Yes, Portland is the land of Voodoo Donuts, but I am talking about another type that is classicly creative and damn delicious.
Blue Star Donuts came into the Portland scene quite recently, but they now have two stores that are open until they sell out. One is downtown and the other is on SE Hawthorne.
This picture of the malabi in Einat Admony’s book, “Balaboosta” has been haunting me because of the beautiful colors. The creamy dessert is served with pistachios and orange marmalade.
I also had extra milk on hand that needs to be used soon, so this was the perfect reason to make malabi. To me, it looks like a swedish cream meets panna cotta, but with the vibrancy of the orange and pistachios, it is a dessert full of beauty.
This week is Diwali, which means I go to Indian sweets and spices in Beaverton to get sweets for my Diwali feast. From the left, the brown balls are gulab jamun, coconut gulab jamun, carrot halwa burfi and cashew burfi. The middle is a rosewater ladoo.
As a western traveler of North and South India, I feel that the sweets are pretty uniform, meaning you can often get any kind of sweet anywhere in India.
So I’ve started to work somewhat stably full time now, so that means only one thing- have to stock up on dark chocolate bars to eat during the day.
I try to peruse the chocolate selection at stores for I haven’t tried and that are on sale.
Rum is made from sugar cane and then distilled so it still counts as something sweet for the Sugar Hedonist.
Rum is not necessarily my favorite hard liquor, but it is one I have much experience with, because I used to have a roommate who was really into rum and mixology, and he spent a lot of money on growing his rum and entire liquor collection.
On a run to the farmer’s market with my favorite foodie friend (yes, I’ve mentioned him before and will from now on refer to him as my F3 because saying FFF is too hard to say quickly), I asked him to request something for me to bring to his state capital abode when I visit him on the weekend.
I received many a suggestion from him and his house mates, wavering on vague (marzipan) and interesting (more middle eastern desserts).
Snickerdoodles are one of my favorite cookies. Mostly because its like eating a cinnamon roll without doing a lot of work.
When I was a kid and made these for the first time on my own, I was surprised to learn that they need to be chilled for about an hour before you roll them in the cinnamon and sugar.
It’s time for a Middle Eastern sweet.
I tried out the only independent coffee shop in my new neighborhood and found a charming Middle Eastern restaurant called Gyro House Mediterranean Grill. They are located in Beaverton, OR.
Gyro House has many other wonderful food items to offer besides their gyros and homemade french fries with tasty sauce.
There is really not a lot to do in Salem, the capital of Oregon.
There are some ebbs of color that allow the area to redeem itself, mostly in the form of food, a few good festivals, the capitol building area and the yearly state fair.
One of the places I enjoy is Gerry Frank’s Konditorei, a restaurant from a German family that makes “extravagant cakes et cetera.”
So this blog is going to be about everything sugary I make or order to put in my mouth.
I have quite the sweet tooth and love to cook, so the focus is going to be baking, tasting and making your dessert look aesthetically pleasing.