Andersonville Dessert Crawl 2017!
2017-Oct-30, Monday 13:33![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorchadas
There was no Darker than Black yesterday because instead of eating chocolate, schoolpsychnerd and I went to the final* Andersonville Dessert Crawl! Early in the afternoon, we took our printout tickets to the Swedish American Museum, exchanged them for dessert crawl passports, and set out.
Pics and commentary behind the cut:
This is the full map with all the destination nations marked. On the top it says "Gumdrop Mountains" because there were two separate routes. The other was the Peppermint Forest, but there were a lot more desserts on that route that I knew I wouldn't like, peanut butter brownies, pumpkin-flavored things, and so on. The Gumdrop route was more agreeable to us both.
From left: Bourbon Whiskey, Dry Gin, Barreled Gin.
schoolpsychnerd plotted out our route and the first stop was south at Milk Handmade, a clothing store where Koval Distillery had set up their booth. Koval is an organic, kosher distillery that's not too far away from where we live and they make good alcohol--schoolpsychnerd and I once went there for a reading of the Megillah during Purim and we got to try a bunch of their products. It was all their flavored liqueurs, though, like ginger or chrysanthemum and honey. This was the first time I got to try their straight gin and whiskey, and it was delicious.
We decided not to look around at the clothes because it's the end of the month and our budget is basically done, so we went to the next stop.
Front: Classic donut. Rear: Nutella donut.
Dollop Diner is further south than we usually get in Andersonville, since we often treat Foster like it's some kind of barrier. But these donuts were delicious, slightly crunchy and not too sweet, and the man behind the counter said they were baked fresh every day. They also had chicken and waffles on the menu, so some time we'll have to come here for brunch!
Chocolate walnut brownie with ganache.
The Wooden Spoon was the bonus stop on the tour, not on the passport but a stop nonetheless. They had a ten percent discount on their products for anyone stopping in as part of the crawl, and whileschoolpsychnerd was a little tempted to buy everything--she paid extra attention to the egg-poaching circles and the cast-iron skillets by Lodge, who also made our pot--but for budgetary reasons we didn't buy anything. Yet.
The brownie was good. I'm often nervous of brownies because they're usually not dense enough for me. I'd prefer something more like a flourless chocolate brownie roughly 95% of the time. I think it was the walnut that made the difference.
Apple strudel and vanilla ice cream.
Nothing special to say here. Fat Chris's Pizza is a good name for a restaurant, but I but I don't actually like pizza very much. I might come here again for dessert if it weren't out of our way. This was probably my favorite of the desserts we ate.
Caramel butterscotch pudding with goat cheese.
Appellation has really good bread and cheese and I'm a bit surprised they didn't combine them for their dessert, though they did at least include goat cheese with the pudding. This was almost too sweet forschoolpsychnerd, and to be honest it was almost too sweet for me, too. It was the cheese cutting through the sweetness that made it so delicious. This was my second-favorite dessert.
As before, we didn't have the extra money to get more food. Sadly, because the cheese there is delicious.
Rice pudding with lingonberry compote.
Svea is one of the last remnants of actual Swedish immigration in Andersonville.schoolpsychnerd, ![[facebook.com profile]](https://www.facebook.com/favicon.ico)
Aaron.hosek, and I go there every year in December for brunch, since they have a special Christmas menu with a real smörgåsbord. Despite that--or because of it, since it's a ton of food--I've never had the rice pudding before now. I hadn't realized that rice pudding was a traditional Swedish dish, but Wikipedia tells me that it exists and is called Risgrynsgröt.
I didn't like it that much, unfortunately. It was a bit bland, with only the lingonberry sauce providing any kind of sweetness. Not something I would get again.
The man serving the dessert complimented me on my coat and asked me if I could do slow motion flips like in The Matrix. I had to admit that I could not, but he wasn't disappointed and commiserated with me on how difficulty it is to move in slow motion.
Gummy bear cone.
The main thing I remember about Candyality is the personality assessments on the candy. The bins have various traits on them, to provide a bit of fun when picking out gummy bears or Swedish fish or what have you. But I don't like most commercial candy anymore, so it's not for me.
Gummy bears and a waffle cone wasn't half bad, though. The waffle cone cut a bit of the sweetness and added some crunch to counter the candy's chewiness. It's a combination I'd never have thought of before but would gladly have again.
Ruggelach.
This is the first time I've been to Kopi Cafe, and it might be the last.schoolpsychnerd wasn't impressed with it when she went there for coffee, and while she said the ruggelach was delicious and avoided the dryness that is often one of its major pitfalls, I thought it was just okay. I'm ambivalent on most pastry desserts that aren't fruit pies and this was no exception.
Loukoumades.
Kanela has delicious breakfast food, full of delicious tyrokafteri cheese, and whenschoolpsychnerd and I go there for brunch we always get a plate of loukoumades. They're delicious when dipped in the extra honey that spills off the plate, and while they wasn't much extra honey with these since they were served out individually, they were still delicious.
Since Kanela closes at 3, they were served at Andersonville Antiques. Normally we'd have stopped to look around, but not at the end of the month.
Cherry Streusel Pie.
First Slice has delicious pies, but usually I get the cakes when we go there--blueberry cheesecake or raspberry chocolate cheesecake. But fruit pies are the best kind of pies. There was nothing extraordinary about this, but it was as good as First Slice's pies always are. As sad as I am about the closure of Green Sky, I'm glad that First Slice has a larger space to expand into and continue their culinary deliciousness.
Chocolate Brioche Bread Pudding.
Replay is another one of those places we keep talking about going to and just haven't gotten around to yet. A bar and restaurant with a bunch of retro arcade cabinets inside, and every time we go by the arcades are mostly empty. But is that a good sign that we would be able to get some games in if we wanted to, or a bad sign that they're not being used for a reason, because they're sticky due to being in a bar, or broken, or something else is wrong with them? And is the food good enough to hook us in if the games aren't enough draw?
I remember literally nothing about this bread pudding even after seeing this picture again, which isn't a great sign about the rest of the food. I'm not really a bread pudding fan, so it's possible that I'm not a good audience for it, but on the Dessert Crawl website they specifically pointed it out as "house made," so they're obviously proud of it. But it was bland and I'd never deliberately order it. I suppose we might still go for brunch, since they have steak burritos and chicken and waffles. Also basil pesto flatbread, and the way to get to me actually eat pizza is to call it "flatbread" and charge me twice as much for it.
I would love to get in a game of Joust or Centipede, though, and eating lunch isn't the best time for it. That's definitely an evening drinks activity. Sigh.
Peanut Butter "smoochie."
Apparently the usual name of these is "peanut butter kiss," hence the clever name.
Defloured has good desserts and I'm really glad they exist. I don't eat much flour mostly because I don't like a lot of things with flour--pasta, most pastry desserts, sweet breads, etc.--but I'm happy there's a market for non-flour-based desserts because some of them are delicious. There was a giant coconut macaroon on display here that I tried to convinceschoolpsychnerd to buy, but she didn't go for it because she was stuffed full of all kinds of desserts and this was our last stop. She was probably right, actually. By this point we had eaten a lot of sugar.
I didn't like this, but it's because I don't like peanut butter, not because the quality of the cookie itself. I'm sure someone who actually enjoyed its ingredients would like it.
There was a couple in here as well buying desserts, and the woman said she had seen me walking and complimented me on my coat. It's a good coat.
And that was the last stop, so after that we went home.
So much sugar, but it was really delicious. And we found a couple new places we're going to have to go back to when we have a bit more money. It was a great way to spend a Sunday!
=: final because it's being combined with the Taste of Andersonville going forward, not because it's vanishing entirely. But that seems like too much food for me, so I'm glad we got this separate event in.
schoolpsychnerd and I went to the final* Andersonville Dessert Crawl! Early in the afternoon, we took our printout tickets to the Swedish American Museum, exchanged them for dessert crawl passports, and set out. Pics and commentary behind the cut:
This is the full map with all the destination nations marked. On the top it says "Gumdrop Mountains" because there were two separate routes. The other was the Peppermint Forest, but there were a lot more desserts on that route that I knew I wouldn't like, peanut butter brownies, pumpkin-flavored things, and so on. The Gumdrop route was more agreeable to us both.
From left: Bourbon Whiskey, Dry Gin, Barreled Gin.
schoolpsychnerd plotted out our route and the first stop was south at Milk Handmade, a clothing store where Koval Distillery had set up their booth. Koval is an organic, kosher distillery that's not too far away from where we live and they make good alcohol--schoolpsychnerd and I once went there for a reading of the Megillah during Purim and we got to try a bunch of their products. It was all their flavored liqueurs, though, like ginger or chrysanthemum and honey. This was the first time I got to try their straight gin and whiskey, and it was delicious. We decided not to look around at the clothes because it's the end of the month and our budget is basically done, so we went to the next stop.
Front: Classic donut. Rear: Nutella donut.
Dollop Diner is further south than we usually get in Andersonville, since we often treat Foster like it's some kind of barrier. But these donuts were delicious, slightly crunchy and not too sweet, and the man behind the counter said they were baked fresh every day. They also had chicken and waffles on the menu, so some time we'll have to come here for brunch!
Chocolate walnut brownie with ganache.
The Wooden Spoon was the bonus stop on the tour, not on the passport but a stop nonetheless. They had a ten percent discount on their products for anyone stopping in as part of the crawl, and while
schoolpsychnerd was a little tempted to buy everything--she paid extra attention to the egg-poaching circles and the cast-iron skillets by Lodge, who also made our pot--but for budgetary reasons we didn't buy anything. Yet. The brownie was good. I'm often nervous of brownies because they're usually not dense enough for me. I'd prefer something more like a flourless chocolate brownie roughly 95% of the time. I think it was the walnut that made the difference.
Apple strudel and vanilla ice cream.
Nothing special to say here. Fat Chris's Pizza is a good name for a restaurant, but I but I don't actually like pizza very much. I might come here again for dessert if it weren't out of our way. This was probably my favorite of the desserts we ate.
Caramel butterscotch pudding with goat cheese.
Appellation has really good bread and cheese and I'm a bit surprised they didn't combine them for their dessert, though they did at least include goat cheese with the pudding. This was almost too sweet for
schoolpsychnerd, and to be honest it was almost too sweet for me, too. It was the cheese cutting through the sweetness that made it so delicious. This was my second-favorite dessert. As before, we didn't have the extra money to get more food. Sadly, because the cheese there is delicious.
Rice pudding with lingonberry compote.
Svea is one of the last remnants of actual Swedish immigration in Andersonville.
schoolpsychnerd, I didn't like it that much, unfortunately. It was a bit bland, with only the lingonberry sauce providing any kind of sweetness. Not something I would get again.
The man serving the dessert complimented me on my coat and asked me if I could do slow motion flips like in The Matrix. I had to admit that I could not, but he wasn't disappointed and commiserated with me on how difficulty it is to move in slow motion.
Gummy bear cone.
The main thing I remember about Candyality is the personality assessments on the candy. The bins have various traits on them, to provide a bit of fun when picking out gummy bears or Swedish fish or what have you. But I don't like most commercial candy anymore, so it's not for me.
Gummy bears and a waffle cone wasn't half bad, though. The waffle cone cut a bit of the sweetness and added some crunch to counter the candy's chewiness. It's a combination I'd never have thought of before but would gladly have again.
Ruggelach.
This is the first time I've been to Kopi Cafe, and it might be the last.
schoolpsychnerd wasn't impressed with it when she went there for coffee, and while she said the ruggelach was delicious and avoided the dryness that is often one of its major pitfalls, I thought it was just okay. I'm ambivalent on most pastry desserts that aren't fruit pies and this was no exception. Loukoumades.
Kanela has delicious breakfast food, full of delicious tyrokafteri cheese, and when
schoolpsychnerd and I go there for brunch we always get a plate of loukoumades. They're delicious when dipped in the extra honey that spills off the plate, and while they wasn't much extra honey with these since they were served out individually, they were still delicious. Since Kanela closes at 3, they were served at Andersonville Antiques. Normally we'd have stopped to look around, but not at the end of the month.
Cherry Streusel Pie.
First Slice has delicious pies, but usually I get the cakes when we go there--blueberry cheesecake or raspberry chocolate cheesecake. But fruit pies are the best kind of pies. There was nothing extraordinary about this, but it was as good as First Slice's pies always are. As sad as I am about the closure of Green Sky, I'm glad that First Slice has a larger space to expand into and continue their culinary deliciousness.
Chocolate Brioche Bread Pudding.
Replay is another one of those places we keep talking about going to and just haven't gotten around to yet. A bar and restaurant with a bunch of retro arcade cabinets inside, and every time we go by the arcades are mostly empty. But is that a good sign that we would be able to get some games in if we wanted to, or a bad sign that they're not being used for a reason, because they're sticky due to being in a bar, or broken, or something else is wrong with them? And is the food good enough to hook us in if the games aren't enough draw?
I remember literally nothing about this bread pudding even after seeing this picture again, which isn't a great sign about the rest of the food. I'm not really a bread pudding fan, so it's possible that I'm not a good audience for it, but on the Dessert Crawl website they specifically pointed it out as "house made," so they're obviously proud of it. But it was bland and I'd never deliberately order it. I suppose we might still go for brunch, since they have steak burritos and chicken and waffles. Also basil pesto flatbread, and the way to get to me actually eat pizza is to call it "flatbread" and charge me twice as much for it.
I would love to get in a game of Joust or Centipede, though, and eating lunch isn't the best time for it. That's definitely an evening drinks activity. Sigh.
Peanut Butter "smoochie."
Apparently the usual name of these is "peanut butter kiss," hence the clever name.
Defloured has good desserts and I'm really glad they exist. I don't eat much flour mostly because I don't like a lot of things with flour--pasta, most pastry desserts, sweet breads, etc.--but I'm happy there's a market for non-flour-based desserts because some of them are delicious. There was a giant coconut macaroon on display here that I tried to convince
schoolpsychnerd to buy, but she didn't go for it because she was stuffed full of all kinds of desserts and this was our last stop. She was probably right, actually. By this point we had eaten a lot of sugar. I didn't like this, but it's because I don't like peanut butter, not because the quality of the cookie itself. I'm sure someone who actually enjoyed its ingredients would like it.
There was a couple in here as well buying desserts, and the woman said she had seen me walking and complimented me on my coat. It's a good coat.
And that was the last stop, so after that we went home.
So much sugar, but it was really delicious. And we found a couple new places we're going to have to go back to when we have a bit more money. It was a great way to spend a Sunday!
=: final because it's being combined with the Taste of Andersonville going forward, not because it's vanishing entirely. But that seems like too much food for me, so I'm glad we got this separate event in.
no subject
Date: 2017-Nov-04, Saturday 15:44 (UTC)Heh, I remember trying to do the slow motion bullet dodge as a kid. Cartwheels are more difficult, but I think with they could be doable with enough core strength and agility.
no subject
Date: 2017-Nov-05, Sunday 03:39 (UTC)The worst they were was bland, but most of them were really good! Though I'm leery of doing it again, because it was already almost too much food. Combined with the Taste of Andersonville and I don't know if I'll be able to finish.