A little more than a year ago, I began to keep track of crème brûlèes I have enjoyed to greater or lesser degrees in my travels for work and play. In 2019, I took fewer trips afield or abroad than I had in 2018, but when I did travel, crème brûlèes were regularly encountered, eaten, and evaluated (see last year’s post for a detailed description of what I look for when approaching a crème brûlèe).

March 4, 2019

After a week at the Annual Assembly of the Biodiversity Exploratories in Wernigerode, Germany, a weekend enjoying art in Berlin (especially the newly restored pair of paintings by Caspar David Friedrich—The Monk by the Sea and The Abbey in the Oakwood—at the Alte Nationalgalerie), and the overnight series of perfectly-timed trains from Berlin to Uppsala, I found myself with colleagues from CEMUS at DomCraft, a unique bar and cafe in downtown Uppsala. Known mostly for its extensive selection of craft G&T’s and beers, they also had a crème brûlèe on the menu.

The brûlèe was slightly crisped well, but too thick. It was underlain by a custard that was little more than a thin, creamy pudding. Both were too sweet for my taste. Next time, I’ll stick with the much more memorable flight of stouts.

May 7, 2019

Closer to home, I had an excellent dinner at Ten Tables in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood with after Harvard’s annual Plant Biology Initiative symposium. Ten Tables is a local restaurant in every sense of the word: rooted in the neighborhood, locally-sourced ingredients in meals and beverages; and committed to environmentally sustainable operations. It was a great meal and a great opportunity to reconnect with a former student, Lila Fishman, whom I hadn’t seen since I taught at Swarthmore College in the late 1980s.

The excellent custard was covered by a toffee-like brûlèe lacking the expected crunch. The accompanying fruit was a fresh and seasonal palette-pleaser, but the unnecessary cookie was cardboard-like.

May 11, 2019

Later that week, Flossie and I were visiting my parents and sister in Philadelphia. We spent a morning wandering around the Italian Market, which bills itself as The Nation’s Oldest Outdoor Market. In the middle of the 9th Street district is Isgro Pastries, famous for its cannoli and other Italian sweet delights. Emphasizing the international reach of the crème brûlèe, the pastry case had a whole tray of them. Irresistable!

The custard was good, but the brûlèe was soft (perhaps not torched after baking?), and the fruit was large, watery, and unexceptional. The cannoli were much better.

June 22, 2019

The following month, I took the commuter rail from Boston to Providence (Rhode Island) for a day at the annual joint meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution, the American Society of Naturalists, and the Society of Systematic Biologists. I was there in my capacity as one of the Senior Editors of the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, talking with interested attendees about whether their projects might make a good paper for the journal (if you’ve got an idea for a paper, contact us!). At the end of the day, a few of us from the journal went to the nearby New Rivers restaurant for dinner. A new Providence institution, the dinner was an excellent combination of small plates and classic entrées. Although I was disappointed not to find a crème brûlée on the menu, their Vanilla Pot de Crème with hazelnuts, a mint leaf, and a lemon shortbread cookie was a delightful alternative.

October 31, 2019

Fall found me, Flossie, and her mother and two sisters in Burlington, Vermont, for a short stay en route to a weekend in Montreal. We had a delicious Hallowe’en dinner at Leunig’s Bistro, watching through the window as costumed children and adults dodged the pelting raindrops. A Burlington institution, Leunig’s feels like a Parisian café, with desserts to match.

This was a near-perfect crème brûlée. The brûlée held it’s own but wasn’t too chewy. The custard was excellent. The fresh fruit was a good addition here, and was not overwhelming. I know where I’ll be for dessert the next time I’m in Burlington!

December 11, 2019

After an incredible (for me, these last many years) eight months without a transcontinental or transoceanic plane trip, I spent two weeks of December on the island of Ireland, including a week in Northern Ireland and a week in the eponymous independent country. I was in Belfast for the annual meeting of the British Ecological Society; the restaurants were uniformly excellent, and yes, they all served one or more sides of potatoes. We did discover, though, that most of the restaurants stopped serving food at around 9pm, shifting (if they remained open) to all-liquid fare. An exception was 44 hill street, a Mediterranean-style restaurant located at the address from which it derives its name. I had the classic—and delicious—Roast Turkey and Ham Christmas dinner, and topped it off with a similarly delicious crème brûlée.

Although many pastry chefs can’t resist adding cookies and fruit to a crème brûlée, this one fortunately had the accompaniments “on the side”, as it were. The brûlée was nearly perfect: crisp but not burnt and just the right thickness. The custard was only a bit thin, and not at all grainy. I’d have been better off skipping the compote (a bit tart, perhaps the berries were underripe or recently thawed) and the shortbread cookie (a bit dry, perhaps not enough butter). But fortunately, I had saved one bite of the crème brûlée to conclude the meal.

December 17, 2019

After the meetings ended, Flossie met me for a week of vacation in Dublin. We enjoyed the museums, the street scenes, a day trip to Galway and the Cliffs of Moher, and a series of outstanding restaurants. One of them—Wilde—we went to twice, once for lunch and once for high tea. The lunch was good and the high tea incredible, and the Vanilla crème brûlée, unforgettable.

The crispy, thin brûlée covered a smooth, light custard. The blackberries were not oversweet and perfectly complemented the crème brûlée itself. If it weren’t for the carbon cost, I’d fly back for another one.

January 30, 2020

We wrapped up the lunar year with our annual trip to Singapore for Chinese New Year festivities and, of course, food. Crème brûlée is not a Singaporean staple, but a local fusion dessert at TWG merits mention.

This “Singapore Surprise” is a crème brûlée pie with baked-in strawberries. The custard was a reasonable facsimile of the expected crème but the brûlée on top was soft, not crispy. The strawberries (definitely not locally-grown) were sweet and complemented the pie well. TWG’s pastry chef gets high marks for the originality and creativity of the Singapore Surprise, but a crème brûlée it is not.

Much more travel is on the calendar for 2020 (unless COVID-19 intervenes), so stay tuned for the next round of dessert discoveries…

As readers of this blog know, I do enjoy a good (or at least innovative or weird) meal. And foodies know that a good dessert can make or break the overall dining experience. In fact, I rarely order desserts – my waistline doesn’t need it, the options are rarely interesting, and eating anything with chocolate after about two in the afternoon inevitably keeps me up at night. But I do have a soft spot for crème brûlèes. Anytime I see one on a menu, I’ll order it. And then I’ll extol its virtues or decry its vices, either way driving my dinner companions deep into their digestifs.

One’s first interaction with a crème brûlèe is always the brûlèe – the topping of gently torched sugar that always reminds me of isinglass. Everyone has their own ideal brûlèe. Mine is one that is not too thick but breaks into bite-sizes shards with a single tap of the spoon. It should have just a hint of carbonization, but not be overburned. And it should dissolve on the tongue. Beneath the brûlèe is the custard. A traditional crème brûlèe has a vanilla custard that should be creamy, not grainy, and never a pudding. It is rare to find a simple vanilla crème brûlèe on a menu anymore. More commonly, dessert chefs are adding various accoutrements; I have had crème brûlèes with maple syrup, rum, cinnamon, ginger, and coconut. It is difficult to get any of these just right, as just the right touch is needed to maintain the integrity of the vanilla custard as it interacts with any of these additional ingredients. Finally, a crème brûlèe should never have a crust. It should be nestled in the confines of a small ramekin. The well-cooked custard should be just set and neither stick nor ooze away from the sides of the dish.

While continuing a heavy travel schedule in the last year, I started keeping track of the crème brûlèes I had around the world. This is the what I hope will be the first installment in occasional postings from my never-ending quest for the holy grail of desserts: the prefect crème brûlèe. And because good meals are only part of a broader contextual experience, some background is provided with each entry.

January 13, 2018

Flossie and I were in Burlington, Vermont for a few days while Nick Gotelli and I were working on our current book project. On a snowy and icy night (are there any other kinds in mid-winter in Vermont?), we three, along with Nick’s wife Maryanne, and our friends Aimée Classen and Nate Sanders met in nearby Richmond at the Kitchen Table Bistro. After an excellent and varied meal, I ordered their Cinnamon Stick Crème Brûlée with Sea Salted Shortbread Cookies.

The brûlèe was slightly overburnt, but of reasonable thickness. The custard was very good with subtle cinnamon imparting a good flavor. Memorable more for the company than for the dessert itself.

January 19, 2018

Our comfort-food destination at home in Boston is the Island Creek Oyster Bar in Kenmore Square. We’ve learned through experience that the appetizers, and of course, the diversity of oysters on the menu, are far better than the main courses, and we usually fill up on the former and rarely have room for desserts. But on this visit, there was on the menu a Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée with Gingersnaps and Pear Sorbet.

The perfect brûlèe overtopped a vanilla custard unadulterated by extraneous flavors. Rather than add ginger to the custard, this crème brûlèe was complemented with a small ginger candy, a gingerbread cookie, and just-right-sweet pear sorbet. This crème brûlèe was one of two for the year that approached perfection.

February 5, 2018

Just a few weeks later, Flossie and I had emptied the refrigerator prior to our (Chinese) New Year’s trip to Singapore, and so in search of dinner, we walked into La Voile, on Boston’s Newbury Street. I completed this otherwise excellent French Bistro meal with their Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée.

Although the brûlèe was perfect, the custard tilted towards a disappointing pudding, and the strawberries were from far away. ‘Nuf said.

February 14, 2018

Ten days later, we were in Singapore for Chinese New Year. Singapore is justifiably famous for the high quality and diversity of its food, but it is rare that among all the different ethnic and fusion restaurants one gets classic “Singaporean” food. But on this evening, we went with my in-laws to Folklore, which serves traditional Singaporean dishes. Although I wasn’t expecting it to be a crème brûlèe, the Baked Custard with Gula Melaka (coconut-palm sugar) suggested it might be a southeast Asian close-equivalent.

Indeed, this was more like a classic Latin American flan (coconut custard), albeit with a brûléed palm-sugar topping, than a crème brûlée. The brûlée was good, if a bit thick and unevenly torched. The coconut flakes were a nice touch, but they couldn’t save the grainy custard.

April 30, 2018

In April, I was in Melbourne, Australia, working with colleagues at the Independent Schools Victoria and presenting some workshops for schools on the intersection of art and science. Like Singapore, Melbourne is renowned for its innovative restaurants. One night, we went to Gazi Restaurant, a Hellenic-fusion restaurant in downtown Melbourne. After a delicious meal marred only by the seemingly 100-decibel volume of music and conversations in the restaurant, I ordered the Krema Kataifi (Crème Brûlée, Crispy Kataifi, Pistachia).

Like the rest of the items on menu, this Krema Kataifi was a fusion of styles and flavors. The classic crème brûlée custard – here nothing but a basic vanilla pudding – was topped with an Arabic-Turkish-Hellenic bird’s nest pastry (kataifi), raspberries, mint leaves, and flower petals. There was no opportunity to brûlée the topping, which would have left just a residue of charred kataifi. Overall, this was much more enjoyable to look at than to eat.

July 3, 2018

Back home for the summer, we found ourselves at a dinner party at Harvest Restaurant in Cambridge, wrapping up this summer’s session of Leading Learning that Matters with Independent Schools Victoria. Harvest is well-known and praised for its creative uses of local ingredients in delectable dishes. For dessert, I had the Choux à la Crème Brûlée (Pistachio, Vanilla Bean Mousseline, Elderflower & Apricot Sorbet).

This was another attempt at fusion of styles, which rarely is successful with a crème brûlèe. And unfortunately, this was no exception. The brûlèe was overburnt and too thick to break easily. The custard was pudding-like and grainy (not as hoped with the promised mousseline), but not too sweet. The unexpected (only because I had missed the “Choux” in the dessert’s title) pastry shell was tasty but rubbery. This desert was saved by the sorbet.

September 28, 2018

In September, Flossie and I went to Atlanta, where we visited the Atlanta Botanical Garden and had a behind-the-scenes tour of the greenhouses and the carnivorous plant collection. I gave a talk about carnivorous plants and the large book I’ve edited on them (Carnivorous Plants: Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution). On our last night in Atlanta, we went to a justifiably highly-rated Thai restaurant, Nan Fine Dining. This restaurant, a bit outside the main downtown area, surprised us with its innovative Thai dishes. None was more surprising than seeing a Thai Tea Crème Brûlée on the dessert menu.

Of all the year’s crème brûlèes, this one was my hands-down favorite in terms of its presentation. It came in a long, thin ramekin reminiscent of an áo dài. Although the brûlèe was very fine, the Thai tea custard was less than perfect and a little grainy. And while I prefer my custard less sweet, this one actually could have been sweeter. The flower of whipped cream was a very nice touch.

 

 

November 17, 2018

This mid-November weekend found me shuttling between New Haven, Connecticut, where I gave the keynote talk at this year’s final event week of the World Scholar’s Cup, and the ginormous temple to excess consumption that is the Woodbury Common premium outlets mall, where Flossie, my in-laws, my parents, and sister, brother-in-law, and niece were engaging in America’s favorite past-time (no, not baseball, the other one). After a long day talking and driving (for me) and shopping (for them), we had an outstanding Italian dinner at La Vera Cucina, in nearby Monroe, NY.

Their no-frills, home-cooked crème brûlée was well above-average. The brûlèe was excellent and just the right thickness. The custard was very creamy and not at all grainy, marred only by being just a little too sweet for my taste.

December 17, 2018

December found us in the UK for the annual meeting of the British Ecological Society in Birmingham. Although Birmingham doesn’t have the foodie reputation of the larger city to its southeast (that would be London, for the geographically impaired), we did find a number of excellent restaurants. For one of my birthday dinners we went to Opus, where we had an incredibly innovative meal topped off with their Rum and Cinnamon Crème Brûlée.

This birthday crème brûlée was the only other one of the year to come close to perfection. The brûlée was just a little thick but was just the right degree of carmelized. The custard was creamy and excellent, the rum and cinnamon combined in smoothly, and their flavors complemented the vanilla without overpowering it.

January 19, 2019

A year and five continents after I started this crème brûlée odyssey, I spent a weekend in Santiago after a week working with my colleague Ronny Vallejos on spatial statistics at the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María in one of my favorite cities in the world, beautiful Valparaíso, Chile. Just a short distance from my hotel, I found Le Bistrot Việt. After an outstanding vegan stir-fry and a pot of fresh green tea, I indulged in their Crème Brûlée avec lait de coco et fruit de saison.

This surprising crème brûlée was really a classic coconut custard (flan) that had been gently brûléed on top. Dressed up with fresh strawberries and mint, passionfruit and raspberry emulsions, and dollops of whipped cream, it was delightful to look at and had just the right degree of sweetness. It got a happy face in my notes, and I left the meal, and my 12 months of searching for the perfect crème brûlée, pleasantly sated.

The quest continues…