La Newyorkina

Thanks to Fany Gerson, I learned what a refractometer is! Last time I was over at the summer school (that’s what Allison Robicelli called the kitchen that they shared with other artisans), Allison introduced me to Fany Gerson of La Newyorkina.

If you don’t know who Fany Gerson is (shame on you) then you should know that she helped the popular donut place, Dough, with the recipe and her first cookbook “My Sweet Mexico” was nominated for a James Beard Award this past May.

Paletas are Latin American popsicles, that are usually made with fresh fruits.

That particular day that I went to visit Fany, she made cucumber lime paletas, cut up some papayas for the papaya passion fruit paletas, sliced a million (not really but it was a lot) limes, made a batch of tamarind juice (her favorite flavor), and hibiscus paletas. It was fun hanging out with Fany even though I was only there for 3 hours and she had been at the kitchen since 4pm and wouldn’t end her shift till past midnight (then her boyfriend does the late late shift afterwards). We chatted how her ice pop freezing machine broke couple weeks ago (which for a small business like this is probably THE worst thing to happen), how she started and came up with La Newyorkina and paletas and her involvement with Crea, a nonprofit organization in Mexico that teaches women skills that will make a bigger impact in their lives.

Check out the rest of the photos in this slideshow.