Sushi, Mochi, and Tempura oh my!

I love eatting sushi because you get a great dinner, and I just love the typical desserts offered at sushi restaurants.  Here's the line up for Sushi House in Naperville, IL:

Everyone has ice cream, duh!  Sushi House has green tea or red bean ice cream available.

1 scoop of red bean & green tea

I have to say it wasn't the best green tea or red bean ice cream I've ever had.  (So I wouldn't recommend it if this is your first time)  The green tea lacked a creaminess that I like with my green tea, so instead it just tasted like frozen green tea.  The red bean ice cream wasn't creamy enough for me either.



Mochi

Sushi House has 3 mochi flavors available: strawberry, mango, and coffee.  They were all probably store bought, but the strawberry and mango ones are delish!  Hence the fact that you get a picture with only 1/2 of one left.  Yummy...  If you are curious what mochi even is, it is a combination of dough and ice cream.  How could it get better?
 

Tempura Ice Cream


Oh yeah, things could always get better if it's fried.  Tempura Ice Cream is a fancy way of saying fried ice cream.  Think Texas State Fair.  Fried anything is great.  Ice cream is great.  Perfect combo, except they added whipped cream and a cherry.  Weird, but easily "move out of the way"-able. 

Pecan Pie with Tabasco sauce

Enough said!  I was referred to Ron's Cajun Connection, but was warned that it was "in the middle of nowhere".  My referrer was right both about the food (it was delish) and that it is indeed in the middle of nowhere.  In fact, when I finally pursuaded my husband to eat here for an early dinner, he really only agreed because it was literally on the highway, and we didn't need to get off of Highway 6.  Seriously, think Highway 6 shoulder = Ron's Cajun Connection. 

Quick note about the cajun food here - omg wonderful!  And I'm cajun!  Try the gumbo and crawfish etouffe.  Drool....

Back to the dessert.  We got the pecan pie with tabasco sauce and Sisler's cinnamon ice cream.  I've had better cinnamon ice cream, but I haven't had better pecan pie.  You can't taste the tabasco sauce, but something makes this the best pecan pie I've ever had, and I hate pecan pie for the most part.  The crust is thin and just right.  The pie itself not made of filler junk with overly sweet syrup; it's got plenty of pecans and other goodness that makes this pie not overly sweet, but just wonderful.  I didn't need any milk to wash it down, just more pecan pie!

The cinnamon ice cream tasted pretty plain.  I could have done without this and just spent more of my calories on another pecan pie!

Dear Rick Bayless

Dear Rick Bayless,

I have enjoyed your entrees every time (well, all but once), but sadly your desserts are not on my top 10 list =*(

I love XOCO...the sandwiches are wonderful.  However, their desserts are not.  I had their churros, and they were so awful I had one bite, discarded them, forgot to take a picture (note: the ice cream on top was yum), and got two more desserts: a cranberry/white chocolate chip cookie and a shortbread (which tasted like pecan shortbread).  The shortbread cookie was decent; I've had better cranberry/white chocolate chip cookies on airlines.  Sorry Rick!

At Frontera Grill, I ordered a few desserts: the Torta de Elote, Cazuela de Frutas, and a chocolate mousse cake. 

The Torta de Elote is a "warm, moist sweet corn cake with Klug Farm blueberry salsa, blueberry-tequila ice cream, homemade fresh cheese and crema." (gotta put quotes around sited work!).  This was interesting.  It tastes like it sounds, but wasn't anything mind-blowing.  Think sweet corn bread + blueberry ice cream with a hint of tequila + something that tastes like blueberry compote on the bottom. 

The Cazuela de Frutas is made of "local blackberries and plums (shiro and methly varieties) baked under a crunchy cashew-cornmeal streusel topping. Mexican vanilla bean ice cream."  The actual fruit part was too tart for my liking, but the crust topping was my favorite part. 

To be honest, this chocolate mousse cake was unmemorable for me.  I'm beginning to wonder how food critics remember so much food in one meal...do they have an app to capture their thoughts and reactions?  I guess my recommendation is to go for the food, but don't stay for the desserts.

Gourmet Doughnuts

I suppose it makes sense that doughnuts are going gourmet, since cupcakes have gone fru-fru.

I had lunch at The Gage in Chicago, and they offer a signature "Coffee Stuffed Doughnuts Espresso and Crunchy Coffee and Hot Fudge" dessert.  It was pretty darn good!  The doughnut holes have a surprise in the middle - (gourmet) lemon filling! The sauce was ok (I'm not a coffee fan).  The doughnuts themselves are light but chewy (not the uncooked dough chewy...the I want to have chewy carbs type of taste).  If I posted this on Facebook, I would have "Like"d it.

I also ordered a "Market Fruit with Curry Biscotti".  The fruit was fresh and sweet and the mascarpone cream cheese was perfect.  This is a perfect dessert for those who want something healthier than doughnuts.  Sorry, the biscotti isn't pictured because they forgot about it.  But it tasted just like any ole biscotti.