Taste of Georgetown

These days, the city is in full-on summer mode. I see beautiful flowing dresses on every corner, dripping ice cream cones in children's hands, panting and exhausted dogs hiding in the shade, lots of canoes and kayaks on the Potomac, and shelves full of sunscreen and tanning lotion in my local drugstore. Oh, and the pool in my apartment complex is now open and frequented by a regular crowd of couples, families and gossiping teenagers, none of whom I have ever seen around before.

It makes me happy to observe that DC has this lively, fun, outgoing side. A big part of it are the numerous street festivals taking place between June and August, the first of which I attended this weekend: Taste of Georgetown, a culinary festival aiming to raise awareness and money to fund the homeless assistance programs of the Georgetown Ministry Center. Tasting tickets were purchased at the entrance, and then exchanged for small portions of signature dishes presented by 26 local restaurants. 

So there's food, there's drinks, there's live music and there's freebies given away by the sponsors, all for a good cause on a sunny Saturday afternoon. - If that is not a recipe for happiness, what is?

The only drawback at Taste of Georgetown was the fact that it was practically impossible to try all the deliciously tempting items put before us. With a sampler of five tasting tickets each, my friend and I set out to find different combinations of savory and sweet dishes and hopefully discover new places for brunches, lunches and study breaks.

Unsurprisingly, I spent three of my five tickets on dessert. And the selection was overwhelming: DC's favorite cupcake bakeries - Georgetown Cupcake, Sprinkles and Baked & Wired - were present, as were some of Georgetown's most cherished treasures like Filomena, Paolo's and Café Bonaparte. Here is what we ate.

Peach pie, Connecticut Copperthite Pie Co.: This piece of pie was not only beautiful, it also tasted fruity and refreshing and seemed to be bursting with the flavor of summer. The crust was flaky and buttery, which - according to my friend, who knows a bit more about pie than I do - is the perfect consistency. It is terribly difficult to obtain any information about the company online, so I couldn't make out whether it is an actual bakery, a catering service, or something else entirely.

Chocolate amaretto gelato, Paolo's: A wonderful surprise! The gelato perfectly balanced both chocolate and amaretto flavors, making it seem like you were sipping a thick, sweet cocktail (especially once it had melted a little). In terms of consistency we thought it more closely resembled ice cream than gelato, but who's complaining?

Red velvet ice cream, Sprinkles: This was a very special treat because Sprinkles only operates ice cream shops in Beverly Hills and Newport Beach. It came with a mini cream-filled chocolate ganache cupcake, which had a strong dark-chocolate flavor and was, despite its size, very filling (in a positive way). The ice cream was nice but nothing to write home about. Basically sweet cream with pieces of red velvet cake. It supposedly also had cream cheese frosting mixed in, but I wasn't able to make that out.

Strawberry Shortcake, Filomena Ristorante: My absolute highlight. In terms of presentation, this dessert stood out due to its size and bright red color. -It was massive! Apart from its pretty looks, it tasted unbelievably good. I can't even find a better adjective to describe it. Good... Simply good. A light sponge cake with fresh strawberries in a syrupy sauce and a thick dollop of sweet cream. Filomena, you'll see me again very soon!

Valrhona chocolate opera, Degrees Bistro at the Ritz Carlton: I have to admit that I felt so stuffed by the end of the event that I carried this piece of cake all the way home in the heat. The result: Its transformation into chocolate mousse. After an hour in the fridge the layers of what I assume to be ganache, buttercream and sponge cake had recovered though, and tasted wonderfully rich and satisfying. Even after all the trouble it went through, you could tell it was a high quality product from a high quality establishment.

Now... where and when can we repeat this experience?

Cream Cycle

This post has been a while in the making. I tried Cream Cycle's  mexican jalapeño chocolate ice cream sandwich about a month back when I discovered the DC Meet Market in the Logan Circle neighborhood (it's on again this weekend, Saturday June 1st!), and I have not been able to forget about it since. 

The serious problem I am facing here is that their ice cream sandwiches are "hard to get", in the truest sense of the expression, as this small business is just starting and they randomly pop up at events around DC. The only place where you can find their products for sure any day of the week is Smucker Farms, located in proximity to the U street corridor on 14th. 

The creative mind behind Cream Cycle is Carlos Delgado, a young Peruvian Executive Chef currently overseeing two restaurants at the Westin in Foggy Bottom. He adopted the concept of selling ice cream on bicycles from the streets of Lima, giving it his very own signature twist. 

Delogado's ice cream sandwiches are not only delivered in style by a fleet of baby-blue, vintage custom designed tricycles (it's clever, really, since these are a lot cuter and cheaper to operate than food trucks), but they also come in a wide range of exciting flavors. Only two kinds were sold at the market, but when I had a look at their website later that day I almost drooled all over my keyboard:  Cereal milk. Salted lime. Nutella white chocolate. Banana java habanero. And, now brace yourselves, Bacon and Olive. 

Luckily, my relatively new Twitter account keeps me updated about Cream Cycle appearances around town. They are irregular though, and I hope they will either open their own store-front at some point or start weekly schedules just like the average food truck. 

I am not just saying that. I really really can't wait to try their other flavors. The mexican jalapeño chocolate left me in awe. It had an interesting consistency. - Even though it was a hot afternoon, the ice cream at no point threatened to melt and drip all over my fingers. The fact that it wasn't really creamy but rather sorbet-like helped maintain its round shape. The cookies were thin and neither to crispy nor too soft, just perfect to hold a big ice cream portion and complement its taste. 

About the taste: I was a bit worried that it was going to be too spicy, since I am a weakling when it comes to hot Indian or Mexican dishes. Then again, you might think "Seriously, how can ice cream be spicy? It's cold after all!" And that's exactly what makes this sandwich so intriguing. It's refreshing and hot at the same time. Your throat burns but the ice cream cools it down. It is the strangest of sensations.

I must have looked weird, standing in a small corner next to one of the tents, taking bite after bite and lovingly staring at my ice cream sandwich. Some of the other vendors actually asked me about it because they had noticed a number of people walking past with similar sandwiches in their hands. Maybe it blew their minds just like it blew mine.

Further information on Cream Cycle (and much better pictures) can be found right here.

Brownie Points: 3 out of 3

Serendipity 3

The original Serendipity 3 is located in Manhattan's upper east side in New York and has been featured in several films, most noticeably in the 2001 romantic comedy "Serendipity". Remember how the couple shares dessert at the restaurant after coincidentally meeting earlier that day? Awww. The restaurant was named after the three princes of the island Serendip (now Sri Lanka), even though the definition of serendipity plays a significant role as well: "The art of finding the pleasantly unexpected by chance or sagacity". 

Its Georgetown location was opened not too long ago on Memorial Day 2011, and while the ambiance is slightly less intimate and cozy than what is portrayed on pictures of the NY restaurant, its interior is clearly inspired by the original, with playful details, colorful glass lamps and a giant Abraham Lincoln wall sculpture by the entrance.

Serendipity's specialty is the "frrrozen hot chocolate". Google it and you will find hundreds of pictures, recipes, magazine articles and even a book called "Sweet Serendipity". Believe it or not, the last time I was there I was not aware of this and ordered something savory. The Tex-Mex Mucho Macho Salad made history in my book as the unhealthiest and heaviest salad I have ever had. Lesson learned: Come here only for dessert. If I over-indulge, I want it to be in something sweet.

The restaurant holds the Guinness book world record for the most expensive dessert, the $1,000 Golden Opulence. No, this does not include fancy give-aways. It is an edible, and therefore short-lived expensive pleasure. This is something I would have expected from a place in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. And I could imagine that it would be a lot more popular over there, too! Here is a video of how they make it. Beautiful. And it includes a small dish of dessert caviar, infused with passion fruit, orange and Armagnac. Who knew such a thing even existed?

Ok I am getting off-topic here. Obviously my friend and I are cost-conscious students (sounds better than "poor") and, if we actually had the money, would be better off buying a cupcake each day for a year than spend it on one dessert. Today, we therefore went with a Black 'N White sundae and a regular frozen hot chocolate. They offer many varieties of the frozen hot chocolate, including peanut butter, white chocolate, and Oreo, but since I had never tried it before I thought that the classic should be my first. What intrigued my friend about the Black 'N White sundae was the promise of a "tuxedo strawberry". It got her so excited, I think they could have brought out the worst-tasting ice cream of all time and she would have still been delighted as long as the strawberry looked cute. 

Luckily, the ice cream wasn't horrible, and the strawberry really did look cute. My friend is a self-proclaimed chocolate ice cream snob, and was very happy about the flavor of her sundae. Given the quirky decor and Alice-in-Wonderland-type atmosphere in the restaurant, I expected a more extravagant presentation though. Apart from the tuxedo strawberry, it looked like something I could have created at home: Chocolate and vanilla ice cream thrown together with lots of whipped cream, white and dark chocolate fudge and marshmallow cream. There's a lot of "cream" in this description, which can only mean one thing. When you come here, don't even start counting calories. It will do you no good. You are either in, or you're out. Needless to say, we were in 100 percent.

My frozen hot chocolate tasted exactly like my friend's chocolate ice cream; it was simply a little more liquid. Topped with a generous amount of whipped cream and chocolate shards, it was served in a huge glass bowl and could have easily satisfied two people. I hadn't had lunch though, so this was an entire meal for me. According to Oprah, the frozen hot chocolate consist of nothing more than small, melted pieces of chocolate, hot chocolate mix, sugar, milk and whipped cream. And if Oprah says she got the recipe from the restaurant itself, then who am I not to believe her? It is really quite sweet and I could taste that it was made from a hot chocolate mix rather than rich dark chocolate. This surely isn't everyone's favorite. In my family, for example, regular hot chocolate mix is banned from the house and all we drink on cold winter nights are good-quality dark chocolate flakes melted in whole milk. My mum's motto is: If you do it, do it right!

Yeah... I guess Serendipity's frozen hot chocolate doesn't really compete with the hot chocolate drinks I am used to and those I have had in places like Paris, Vienna, or, just recently, Barcelona. But what makes it special is the ambiance of the restaurant you enjoy it in, the fact that people travel far to try this signature item, and the challenge of finishing one all by yourself. - The waiter actually wished us "Good Luck" when he served our order. Don't question our passion for dessert; of course we finished it all!

The service was prompt and neither remarkably friendly nor unfriendly. They gave us nice bar seats, offered us iced water, took our order, brought the food within a very short time frame... and flirted with my friend. Ignoring the fact that this guy spoke to her as if I was not even present I guess you could say that it made for a personalized experience.

Brownie Points for the frozen hot chocolate: 2 out of 3

Brownie Points for the Black 'N White sundae: 1 out of 3

Recipe: Brigadeiros

Brigadeiros have been among my favorite desserts ever since an exchange student from Brazil made them for her farewell party in high school. It's been about... 10 years now. And how often have I eaten them since? Only once or twice, when I was actually in Brazil.

The reason for this is that brigadeiros aren't well-known outside the country. What a shame that the rest of the world is missing out on soft, chocolate-sprinkle-covered fudge balls made from evaporated milk and cocoa!

I haven't been able to find restaurants or shops that sell them, and until recently I was not confident enough in my cooking and baking skills to attempt to make them myself. The recipe is quite simple though, with very few ingredients and steps. So, today I made brigadeiros for the first time. -  And they turned out perfect! I am so excited, because it means that I no longer depend on anyone else to satisfy my cravings. Maybe one or two of you are curious enough to give the following recipe a try as well?

All you need is:

- 1 can condensed milk (14 oz)

- 2 tbsp butter

- 2 tbsp cocoa powder

- chocolate sprinkles

- a big pan

- a wooden spoon

- two bowls

- baking cups

First, melt the butter in the pan over medium heat. Stirring, add the entire can of condensed milk and the cocoa powder. One website offered great advice saying that it's better to first mix the cocoa powder with water, as the powder does not dissolve well in the evaporated milk/butter mixture. 

Do not leave the stove and do not stop stirring, otherwise the mixture will burn. Keep the heat on medium-low as it thickens. This process took 8-10 minutes for me, but it might take a lot longer depending on the type of pan you are using. 

The most critical decision you need to make is when to take the mixture off the stove. If you take it off too early, you will end up with a thick chocolate sauce that cannot be molded. If you take it off too late, the brigadeiros will be hard or chewy. The mixture is done when a) you divide it with your spoon and it remains divided for a moment, i.e. your spoon leaves a trail in the pan, or when b) you scoop up some of the mixture, turn the spoon upside down, and it sticks to the spoon for a moment before falling back into the pan.

Now transfer the mixture into a bowl, let it cool down to room temperature, and put it in the fridge for about one hour.

Once the mixture has cooled, scoop out small portions with a tablespoon and mold them with your hands. This is easier if you apply some butter to your hands before. Once you have shaped a small ball, roll it in the chocolate sprinkles (in a second bowl) and make sure it is covered all over. You might have to continue shaping it a little, especially as the mixture gets warmer. Finally, place it in one of the baking cups.

The recipe makes about 20 small or 10 big brigadeiros. They keep up to 2 weeks in the fridge.

This website provides you with more background information (for example on where the name came from), and has a great video showing you the entire process of making the brigadeiros with detailed explanations. Enjoy!

San Francisco Edition: American Cupcake

So here I go with yet another cupcake review. It's not my fault, really. If there are so many cupcake shops all around the U.S. that means people love eating them, and it probably means they want to hear about the best and worst places to get the best and worst flavors. No? I most definitely enjoy trying out all these different places, and when I discovered American Cupcake during an afternoon of wandering around Union Street - starving! - I couldn't help but marvel at their display of bright, multicolored treats.

American Cupcake oddly sell desserts along with red velvet fried chicken (I only read about this later and kicked myself for missing out on such a creative dish), burgers, bite-sized snack food, several kinds of PB & J sandwiches and - now this gets really interesting - alcohol. Yes, guests can choose from a menu of "cupcake flights", each pairing three different cupcakes with wines.

You can tell: This is unlike any other cupcake place you have ever been to or heard of. And the interior sends the same message. Even though I arrived around lunch time, it was dark inside the store. Pink, blue and neon green bulbs hang from the ceiling, and the little light they give off creates a nightclub atmosphere. Walls and all furniture are white and look like plastic. I felt like I just entered some kind of disco spaceship! The fact that there was nobody else but two employees and myself made the experience even stranger.

Nevertheless, the situation was not uncomfortable - mostly thanks to the naturally friendly and hospitable girl who helped me pick out a flavor and talked to me as if I were a good friend she hadn't seen in a while. Of course I had to go for one of their really extraordinary cupcake creations, which I knew I was not likely to get anywhere else: Cotton Candy. I could have opted for Bubble Gum or Pink Candy Popcorn as well, but this one was decorated with a tiny stick of cotton candy and the frosting had such a fun, pastel-green color.

Aside from the presentation, the cupcake actually tasted good. I was almost a little surprised because I expected it to be overly sweet with an artificial taste, given its color and all. Instead, it had an authentic cotton candy flavor, not too strong and not to subtle, which I enjoyed so much that I would have gladly eaten a second one. The cake was slightly too dense, but for some reason it worked well with the buttery frosting. So yes, it was a rather heavy cupcake, but a very enjoyable one, and one that I would gladly recommend. Don't eat the mini-cotton candy though... I have no idea how old mine was, but judging by the fact that it was hard and dry it could have been from last year. 

If I lived in the SF area I would definitely go back to give their other flavors a try. And who knows, the atmosphere might be so much more fitting in the evenings, when you go for drinks and cupcakes with your best friends or significant other. No matter whether you like their concept or not, American Cupcake create a truly out-of-the-box experience.

Brownie Points: 2 out of 3

San Francisco Edition: Tout Sweet

This might be one of the fanciest dessert spots I have been to. Located inside Macy's right across from Union Square, with picture-perfect views of downtown San Francisco, and colorful displays of beautifully packaged pastries, cookies, dessert sauces, jams and whatnot all around the store, Tout Sweet looks stylish and expensive. When I arrived they seemed to have some sort of promotional event taking place because it was very busy and - if I'm not mistaken - a handsome young guy looked very much like the one on the poster by the entrance, Tout Sweet's owner Yigit Pura.

Yigit Pura is the winner of season 1 of "Top Chef Just Desserts". Born in Turkey, he started his professional culinary training in San Francisco and later worked in New York City as well as Las Vegas, before joining the TV show and taking the title. I didn't know all of this at the time, but Tout Sweet is his very first own store and therefore kind of a big deal. The fact that the rather small space was so full of people caught my attention, so I entered to have a quick bite before continuing my sightseeing. Actually, sitting by the window inside Macy's in San Francisco and eating something you have never had before counts as sightseeing in my world. So I did. 

The store design is all sharp edges, sparkling white walls and furniture, colorful shelves, and glass. It almost seemed a little futuristic and intimidating to me, and I immediately wondered what I looked like and if I was appropriately dressed to fit in. Also, don't forget that you are eating calorie bombs right next to size zero womens' clothing, so you better feel very comfortable about your figure and don't plan to overindulge. Not my favorite kind of place, but it obviously has a very specific target clientele and the style matches the prices they ask for. 

That being said, the food is gorgeous! Some of the pastries they sell look like small pieces of art; I would have felt uncomfortable destroying them with my fork. You can definitely make out the chef's preference for minimalistic design, as most desserts have only little decoration, and at the same time his love for color and floral themes, which are represented in the take-home food items and the store's logo.

A friend of mine once posted a picture of a vanilla bean crêpe cake she had in New York on facebook, and I have been waiting for my chance to try one ever since. Here was my chance: Pura's version is called "Mille Crêpes" and is basically a huge cake made up of layered thin crepes and orange flower water scented vanilla custard (I know - that is a long, complicated description). They brulée the crêpe on top to make it look crunchy. When I asked for a piece, the lady behind the counter took quite a while to cut it and put it on a plate, and I can imagine that it must be difficult to keep the cake intact with all these layers. It made me feel good though because it confirmed that this is definitely not a dessert I could try to make at home. It's worth paying 6 Dollars for.

So I took my sweet time enjoying it. The custard was rich with a strong orange note, the crêpes were obviously not crunchy anymore but had the consistency of soft pancakes. It did not taste too sweet, which I appreciated, because the portion is really quite big for one person and it could have easily given me a sugar shock for the rest of the day. I still think the atmosphere was not cozy at all, even though Tout Sweet only seats 20 guests at a time, and there is a long, communal table in the middle of the room inviting people to interact with other guests while they eat. Nobody went near it during the time I spent there.

I would go back to try some of the other patisserie items (the "5th Element" looked outstanding), and maybe I'd even sit there if I could get a table by the window. But taking the food home and eating it at my very own dining table (or in a bathrobe on the hotel bed) would still be my first choice. 

Brownie Points: 2 out of 3

San Francisco Edition: Kara's Cupcakes

Another stop on my self-organized dessert tour through San Francisco was at Ghirardelli Square. You might think that the main attraction there is chocolate, considering they have three different Ghirardelli chocolate and ice cream shops within a radius of less than 100 meters. Even I was a little stunned by the amount of sugar that was being sold in this place... and given away for free: Everytime you entered one of the stores you got a caramel chocolate square as a "welcome gift". Believe it or not, I did not purchase anything. I spent my money at nearby Kara's Cupcakes instead.

The interior of the store is bright pink, obviously catering to a female clientele. Since there are practically no walls but only windows surrounding the counter and the incredibly cheerful girl working behind it, Kara's Cupcakes looks very inviting as soon as you enter the square. They have a few tables and chairs outside for people to enjoy the sun while they dig into their baked goods, which is nice especially on days when it's not too busy and you can watch families, children and couples gather around  the fountain.

I originally only entered to look around and admire the super cute presentation of their cupcakes, but who was I kidding - of course I had to try one. Especially after the girl started a conversation with me and encouraged me to take pictures. No awkward moment of "Hmmm is it ok to take my camera out? Will they think I am weird, like I have never seen cupcakes before? Or like I am taking this way to seriously and am going to blog about it later on?". Thankfully we skipped that! 

The variety is big, but in terms of flavors I didn't feel like they offered anything extraordinary. The classic red velvet and carrot cake looked most appealing to be honest, but then again I was in an experimental/vacation mood and thought that chocolate velvet sounded interesting. It looked like a giant brigadeiro (a more-than-amazing dessert from Brazil) and I imagined it would be red on the inside. Much like a pairing of red velvet cake and dark chocolate frosting, instead of the cream cheese frosting that usually goes with it. Yeah, that was my imagination. It ended up simply being a chocolate cupcake with a "velvety bittersweet chocolate buttercream". Don't get me wrong, it was nice and the frosting really was velvety. But all this chocolate was just too much for my taste. The cake in itself was fluffy and light, so I ended up scraping off much of the frosting and just ate the cake. Made me feel less guilty about the calories and was sort of satisfying. Still, this was the first time I did not eat all of the frosting, usually that's my favorite part!

Overall I enjoyed the way the store was designed, as well as the friendly service. But the cupcake failed to impress.

Brownie Points: 1 out of 3