The Best Things We Ate, Cooked & Drank This Week: Chicken and Waffles, Sugar Bars & More

From crispy chicken and waffles to fluffy snow cream, check out the most delicious things our PEOPLE staff couldn’t stop eating — and talking about — this week.

SNOW CREAM
“In late summer, a little shop called Snowdays Shavery opened in Manhattan’s East Village. Their specialty? Snow creams. No, not shaved ice, but fluffy, snowy mounds of frozen goodness. Imagine putting a scoop of ice cream through a wood chipper — the result is kind of like that. The first time I tried one, I got the cheesecake flavor with a strawberry drizzle. Scrumptious! More recently, I ordered the roasted black sesame snow cream with a salted caramel drizzle, and it blew my mind like a snowball to the head. Roasty, nutty, sweet, salty — I’m officially obsessed and I can’t wait to go back and order one in the largest size. I might even throw myself upon it and make a snow angel.” —Mark Marino, PEOPLE.com deputy editor, @mamarino

RELATED: The Best Things We Ate: Mint Brownies, Wings & More

HILL COUNTRY FRIED CHICKEN & WAFFLES
“Confession time: I’m a food writer who’s just not that into fried chicken. It tends to be messy, greasy, and, in my opinion, often not worth the effort of getting all the meat from the bone. In fact, my husband often mocks my chicken-consuming technique. ‘Look how much is still on here!’ he’ll exclaim as he gleefully eats my leftovers. But there was nothing left for him to swipe after I tried the chicken and waffles at Hill Country Chicken in Manhattan. It came out piping hot and had the perfect juiciness-to-crispness ratio. (I might have actually asked my platter where it had been all my life.) The waffles were as fluffy as the ones you’d find at your favorite brunch spot and a great excuse to eat plenty of the accompanying molasses butter. I devised a method of wrapping them around bits of chicken to create perfect, sandwich-style bites. Thanks to Hill Country, I’m (literally) eating my words.”—Lexi Dwyer, PEOPLE.com contributor, @lexidwyerink

CHOCOLATE & VANILLA BUTTERCREAM CAKE
“Even though I pop over to Hoboken, New Jersey, from Manhattan every now and then, I’ve never braved the line at Carlo’s Bakery (a.k.a. home of the Cake Boss crew). But this week, I was invited to come meet the man himself, Buddy Valastro, in his Jersey City baking plant, and decorate a cake with winners of his recent Sweet Ticket contest. And now I’m a Carlo’s convert. My decorating job on this cake was not that great (we got to use the Cake Boss line of fondants to color our cakes, and everyone around me was way more creative), but the inside was so delicious — moist chocolate and vanilla layers (he uses custard in his mix) with rich vanilla buttercream between. I brought it to our PEOPLE.com newsroom and it was decimated — you don’t want to see the ‘after’ photos! Next time I’m in Hoboken, I’ll definitely park myself in the line outside Carlo’s — now I want to try one of its famous lobster tail pastries.” —Kate Hogan, PEOPLE features editor, @misskph

HALLOWEEN SUGAR BARS
“I have a huge baking crush on the blog Sally’s Baking Addiction — mostly everything I whip up in the kitchen has been pulled from Sally. I have no relation to her — I’ve never even met her — but her baked goods recipes are just always so fun, yummy and such a treat to put together. These AMAZING nuggets are — of course — her original design: Frosted Sugar Bars. Think of the chewiest, butteriest, most amazing sugar cookie you’ve ever eaten — but better, and with sprinkles — and that’s what we have here. And the thick layer of frosting is light, fluffy and sinfully sweet — a perfect topping. Sally’s original recipe calls for pink icing, but I decided to get a little October-festive and decorate with a Halloween theme.” —Morgan Gibson, PEOPLE associate food & lifestyle editor, @morgangibson

CORN, TOMATO & MOZZARELLA PIZZA
“This slice, from Co. at La Sagra Slices, was one of the best bites I had at the New York Wine & Food Festival last weekend. I couldn’t get enough of the perfectly charred crust and gooey, bubbling cheese. Plus, I loved corn as a pizza topping — the flavors worked really well together.” —Sonal Dutt, PEOPLE senior food & lifestyle editor, @sonal_dutt

CLAFOUTIS
“I’ve always loved the look of a clafoutis, but had never tried my hand at making one. But I ended up with some buttermilk in my fridge, so I decided to give it a try. I used the recipe from Kimberley Hasselbrink’s wonderful Vibrant Food. (I have yet to find a recipe from it that I didn’t like.) My only mistake was thinking that a clafoutis was portable. I baked it in the morning before work and tried to take it to a dinner in the evening. Learn from my mistake — clafoutis are best eaten right out of the oven.”—Kristin Appenbrink, PEOPLE.com contributing editor, @kristinapp
RELATED: This Story Contains 10,237 Calories …

[