Guest Blogger Post: ChikaLicious - the ultimate dessert experience

I'm happy to feature Puff and Choux's first guest blogger today, and I'm even happier that this person is Bradley Matthews. Bradley is a dear friend of mine and has always been a champion of my crazy ideas - this blog being one of them. I'm telling you folks, you can't ask for a better friend than Bradley - he's got the "greatest friend in the world" title nailed down pretty tight.


ChikaLicious - the ultimate dessert experience
By Bradley Matthews

Firstly, I'm honored to be a guest contributor on Puff and Choux. I (and the other indulgent heffers out there) love this site.

On Saturday I FINALLY treated myself and another dessert whore to the ChikaLicious experience over on 10th Street at 2nd Avenue. I've walked by this place for ages and have always wanted to try it. Something about the white decor...the oblong bar...the minimal seating...and the simple phrase 'dessert bar' were all quite enticing. We realized that the main experience opens at 3pm on Saturday and mistakenly ended up in the 'casual cafe part of ChikaLicious' across the street which offers desserts to go without the experience of getting to watch the chefs MAKE the dessert. I equate it like going to a Benihana 'to-go cart' without getting to see the Japanese chef fling the shrimp tails all over the table and bang the salt/pepper shakers to a beat.

I should preface the rest of the story with the fact that the person whom was with me is a dessert connoisseur. He had been to ChikaLicious previously, so his expectations were high. Upon entry, we were immediately seated at a side-table, so we didn't actually get to watch the chefs prepare the desserts. A Bob Marley mix played throughout our whole ChikaLicious experience, so I was happy as a clam (pretty easy to please on the musical front I suppose).

Let's get on to the desserts. We ordered a Prixe Fixe course with a matching wine (ChikaLicous picks the wine for you based on your dessert choices). We started with the 'Amuse'...a panna cotta of some sort...I honestly can't remember as the portion fit on one scoop of my spoon. I know this is a tasting, but come on people! At least provide us with smaller, more delicate spoons. The heavy monstrosity we were required to use diminished the decadence of the experience. The second dessert is the 'main course' and is the dessert of your choice. I had the white chocolate mousse which I found to be quite smooth and tasty, until I then tasted my accomplice's dessert. He had the chocolate tart with peppercorn ice cream. I think that was the best dessert and ice cream I've had in a while. The chocolate tart was filled with chocolate ooze that ran like a river into the ice cream. The ice cream literally tasted like pepper...I've never experienced that. Something about curling up on a couch watching horrible movies eating peppercorn ice cream sounds a little too bourgeois-esque (bourgy if you will) for me, but DAMN was that scrumptious. I kept having to sneak tastes from him. We wrapped up the tasting with the 'Petit Fours,' which included four bite size samples of cookies and chocolates.

Since we ordered different 'main course' desserts, we each were provided with different wines. I received a sparkling sweet blush of some sort...I tasted flower essence of some sort...it basically was a perfect match for my light mousse. He received a dark port to match his chocolate tart. I've never been a huge port fan, and drinking port at 3:30pm just seems wrong for some reason. It seem to overpower the amazing tastes of the chocolate tart and the peppercorn ice cream.

We both LOVED the two owners: Chika (the chef...the cutest Japanese woman I have ever seen) who would come to our table to introduce the dessert courses in a thorough and professional manner, along with her partner in crime (and husband), Don, whose kind personality was a perfect match to Chika's, making me think that if they had a child (which they may), it MAY just be the cutest, most meek baby ever.

All in all, ChikaLicious was an amazing experience. I could have probably scarfed down ten helpings of each dessert easily, but I suppose they don't want to fatten us New Yorkers up TOO much. Most of us don't have Segways (although I would love one...but I hear they are illegal in New York...I digress).

When in New York, be sure to visit:
ChikaLicious Dessert Bar
203 E. 10th Street
New York, NY
P: (212) 475-0929
www.chikalicious.com

My first taste of Portland - Rose's Restaurant and the Kennedy School

Yesterday was my first full day in Portland, OR, and I have to say - I'm impressed. This city is probably one of the friendliest I've ever been to (Funnily enough, I thought that Portland, Maine was super friendly, so maybe it's just the curse of cities named Portland to have welcoming and friendly citizens!). More importantly, I'm having a great time hanging out with one of my oldest friends, my fellow University of Kansas alum Diane. She's a great hostess and doing this city proud by showing me around.

But on to the food. My first dessert was tasted at Rose's Restaurant. According to the menu, Rose Naftalin, a widow from Ohio, moved to Portland in 1956 and opened a tiny restaurant where over the next 10 years she worked in the kitchen preparing many of the dishes herself, including the desserts.

In 1966, Rose became a cookbook author and retired. The restaurant was sold to Max Birnbach who kept up the tradition for another 24 years. He was over 80 years old at that time!

The meal was typical diner fare - it was good, but then again, I ordered the typical burger and fries. However it was the case of desserts I was interested in.


From the Banana Bavarian, French Chocolate, Raspberry Poppyseed, or Coconut Cake, that dessert display case was a sight for my sore eyes that had spent the previous day trying to find a decent sweet snack in various airports across North America. One unique cake that I had never seen before was Rose's Orange Creamcicle Cake. It sounded delicious, but I decided on an old standard and childhood favorite - coconut cake.

Because I was so stuffed from lunch, I opted to take the cake to go. Granted, I only made it about 30 minutes after we left the restaurant before I took my first bite, but at least I made the effort to not overeat.

The cake itself was delicious - delicate double-layered angel food with some of the sweetest coconut flakes I've ever tasted spread throughout the middle. I would have preferred buttercream icing, but I generally prefer buttercream on all my cake-based sweets. I believe the icing was some sort of whipped mousse concoction, but regardless, it was still tasty. Overall, I would give Rose's Coconut Cake an 8 out of 10.

And although this isn't pastry-related, I have to mention an awesome little Portland spot called the Kennedy School that I visited for a pre-dinner beer. This is such a quirky little place that I had to write something about it.

Originally opened in 1915, this elementary school has hosted thousands of students throughout the years. According to the website, when school was not in session the Kennedy served the community as a public meeting hall, polling place, Red Cross blood drawing center, collection site for paper & tin can drives, weekend playground, and even flood-relief shelter.

Sadly, at the end of the 1974-75 school year, the school was closed due to poor enrollment numbers (something the entire city was facing), as well as a deteriating building too costly to repair.

However, the local Portland community was stronger than any demolition order that tried to destroy the beloved community center. Neighbors, former students, past PTA presidents, and the Portland Development Commission fought successfully to save the Kennedy School and won.

Today, the "school" continues to serve as a community meeting place. There are several bars, a restaurant, movie theater and meeting rooms on site. The building is also a hotel! It's probably the quirkiest little place I've ever visited ANYWHERE in the world. My favorite part was hands down all the artwork adorning the hallways. It does a great job of telling the history of the building through the eyes of former students and teachers.

My other favorite part of the Kennedy School is the hand-crafted McMenamins' Rube Ale. In 1985, McMenamins became the first brewery in the U.S.A. to legally use fruit in the creation of ales. As I've mentioned before, my favorite berry (and probably favorite fruit) is the raspberry, so you better believe I was stoked to find out that 42 pounds of Oregon-grown and processed raspberry puree are used in every batch of this ale!


McMenamin's Ruby Ale is, hands down, the best ale I've ever tasted. I plan on drinking at least one more pint of this brew before I head back East.

Chocolate...and lots of it

After perusing the March issue of Food & Wine while I jetted across North America yesterday, I thought I would check out what the magazine's web site had to offer after landing. And boy I'm glad I did! I found a whole smorgasbord of chocolate-themed recipes as part of their Menu of the Week in the Entertaining section. Highlighted recipes include:

Milk-Chocolate Pots de Crème
Milk-Chocolate Cookies with Malted Cream
Milk-Chocolate Tart with Pretzel Crust
Silky Chocolate Mousse with Peanut Butter Crunch
Milk-Chocolate-Frosted Layer Cake
Warm Double-Chocolate Brownie Cakes
Milk-Chocolate-Chip Cookies
Warm Milk-Chocolate Croissant-Bread Pudding

I'll definitely be whipping up the milk-chocolate tart with pretzel crust as well as the milk-chocolate chip cookies when I get back to New York.

Trying out one of these recipes? Tell me about it in the comments section!