I’ve gone from blogging only once or twice a week to what’s now my fourth post of the day. The easy laziness of spring break combined with sudden desires to release my energy in short blog format have caused this change. I just wanted to share this psalm of a dessert with you.
I apologize for the messy photography. As you can see, I had already dug in before I remembered I needed to take a photo, and by that time, composition/definition/exposure were tossed to the wind.
These are the banana beignets from Café 30-A, a restaurant near my beach house which is a very pleasing combination of casual beachy ambiance and truly delicious food. I won’t be reviewing my actual dinner, partly because I was so hungry I forgot to take photos and partly because it didn’t merit that much of a discussion. Basically, for appetizers, Mom and I shared a salad with poached beets (red and yellow = fun), gorgonzola, blood orange vinaigrette (impossibly, and kind of unnervingly, sweet), candied pecans. We also started with steak tartare, which was good in a steak tartare way with LOTS. OF. HORSERADISH. and a hint of… truffle oil? Hmm. For the entrée, Mom and I split the “Maine Lobster in Paradise.” I don’t understand that name. It was a three-cheese “mac n’ cheese” with “crawfish,” truffle oil, and Maine lobster. I have the crawfish in quotes because it was entirely missing. The lobster was delish (how could Maine lobster be anything but?), although I always prefer steamed lobster to grilled, as it was in this case. I don’t think that charred flavor does the beautiful shellfish justice. The pasta itself was really good, but not good enough to deserve the $36 price tag.
BUT THE DESSERT… they’re called beignets because they’re inspired by the simultaneously fluffy and dense squares of fried, powdered-sugary dough from Café du Monde. These, however, are taken to a whole different level with different elements of flavor and an ingredients list that’s probably 10 times that of CdM’s. Normally, I’d take the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” path (because I firmly believe it would be a superhuman task to improve upon the original beignet with which I have grown up), but these are more inspired by the CdM original (reverent of it, even) than knock-offs of it. Important difference.
So: caramelized bananas encased in a delicious, light, crispy beignet-esque outside (fried to a beautiful flaxen parcel), nestled in an ever-so-slightly honeyed-and-cinnamoned phyllo dough hammock/bowl. The plate itself is scribbled with caramel and chocolate; on the side is a scoop of melting homemade macadamia nut ice cream (so fun to eat in the same bite as the steaming hot beignet, with the hot/cold, creamy/soft/crispy everythingness).
Mmm… I want more.
Interesting review. I had these also last week at 30-A and thought they were disappointing, and that is being nice. The fry was limp and pithy and I didn’t waste my calories after the first bite.
That’s so funny! Well, not funny for you. Immensely disappointing. I have a very low tolerance for limp frying… such a drag. Must’ve been a bad batch. Sorry it left a bad taste in your mouth (didn’t mean that as a SUPER lame pun, even though that works, too). I’m reminded of tempura: it can be crispy and amazing and so delightful to eat when it’s fresh (and mine was all of these things), but it can fall to such a low if left out — its crispiness kind of implodes into this limp, damp, more batter/less fried mass.