It was so good...I forgot the dessert names...Part II

I went to Abacus during Restaurant Week for the third straight time this year.  If you've never been here, I would highly recommend it.  The maitre-d (woman with French accent) is incredibly rude both on the phone and in person, so if you can get past that, the food is worth it. 

Their desserts during RW are meant to share.  That's unfortunate for my husband.  I thought this year the desserts were far better than previous.  I remembered all of the flavor and taste, none of the name.  Sorry guys.  But blogspot is mobile device friendly right?

On the far left of the dessert plate was this wonderful chocolate mousse sandwich-like thing.  It had a ribbon of chocolate mousse in between two layers of chocolate, topped off with 3 scoops of mousse and a raspberry.  The mousse was light but very flavorful, not heavy and superficially rich like poorly made mousse.  This was delish.  I personally think they should have put some strawberry slices with it...to give it a chocolate covered strawberry effect.  One of my favorite desserts this year!

In the middle of the plate was a lemon dessert of some sort with mascarpone cheese, a lemon drizzled/brushed thin cracker, and some lemon jam-like substance.  I am not a fan of limes, lemons, and other tart desserts, but this was one of my favorites (well, all except the jam part).  Then again, who doesn't like mascarpone? 

On the right of the plate was a peanut butter chocolate creation with some peanut butter cookies.  It was a very sophisticated dessert, and unfortunately, my palette has been trained over the decades to enjoy cheap peanut butter chocolate desserts, like peanut butter + nutella on a huge spatula at midnight.  It was a very yummy dessert, but very thick, solid, and heavy, which isn't to my liking.


Side tangent: the food and intermizzios are always wonderful here. This is where I got my idea for my famous watermelon-lemonade slushee.  This past year, they had a violet slushee intermizzio, absolutely wonderful!

Restaurant Week Part II

I love Stephan Pyles!  This is one of my other "regulars" on Restaurant Week. 

Gourmet doughnuts are definitely popping up more and more.  But Stevie is wonderful, and therefore his desserts are always unique and tasty.  His "Coffee and Doughnuts" are "freshly friend beignet-style doughnuts with expresso creme brulee and cajeta".  And being a huge beignet fan, and subsequently beignet expert, these doughnuts do taste similar to beignets - fluffy yet chewy.  Yum.  I am not a fan of coffee, or creme brulee, but that did not detract from the wonderful doughnuts, which I recommend everyone try!



The second dessert of the night was the "Mascarpone-Black mission fig empanada with balsamic sabayon and jamon serrano ice cream".  OMG OMG OMG.  This was absolutely great.  This belongs on my Top 10 list...which I will have to create shortly.  I have no clue what "balsamic sabayon" or "jamon serrano" are, but they are delicious in this dessert.  It tastes like a wonderful dessert empanada with amazing ice cream.  Must have more!

The third dessert of the night was the "Mexican chocolate tamales with roasted cherry-vanilla ice cream and sambuca-milk chocolate".  Very good indeed, but since I despise cherries outside of their plain fruit state, I was not a fan of the ice-cream.  I honestly would order one of the two desserts above before I would consider this one, but nonetheless, I still heart SP!

Overrated places in Dallas

Do you ever wonder why some places are ranked so high?  Here is my ranking of my top two most overrated places in Dallas for dessert.


Don't get this either

Don't get this



First up: Kathleen's Sky Diner

They are supposed to be known for their desserts, but the two cakes I ordered were extremely dry and unrefined.  I always liken these experiences to the grocery store cake, but in this case, it was worse.  It was like picked-over-two-days-old birthday cake at the office.



Next up: Celebration Restaurant 

Chocolate Layer Cake

Don't get me wrong, the food at Celebration Restaurant tastes like home cooking, but the dessert tastes like home cooking from the Easy Bake oven.  Their chocolate layer cake tastes like when I make it from a box, and the strawberry shortcake was unmemorable (sweet but you could better spend those calories on a few Twix bars).  I could have experienced the same brownie sundae taste at home with brownie mix and some Bluebell ice cream. 

Strawberry Shortcake

Brownie Sundae

French Toast 2.0

Me: "What is torrejas de bolillo"?
Waiter: "It's like french toast"
Me: "Um, ok"
***** 1 bit into the dessert *****
Me: "This is waaaaaaaaay better than french toast!"

This wonderful creation is a must have by anyone who goes to Chicago (okay - so now I've hyped it up too much".  Mercadito is actually a chain, so maybe this is offered in a city closer to you.  Here's the description of it on the menu: "creme anglaise soaked mexican bread, vanilla ice cream, cajeta sauce".  Again, it is the right amount of sweetness mixed with carbs.  And if it weren't for the fact that one of our guests double-dipped into the dessert, I would have finished it all off.  Sadly, when I went back recently, they were SOLD OUT of it.  Maybe that's the next business idea..."DessertReservations.com". 

A little bit of French food in Vegas

I must be a poser since the first time I've had souffle was August 2010, and apparently souffle is a prerequisite to becoming a dessertist.  Anyho, my verdict: souffle ain't all that!  I went to the Eiffel Tower Restaurant for dinner, and at the end of dinner (which wasn't all that), I was presented with some hard dessert choices: the oh so Parisian souffle, or some good ole American apple pie.  When in Paris, order souffle, right?

I ordered the Pistachio souffle (because regular chocolate souffle wasn't French enough), and I was sorely disappointed.  The souffle came out pretty, and then the waiter drizzled some souffle jus on top, to make it even prettier.  But that's where it ends.  It tasted like bland, wet, bread with a hint of pistachio. 

My friend's apple pie however, was the best apple pie ever.  It wasn't your traditional apple pie with way too much overly sweet filling.  It was light, the crust was delicious, and everything just melted in your mouth!  So the lesson I learned was, "don't let peer pressure make you order souffle".  Or any other cliche type saying like that.

It was so good...I forgot the dessert names!

It is that time of the year....RESTAURANT WEEK!  I am a huge fan of Restaurant Weeks, regardless of what city you live in.  I've done RW in Houston and Dallas, both of which are awesome.  You get to eat great food at a great price, and you benefit food banks in your city!

So in Houston, I dined at RDG Bar Annie, which I was told was a prime spot in Houston.  I can't remember the exact name of the dessert, but it was a raspberry mousse with an awesome ginger-snaplike cookie thing on the side.  This raspberry mousse was a-m-a-z-i-n-g!  First of all, it tasted like real raspberries, not like someone added a cheap raspberry syrup.  The mousse was dense, but light at the same time.  The cookie was crisp and chewy...I don't know how their pastry chef does it!  I definitely would buy this in a store if it were packaged in individual servings.  Yummmm..