Another Foray Into Portsmouth Desserts

The uncomfortable New England heatwave broke this past Sunday, and coastal New Hampshire experienced a beautiful day of temperatures in the mid-80s with a cool breeze off the ocean. I celebrated this pleasant change in weather by walking around Portsmouth, a favorite seaside town that I have raved about previously. I tried two new - or, in the first place's case, non-blogged - eateries this time around.

Bostonians may have heard of The Friendly Toast, a diner-style establishment originally in Portsmouth that recently opened an outpost in Cambridge's Kendall Square. I tried the Cambridge restaurant prior to the Portsmouth one, and loved its food enough that I just had to go to the original. I should make a note that delicious breakfasts are not the only things that make the restaurants memorable. The tacky decor is overwhelming, to say the least. Consider the fact that this ominous fellow may be overseeing your Cantabrigian meal of granola cranberry chocolate-chip pancakes drenched in Grand Marnier sauce:

The kitsch is more extreme in Portsmouth. It's densely packed and somewhat abrasive, with animatronic feet advertizing socks alongside eerily spinning farm animal caricatures. Still, all that clutter and noise should not distract you from appreciating the excellent food.

The Friendly Toast serves The. Best. Pancakes. I have ever had. They taste pleasingly of buttermilk, and have a texture that is difficult to categorize - soft yet sturdy, they soak up any nearby syrup and only flake slightly when cut. Their mixins are also the most creative pancake fillers I have ever seen. The above Grand Marnier example is a perfect illustration of their uniqueness, but their willingness to make veritable desserts out of their pancakes is what keeps me coming back. That's right, I indulged in toffee chocolate pancakes! Huge milk and semisweet chocolate chips melted alongside jagged toffee pieces to create a meal that was more candy bar than pancake. Unlike many purveyors of innocuous chocolate chip pancakes, the FT does not skimp on the good stuff. Copious drizzles of maple syrup pushed the meal ever closer to heaven. Another huge plus is these pancakes' size. One pancake is enough for one (large) meal, so I ordered two and got to enjoy the Toast's bounty all over again as leftovers.

I was too full after my pancake to eat another baked good, but there was a new bakery next to the FT that was just begging for me to take something home. The Portsmouth Baking Company had a simple sign outside their store - "NOW OPEN for LUNCH and CUPCAKES." I saw that last word and couldn't walk away. Enter an adorable modern bakery - as if Boston's beloved Flour chain were to get 25% more cutesy - where massive, picture-perfect cupcakes are displayed with geometric precision. Ah! I wish my phone had not died so I could share pictures with you. Fortunately, though, I have a picture of the cupcake I ate at home later that evening.

This chocolate tangerine cupcake held so much promise. (I love chocolate and orange together almost as much as I love chocolate and mint.) I breathed in the cupcake's rich aroma and hoped for a dark, bitter chocolate cake with intense orange peel flavor, and a sweeter orange buttercream frosting neutralizing the strength beneath it. The reality, however, was nothing like that. Instead, the cake itself was a particularly heavy and dry devil's food, and the odd-tasting frosting had no trace of orange within it. The only citrus I detected came in the form of two small pieces of candied orange peel atop the frosting. I am not kidding when I say I tasted more toothpaste than buttercream in the frosting. I don't know how I muddled through the entire dessert. I don't think I have ever known a cupcake to be so disappointing.

I wish the Portsmouth Baking Company luck, if only because (1) their store is the epitome of modern baker chic, and (2) their cakes are pretty to look at. Maybe I'll try their artisan breads at some point - but, I can safely say I will never willfully eat their "buttercream" again. Let's hope my next Portsmouth dessert experimentation is more successful!

The Dessert Dump - Or, What I Should Have Written

Wow, my last post was in May. I've had many desserts since then, but I have not been so coordinated in my enjoyment of them to commit them to the blog within a reasonable timeframe. So, consider this "Dessert Dump" a woefully brief overview of what I should have documented in the past two months.

Something from Athan's...which probably happened after something from Publick House! Brookline's Washington Square is a favorite place to overeat. Chocolate and vanilla genoise cakes and mousses, layered and drenched in ganache, plus fig (?) gelato. Eaten at my favorite corner table.

Iced mocha and turtle hot chocolate from Davis Square's Diesel Cafe! Smooth, deep, chocolatey win. WIN in caps, even.

Some sort of flourless chocolate torte from Posto, also in Davis Square. Good, but not as awe-inspiring as their pastas and pizzas. The non-raisiny port wine glaze was a plus.

Shabby Chic's chocolate blackberry cupcake. Similar to their chocolate raspberry cupcake, but with blackberry! Who could say no to that purple frosting? Of course, both frosting and cake were out-of-this-world delicious, and SC remains the best cupcakery I have had the pleasure of sampling.

An array of finger desserts from Dante's Al Fresco Fiasco. I consider it a miracle that I made it to this early-afternoon event, since I was up through the sunrise the "night" before. My efforts were completely worth it, though - these macaroons, mousses, and fritters were exemplary, as were the savory non-desserts. I can't wait to have a real meal at Dante sometime!

An unbelievably rich triple chocolate cupcake - that's right, chocolate cake + chocolate frosting + chocolate bar - from a mystery bakery in Stoneham. An unexpected treat courtesy of my colleague Shannon! The frosting defies categorization, it was so dense and fudgy; the cake could barely stand under its weight! Taste buds were similarly overwhelmed by its robust chocolate-ness, though in the best possible way.

Next up: a real post, with more words on fewer desserts...