Writer's Block: Sweet tooth
Sep. 13th, 2011 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigozeal[Error: unknown template qotd]
With all the recent unpleasantness, let's turn our attention to a frothier topic.
My favorite candy is perhaps Haribo gummies, but I can't have them anymore due to the gelatin. I can't think of any other candies to which I'm so instantly partial; I like the clean taste of the filling of Mars bars, and Snickers makes a dark-chocolate version of the bar now that really highlights the flavors of the ingredients rather than clumping them into one ball of sweetness. Most anything Storck makes is worthwhile particularly its Mamba line); ditto Lindt, to a lesser extent.
Dessertwise, I like peach pie greatly, even though I don't eat it often (and will probably have to make it myself from now on due to my no-eggs issue). Peach is an underused flavor, I think; it's not overly sweet and "direct," as The Cat Who...'s Mountclemens would say, as strawberry can be and raspberry usually is; peach opts for delicate flavor over ascorbic acid.
I'm also partial to chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. Chocolate on chocolate is too rich for me, and vanilla on vanilla often too tasteless or (with imitation vanilla) cheap-tasting.
You'd think whoopie pies would be a giant hunk of awesome, but lemme tell ya: the filling is a gritty, lardy turn-off, a mouthful of plastic shortening instead of a creamy taste of vanilla, and they're about 1,000 calories per serving. Suzy-Qs, the Hostess knockoff, are actually superior to most authentic whoopie pie specimens on balance.
I used always to opt for German chocolate cake when I went to the diner when I was a kid. I still like it, but the caramel just doesn't have the same hold over me now.
I've never tried pavlova. Probably never will now, with the egg issue.
Oh! Ice cream! Ice cream is one thing Maine does well - not five miles from me, I have a stand that serves strawberry soft serve, an outlet for a local hard-serve manufacturer, and a couple locations that in any other city would make for standout town ice cream stands. There's also a "48 flavors of soft serve" offered by many smaller outlets throughout the state. It's not quality - I think it's just mix-in powder - but the novelty of having a peach (good), blueberry (good), or licorice (tastes like Robitussin) cone trumps quality. I have to try the watermelon before the season's out.
Of course, that's in summer and not in fall through spring, when they all are Closed for the Season like half the state. Then you have to choose among the packaged stuff from Haagen-Dazs (too expensive), Ben & Jerry's (too expensive and unimaginative since the Unilever buyout), Breyers (too artificial since the Unilever buyout - why is that company bound and determined to ruin ice cream?), and everything else (blech). I used to get cartons of the local hard-serve manufacturer's stuff till I read the label and discovered that their product was packed with more guar gum and its ilk than even Unilever's ice cream. Still, I probably eat more ice cream than any other food listed here.
Eh, this was a waste of a post, and not an uptick for the better.
.
With all the recent unpleasantness, let's turn our attention to a frothier topic.
My favorite candy is perhaps Haribo gummies, but I can't have them anymore due to the gelatin. I can't think of any other candies to which I'm so instantly partial; I like the clean taste of the filling of Mars bars, and Snickers makes a dark-chocolate version of the bar now that really highlights the flavors of the ingredients rather than clumping them into one ball of sweetness. Most anything Storck makes is worthwhile particularly its Mamba line); ditto Lindt, to a lesser extent.
Dessertwise, I like peach pie greatly, even though I don't eat it often (and will probably have to make it myself from now on due to my no-eggs issue). Peach is an underused flavor, I think; it's not overly sweet and "direct," as The Cat Who...'s Mountclemens would say, as strawberry can be and raspberry usually is; peach opts for delicate flavor over ascorbic acid.
I'm also partial to chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. Chocolate on chocolate is too rich for me, and vanilla on vanilla often too tasteless or (with imitation vanilla) cheap-tasting.
You'd think whoopie pies would be a giant hunk of awesome, but lemme tell ya: the filling is a gritty, lardy turn-off, a mouthful of plastic shortening instead of a creamy taste of vanilla, and they're about 1,000 calories per serving. Suzy-Qs, the Hostess knockoff, are actually superior to most authentic whoopie pie specimens on balance.
I used always to opt for German chocolate cake when I went to the diner when I was a kid. I still like it, but the caramel just doesn't have the same hold over me now.
I've never tried pavlova. Probably never will now, with the egg issue.
Oh! Ice cream! Ice cream is one thing Maine does well - not five miles from me, I have a stand that serves strawberry soft serve, an outlet for a local hard-serve manufacturer, and a couple locations that in any other city would make for standout town ice cream stands. There's also a "48 flavors of soft serve" offered by many smaller outlets throughout the state. It's not quality - I think it's just mix-in powder - but the novelty of having a peach (good), blueberry (good), or licorice (tastes like Robitussin) cone trumps quality. I have to try the watermelon before the season's out.
Of course, that's in summer and not in fall through spring, when they all are Closed for the Season like half the state. Then you have to choose among the packaged stuff from Haagen-Dazs (too expensive), Ben & Jerry's (too expensive and unimaginative since the Unilever buyout), Breyers (too artificial since the Unilever buyout - why is that company bound and determined to ruin ice cream?), and everything else (blech). I used to get cartons of the local hard-serve manufacturer's stuff till I read the label and discovered that their product was packed with more guar gum and its ilk than even Unilever's ice cream. Still, I probably eat more ice cream than any other food listed here.
Eh, this was a waste of a post, and not an uptick for the better.
.
