberry, a la Pinkberry frozen yogurt).

Half original icy, half pomegranate tart frozen yogurt, with ripe (yay!) mangoes and blueberries. Found this place after a concert in April. It hits the spot even more on a steamy late-July night.

Snapped this at a station as I was making my way north: