London Calling: Buns 'n' Biscuits

A few more British treats deserve a blog mention!

With Euston Station's food court – and Underground access! – one block from our hotel, we weren’t going to find a more convenient breakfast stop. Delice de France and Caffe Ritazza both offered an over-the-top version of a revered baked good that I enjoyed 7 mornings in a row. Their triple chocolate muffins consisted of chocolate dough with white, milk, and dark chocolate chips mixed in, and injected chocolate frosting. DDF’s muffin was drier and less sweet, as a muffin should be, but it had far too much frosting. CR’s muffin essentially was a moist cupcake, but with minimal unnecessary goo. Despite their outrageous ingredients, the muffins were considerably smaller than American bakeries' muffins. I may have justified their repeated consumption on this fact.

A tour guide in the original Cambridge recommended Fitzbillies' Chelsea buns, so we had to investigate further. Chelsea bun dough is flavored with orange, lemon, and spices, and rolled with currants and sugar. Once the buns are rolled and cut, much like cinnamon buns, they are topped in a sugary, buttery glaze. I'm glad I tried this local specialty, but in the end I'm more of a frosted-cinnamon-bun girl. The spice and citrus flavor combination recalled winter holiday treats, and it felt out of place on a sweltering summer day. The dough itself was tougher than expected. Also, the currants were too dry, chewy, and flavorless for my liking. I did enjoy the sweet glaze, but it made the bun difficult to hold and eat. Maybe we would have been happier getting the local creamery's ice cream for dessert!

Fortnum & Mason of afternoon tea fame sells a variety of biscuits, or cookies. Knowing my dessert tastes, it was the most natural thing in the world to purchase Chocolossus biscuits, and they were such a success that two Chocolossus tins were flown back over the Pond. The dessert's core is a large (nearly palm-sized) dark chocolate biscuit studded with pieces of macadamia nuts. The biscuit proper is dry but not stale, and is surprisingly robust in chocolate flavor. The nut fragments are small enough that they don't overwhelm the biscuit, yet are still assertive enough on the palate. That biscuit is then enrobed in a quarter-inch-thick layer of smooth dark chocolate. As your teeth sink through the chocolate layer and crunch the biscuit within, as you enjoy the rich aroma and savor the multiple mediums of chocolate, you realize that Chocolossus really is the perfect cookie.

Lastly, I had to try some everday chocolate, British-style! The convenience stores and subway kiosks dazzled me with their displays of countless unknown candy bars. I ultimately selected a packet of Revels since I'll be performing in a production of the same name back in the new Cambridge. I assume they are called Revels because of the unexpected party you may enjoy while eating them. The candies are balls of milk chocolate, filled with one of six flavored centers: coffee, toffee, orange, raisin, malted milk ball, or more chocolate. I was impressed with the rich, creamy consistency of the chocolate. The fillings were dense, sugary, and rather tasty, with the exception of the never-enjoyable raisin. I ate one bag in Heathrow airport and am saving one more for the day my Revels show opens at Sanders Theatre. :-)

London Calling: Afternoon Tea

I recently had the pleasure of traveling to London for a week’s vacation! When deciding which sites to see and activities to do, one food-related splurge became a priority: I had to take afternoon tea in the country where the ritual originated. I made reservations for the St. James Restaurant at Fortnum & Mason, just outside Picadilly Circus. That stunning specialty food emporium did not disappoint – the experience was everything I wanted it to be, and more!

The tea room was warm, sunlit, and decorated in a soft blue. Plush armchairs and low-lying sofas with embroidered pillows surrounded delicate coffee tables set with the tea service’s china and drinkware. After settling in on the comfortable furniture, we cleansed our palate with brightly-flavored sparkling lemonade and ordered our tea. I enjoyed the strength and full body of the Assam Superb offering.

Next came four categories of delicate gastronomic treats – a plate of canapés followed by a 3-tiered display with sandwiches, scones, and cakes. You may behold the glorious tower below:

• Canapes – asiago breadsticks, pesto breadsticks, salmon crostini topped with roe, and sausage in puff pastry
• Sandwiches – egg salad, curry pasta and raisins on rye, cucumber and watercress on white, chicken and watercress on white, salmon on wheat
• Scones – plain and current scones, madeleines
• Desserts – raspberry jam sandwiched between shortbread, light lemon cake soaked in lemon sauce, vanilla cake topped with vanilla cream and white chocolate, brown sugar puff pastry glazed with confectioners' sugar and filled with custard and raspberries, lemon-almond petit four with blue white-chocolate frosting, sacher torte sans jam topped with gold leaf

My favorite treats, predictably enough, were the desserts, but the scones plus toppings were the best surprise.

Scones as I have known them in America can be a tough sell. More often than not, they are large mounds of floury, heavy dough that can barely redeem themselves via glazes or mixed-in fruit. Fortnum and Mason’s scones, however, were light, fluffy, buttery, and slightly tangy. This made them a treat in their own right, though they became even better with choice accompaniments. We could choose from strawberry jam, lemon curd, and clotted cream. I had to try the pale yellow clotted cream, a traditional British spread whose consistency is between whipped cream and butter. It was excellent when spooned over a dollop of jam! The lemon curd was excellently tart, with none of the cloying sweetness that usually turns me away from the spread.

Afternoon tea is a slow, relaxing, and above all indulgent meal. The richness of these treats gave me a fullness I would usually associate with twice the volume of food. We were so satisfied by the afternoon tea that we didn’t even eat dinner – and, we were able to browse the extensive F&M food halls without needing to sample everything in sight! This special time was one of the highlights of my vacation, and I encourage any visitors to Britain to seek out the same. Cheerio!

Dessert at the Mandarin Oriental

The Mandarin Oriental’s M Bar has intrigued me for some time. Its posh hotel setting and swanky décor suggest a certain restricted luxury, while its street-facing window/wall – enabling occupants and passersby to observe one another – hints at a curious openness. So, I found myself on the inside of the wall this past Friday. My good experience was not limited to delicious drinks and an enviable window perch; the bar had a very tempting dessert menu! Take a look at the treats (with interloping cocktails) below.

The dessert on the left is a creatively-executed apple crisp. I usually prefer tight, well-packed fruit desserts, but M Bar’s deconstructed version was remarkable. To start, the apples were cut in cube-like chunks rather than the usual slices. The conventional-tasting fruit (Golden Delicious?) was tossed in a thin cinnamon-caramel sauce, and the resultant mixture made me think of an especially chunky fruit soup. The crumbles covering the apples were large and cereal-like; I admired their remaining crunchy amidst their moist surroundings. Typical crumble flavors (cinnamon, butter, brown sugar) were assertive in the granola-y medium. I really appreciated the generous application of this topping! The remaining dessert components were unconventional and unanticipated. I finally tasted molecular gastronomy in action, enjoying a caramel foam that covered the crisp. The foam was every bit as flavorful as a standard caramel drizzle, but with a predictably lighter mouthfeel. The tiny, pale-cream bubbles stayed intact as I made my way through the dessert. Next up was a dollop of Calvados-flavored ice cream. The alcohol was barely noticeable, but the sharp apple and brandy notes were strong. The ice cream melted quickly and added a perky flavor to the chunky “soup” below. Lastly, three paper-thin apple chips were poised in the ice cream. Brightly-flavored and crisp, I enjoyed eating them dipped in the caramel foam. So, both the individual components and the dessert as a whole were great!

A “bento box” of three flavored crèmes brulees plus chocolate sorbet is on the right. The ginger crème had a sweeter ginger flavor, which was disappointingly diluted – if any dessert medium could benefit from a helping of bold flavor, it would be the already-sweet and milky crème brulee! The hazelnut version tasted average, though its pale-brown color was rather pretty. The orange was by far the best of the three, with a fresh citrus zing that cut through the creaminess. The dark chocolate sorbet was a tasty, if fairly common, palate cleanser.

M Bar’s menu had many other interesting desserts that may require sampling – for example, I had a hard time choosing between the apple crisp and their orange cheesecake. If you’re looking for a fancy night out at a bar with good drinks and sweet treats, put this place on your list!

Portsmouth Pleasures

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Portsmouth, NH two weekends in a row! I love this seaside town for its cheerful downtown, seaside park, cute and eclectic shops, and fun food. Of course, two of my favorite food vendors are dessert shops.

Annabelle’s Ice Cream is served in a cheerful basement off a waterfront side street. Their all-natural ice cream has a certain creamy, thick solidity that really packs a punch in a small volume. Because of its density, I find that it tastes best after being out of the freezer for a few minutes. Flavors are fairly common mixed creations that are made unique by the foundation ice cream’s quality.

• Peanut Butter Fantasy – sweet peanut butter ice cream is swirled with fudge and small chunks of peanut butter cups. The base ice cream is rather like sweet cream ice cream with peanut butter mixed in; I prefer this approach to the more extreme scoop of frozen peanut butter. Thick ribbons of fudge are mixed throughout this flavor, but there are rather few candy chunks.
• Mocha Mud Pie – chocolate chips and crumbled Oreos are mixed into a robust mocha ice cream. The signature Annabelle’s creaminess is great in this base flavor, as it really approximates a frozen version of my favorite espresso beverage. As with the Peanut Butter Fantasy, I wish there had been more mixers, but all in all this is a solid flavor that I would order again.

Our party enjoyed certain bolder flavors as well, like Ginger Fruit (sweet cream and crystallized ginger). I hear it was pungent yet refreshing!

Byrne & Carlson Chocolatier and Confectioner, a relatively recent find, has a one-room, antique-looking shop in a Portsmouth brownstone. The high ceilings, cream walls, dark wood cabinetry filled with candies, and clean, old-fashioned label type make me feel as though I have stepped into a treat shop of yore – a very fine one, mind you. Truffles and dark chocolate bars are their specialty, though in my two visits I sampled a range of their product.

• Chocolate-covered sea salt caramels – a nearly one-inch-square cube of stiff, sugary caramel is enrobed in a thin layer of dark chocolate and dusted with large crystals of fleur de sel. The salt lingered in my mouth after the chocolate coating had melted, so it blended nicely with the sweet caramel. I would have preferred a thicker layer of chocolate, or even a milder variety that would have been less distinct from the caramel; I would have guessed the percent cacao was around 70.
• Chipotle sea salt bar – I was intrigued by the variety of flavors in this bar, but it didn’t live up to my expectations. I think the 75% cacao content is too much bitterness for a bar with two savory components. The fleur de sel was robust and slightly smoky, and the chipotle pepper asserted itself with a spicy burn that lasted long after the chocolate had melted. The chocolate, as with all their offerings, was even and silky, and I may have been able to enjoy it as a pure chocolate bar, but I really needed something sweet to counter the salt and pepper! Lovers of intense dark chocolate, this bar is probably exactly what you need.
• Malted milk balls – I couldn’t get enough of these, they were so delicious! (Please keep in mind, this is coming from the girl who pouted if some unsuspecting neighbor gave out boxes of Whoppers for Halloween – so, praise indeed.) B&C’s Ultimate MMB has a small malted-milk center, followed by layers of dark, milk, and white chocolate. A speckled tan candy shell coats the treat. There were so many delicious chocolates in each bite, arranged in an ideal flavor progression, and the rough malted milk was surprisingly sweet and texturally satisfying against the smooth, bitter dark chocolate neighboring it.
• Truffle eggs – yes, eggs; we couldn’t ignore the corner of Easter remainders. Each miniature truffle egg has a sweet, slightly tangy truffle filling enrobed in creamy milk chocolate. The eggs instantly softened in my mouth, and melted into a buttercream-like chocolate paste that was pure decadence but not nearly enough volume. These treats lasted too briefly! I’ll seriously have to consider supplementing next year’s Fannie May Easter candy with a haul from Byrne & Carlson.

I have already decided that whenever I’m next in town, I will have to sample more milk chocolate, a different type of malted milk ball (there were several!), and maybe even a truffle. Care to join me?

Treats in Transit

Why transport desserts in boring Tupperware or foil containers when you could use a lively cupcake-printed tin? I found this adorable vessel at Borders the other day, and just had to bring it home. It’s the perfect size for a pan’s worth of brownies and would probably hold an equivalent batch of cookies. I can’t wait to bring the tin – filled with my beloved Epic Brownies, of course – to this afternoon’s Marathon Monday party!

Easter Treats

I love Easter candy. In a way, this love is less about its taste and more about its appearance. The Easter palette and decorative motifs – gentle creamy colors, shimmering pastel foil wrappers, flowers, spring – are all so lovely, and are particulary welcome after harsh winters and muddy March deluges. (If I could embellish my life with pale metallic purple accessories, I just might; I already own some [but not enough!] floral-printed/inspired clothing and jewelry.) However, this year’s Easter treats introduced me to some new tastes worthy of appreciation, as well as whisked me back to childhood with a few nostalgic basket fillers.

My family purchased this nest to be the centerpiece of our Easter table; the nest’s advertized purpose, as a home for hazelnut truffle eggs, was purely incidental. Still, the speckled eggs looked just perfect in the nest, and they tasted good too! The pale blue candy coating with darker blue speckles was pleasantly sweet, and it softened in my mouth to produce the faintest crackle at my tongue’s pressure. The coating’s slight roughness was evocative of an actual eggshell. A sweet, smooth layer of white chocolate was immediately under the candy coating, which eventually gave way to the hazelnut filling. The filling had a grainy texture, though I could not identify actual fragments of nuts. I ascribe this more to the use of a powdery, nonassertive milk chocolate, but regardless the centermost part of this treat was pleasantly earthy and substantial. I do wish the milk chocolate had somewhat mitigated the hazelnut flavor, but its nuttiness was tamed by the egg’s sweeter outer layers.

Our official Easter desserts were these petits fours, ordered from California’s Divine Delights bakery. The tiny treats were enrobed in the prettiest icing, which was surprisingly resilient but still smooth. Each petit four involved a rich, buttery cake and a variety of creams or fillings. The purple eggs were a base of dense chocolate cake topped with a mound of thick vanilla buttercream, while the light-green duckling squares were vanilla cake with a central layer of almond paste. Lemon cream and raspberry jam added flavor to other petits fours. Yet the bunnies stole the show by containing vanilla cake, chocolate ganache, and a heap of strawberry buttercream. The cutest treat had to be the nest, which sheltered several chocolate-covered sunflower seed eggs.

And lastly, my Easter basket was filled with the sweet treasures of my suburban-Chicago upbringing. When we lived there, my family enjoyed Fannie May candy at special times. The lack of Fannie May stores in the Northeast caused concern whenever the first holiday rolled around after our move to New Hampshire, but my parents kept the tradition alive through mail order. Each Easter, I look forward to the treats I have known since I was a little girl. Sure, pretty much any candy shop can sell you pretty foil-wrapped eggs, jellybeans, and a solid (yes, solid) chocolate bunny. Some may even have milk chocolate eggs filled with vanilla buttercream, or coconut-cream-coated chocolate buttercream eggs. But only the Fannie May versions of those confections taste “right.” To me, they’re the best-tasting candies ever, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Happy belated Easter!

A Restaurant Week Write-Up

Another Restaurant Week session has come and gone, and I have three new desserts to share with you!

My first meal occurred at ArtBar, in Cambridge's Royal Sonesta hotel. The restaurant's location, in a corner of the hotel's lobby, and innocuous "art" did not impress, but the food was definitely memorable. I enjoyed a rather creamy lobster bisque, well-populated with lobster chunks and garnished with truffle creme fraiche, as my appetizer, and a medium-rare petite filet mignon served with lobster risotto and red wine reduction as my main course. According to the menu, my dessert was simply a key lime ricotta cheesecake with fresh berries, but said dessert was more complex than the description suggests. The plate was drizzled with a sweet peach glaze, and a square of vanilla genoise cake was in the center. A dome of sweet, whipped ricotta cheesecake with a faint key lime flavor sat on the cake, and a dimple at the dome's crown held a reservoir of thick, tart key lime syrup that also flowed down the ricotta. The intense citrus flavor was tempered by sweet, creamy white chocolate, which fully enrobed the cheesecake dome. The smooth white dome was further embellished with a limey white chocolate drizzle, and two wafers of pale green chocolate. Plump, juicy berries dotted the rest of the plate. I was very impressed by this innovative execution of a common cheesecake variety - the counterpoint of sweet, smooth ricotta and tart, tangy citrus syrup was delicious. I also appreciated the use of complementary yet offsetting fruit flavors as garnishes. The berries and peach glaze occupied the flavor range between the cheesecake's extremes. I was happily smacking my lips and hoping for more at the conclusion of this dessert!

I next dined at Davis Square's Gargoyles on the Square. This hip newcomer's simple decor - the minimalist dining room is accented with a small number of dark, heavy drapes and classic film posters - was an ideal setting for for the restaurant's classic dishes with an uncommon twist. My appetizer was a hearty salmon cake served over white bean and ham soup, which was followed by moules frites served in lobster bisque. I ended my meal with the salted caramel cheesecake with blackberries and creme fraiche, which was the star of this particular dinner. This dessert was a very dense New York-style cream cheese cake evenly imparted with a subtle caramel flavor. Even more subtle was its saltiness, which I'm guessing was reached by adding a mere pinch of salt to the cake mixture. The cake's thick milkiness plus caramel sweetness reminded me of dulce de leche. It was hard to fit the substantial slice in after a filling meal, but I couldn't let this unexpectedly complex twist on an old standby go to waste. I did, however, push the berries and creme fraiche to the side - the dessert really didn't need sour dairy in its flavor palette, and the berries were far too seedy with hardly any juice.

My last Restaurant Week dinner was at Grotto, a warm, intimate cave of a restaurant in the basement of a Beacon Hill brownstone. Their Italian kitchen brought me a fresh salad of mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, and pecorino cheese tossed in olive oil, as well as crab ravioli bursting with lumps of meat and topped with asparagus and almonds. Their dessert menu did not excite me at first - being neither a panna cotta nor bread pudding fan, I settled on the ubiquitous molten chocolate cake - but as soon as I bit into the cake, I knew I was in for a treat. Unlike the typical MCC, which I would characterize as a thin, burnt-brownie-like outer shell filled with grainy, somewhat-coagulated chocolate sauce, Grotto's was a quality, fudgy cake that evenly transitioned to a rich molten center. I enjoyed the subtle textural differences throughout the cake, and the rich bittersweet chocolate really popped against the French vanilla ice cream that accompanied it. I could really sink my teeth into this one!

I have no idea if this was intentional or not, but I couldn't help but notice a trend of simple or common desserts being kicked up a few notches. Did you try any exceptional restaurants, or similar desserts, this Restaurant Week? I always appreciate suggestions on where to go next. :-)