The best dessert ever.
Did I mention I'm in Miami? Yeah, you should probably stop pitying me now. I'm not gonna lie, it feels pretty good to be here, where everyone is attractive and the temperature doesn't fall below 70 degrees in the daytime hours. It's been a luxuriously long weekend, a merciful post-inauguration, pre-springtime thaw.
Change is in the air, even in South Beach. In a shocking departure from the status quo and family tradition, food has not been the focus of this trip. As a result, up until tonight, our meals here had been good, but not memorable. Michael's Genuine turned that around for us. Actually, it wasn't so much Michael who did it. It was Hedy.
That would be Hedy Goldsmith: Pastry Chef, or as I have come to know her, Hedy Goldsmith: Lady Who Is Much Smarter and Better At Her Job Than I Am or Will Ever Be.
Her brainchild: Tangerine "Cremesicle" Pot de Creme with blackberry basil marmalade and hot donuts.
I drew this for you, because sometimes, words fail. This picture also falls short (like, shortbus-short), but hopefully it will provide at least a bare bones sketch of her colorful, complex composition.
The donuts were piping hot, light as air, sprinkled with sugar crystals and, praise the lord, just a little bit salty. The fresh taste of the basil cut the sweetness of the tangy marmalade. The texture was also perfectly balanced: beautifully plump blackberries were preserved in sticky, herb-infused syrup and topped with slender, delicate strips of candied orange peel.
The pot de creme was, in contrast, incredibly mild, although the rich, creamy tangerine flavor stood up nicely to the boldness of the marmalade. It reminded me of a story I read and re-read as a kid. In it, a boy and his brother help their father make a very special pudding for their mother. The father promises, "It will taste like a whole raft of lemons, it will taste like a night on the sea."
Lemons, tangerines; apples, oranges; whatev. It was magical.
No comments:
Post a Comment