Desserts

I've mentioned happy hours, I've talked about wine, but I haven't really discussed desserts. Yes, I love baking and making desserts, but I rarely have them when out to dinner. Very recently I went to Paley's Place (for the second time--still highly, highly recommend) and tried some of the desserts. That got me thinking about the (few) not homemade desserts I have since moving to Portland and here are the highlights:

1. Creme brulee--Paley's Place. I love creme brulee. Seriously. It's probably one of my top 5 favorite desserts ever and man oh man this is one of the best I have ever had. Ever.

2. Chocolates--Van Duyne. I volunteer right near there and my wonderful bosses gave me a box of their chocolates for being such a good little worker. Yum. When it comes to chocolate, I'm rather picky. I don't like nuts, I rarely like fruit fillings, and I'm not a huge fan of nougat...usually. I grew up with some fantastic chocolate nearby (Mackenzie's, Sees, Marini's...) so I am a little hesitant when it comes to other specialty places. This place rocks.

3. Milkshakes--Moonstruck. While I think Moonstruck has cuter chocolates than Van Duyn, what I really love are their milk shakes and their desserts. Especially their ice cream sundaes.

4. Typical desserts, in particular The Concord--Pix. This dessert is phenomenal. My only slight issue with Pix is that they put so much almond in everything.

5. Cupcakes--Saint Cupcake. Go for the pumpkin spice or the chocolate with cream cheese frosting. Hands down, those are my two favorite cupcakes with Sprinkles' lemon cupcake to make my top three. However, I should note that Cupcake Jones makes one of the best red velvet cupcakes I have ever had, but with the filling it's just too sweet for me.

6. Froyo/ice cream--Tart. I do love Ben and Jerrys and Coldstone, but when it comes to frozen yogurt, Tart is the best I've found yet. It's not my hometown "Gurt," but the frozen custard is certainly excellent.
7. Caramel apple pie--Red Star Tavern. Well, I haven't been here since my freshman year of college, but this dessert was memorable enough to last...

8. Exotic desserts: Oba's cream-filled banana doughnut-things Apparently they're called "malassadas" but what do I know. All I know is that they're delicious and I wanted about 5 more plates.

9. Doughnuts--Voodoo. The apple fritter is excellent, as is the bacon-maple one. The less appropriately named ones are disturbingly delicious as well...

10. Dessert cocktail--Vault. Well, this might be cheating a little but in my defense I have yet to find an amazing dessert cocktail. Vault's "Lavender" is my stand in.