Best Sweets From Surprising Sources

Readers familiar with the Accidental Locavore know that I’d much sooner write about (almost any) cheese and usually am a little lax on the sweeter segment of the food chain. Recently, I’ve had some awfully good sweets from unexpected sources.

The first was at the Indian restaurant Junoon. Understand that one of my primary food rules is not to eat desserts in Asian restaurants. Sorry, they’re just too gummy and sweet. But we were there on one of those deals where it’s x number of courses and dessert. The food was excellent (the best onion kulcha I’ve ever had) and the desserts sounded pretty good. We ordered the lemon crÁªpes and were blown away! It was the perfect portion size for sharing a couple of bites at the end of a meal. Two small crÁªpes, filled with lemon curd, a pair of raspberries, a scoop of ricotta ice cream and the thinnest tuile, made for a spectacular dessert. The ricotta ice cream was so good, it could have easily stood on its own (note to self, let’s try a batch at home), but why miss out on all the other goodness?

The other surprise came at a buyers showcase at the Entrepreneur Space, an incubator kitchen. Normally, when I see any or all of the following words, I want to flee: vegan, gluten-free, raw (when it pertains to food that most normal people would cook). Now, that may not be politically correct to say, but I find that it usually leads to seitan or tofu being tortured into something it’s not (i.e. delicious). However, in the case of a gluten-free cookie I had, it would be easy to harness my inner Djokovic and live happily ever after. The cookie in question, “Crunchy Chaos” has nothing in the description that would ever compel me to eat it: marshmallows (especially after trying a wasabi-ginger one from someone else…terrible!) and corn flakes in a gluten-free cookie, but boy was it good! Of course having butter as the first ingredient didn’t hurt. Interesting enough, Shira, the creator of Goodie Girl Tribeca is not on the gluten-free bandwagon, but spent two years trying (and succeeding) in making something really delicious. There are three other varieties, including a very good thin mint, but it’s Chaos* for me.

*If you want to try them for yourself, in NYC they’re at G-Free on the Upper West Side and Foragers in Chelsea. Thanks to Shira for the photo as my husband ate all the subjects.