Olive's

For my birthday, Kee took me to Olive's, where she knows the head pastry chef. Her crab cake appetizer was fantastic; her Mediterranean sea bass was simple, and therefore not as notable. The lobster that accompanied it was good, however. I had a shaved artichoke heart salad that was too cheezy, and a duck that was perfectly cooked. And then we had dessert. The pastry chef sent out four.

By far was the selection of seasonal soberts. Lemon and mango sorbets sat on crisp wafers floating on a pool of tapioca. The sorbets were incredibly refreshing, the fruit ripe on the tongue. Next was the warm chocolate pudding cake. The chocolate pudding was thick and bitter and rich. The warm cake stood in the center, a dollop of chocolate ice cream melting upon its surface. Three bites and I was full.

The caramelized banana bread proved surprisingly light and flakey, rather than dense. The bread was sandwiched between layers of crisp dough. Butter pecan ice cream melted on the side above banana fritters.

Last on the list was the peanut butter molten cake, which came with milk chocolate ice cream and delicious ice milk. The latter was set on top of a thin chocolate wafer supported by chocolate peanut butter columns. The cake was good, but the mixture of peanut butter and chocolate soon proved a little too much. It ended up last on our list, but only because the other desserts were so incredibly fantastic. I'm not eating dessert for at least two weeks. Posted by eku at June 22, 2004 11:54 PM