Your dessert experiences during travels are rarely highlighted, but here is an article about my top sweet-tooth picks from around the world. I would also like to emphasize that usually the natural flavors are the best you can get, for example a very juicy fresh fruit in the Far East, or the pressed juice of it, just make you drool for more. Or why not end your meal with a local liqeur or a cocktail made with local fruit juices? In July-August, we go to the woods in Finland and eat wild berries, such as blueberries, raspberries, lingonberries or the yellow king of them all, the cloudberry. For the Middle East, it is usually about dried fruit, such as figs and dates.
As a chocolate fan, I need to point out the turron bars in Spain. The chocolate ones of those locally produced bars, are very rich in taste. They make the big chocolate companies in Belgium pale, and some of the Swiss ones too. For the ultimate chocolate experience, go to a local French confiserie or chocolaterie and ask the shop host or hostess to pick a box of the favourites, and you will thank the Almighty for France. Please also note my story about Vilnius in Lithuania, where we found a chocolate restaurant!
The cakes in eastern Europe look posh and interesting, but their filling is usually made of buttercream, which is not as good as whipped cream. The Sacher Café in Austria is a delightful exception of those. Cakes filled with local jam is usually a good pick. My favorite goes again to France, the lemon meringue, closely followed by the prime of Florida: the Key Lime Pie.
Some other picks are the marzipan in Germany, the sadly expensive but utterly tasty fudges in the United Kingdom, the sesame and honey bars in Greece, the Dutch wafels, the Pavlova ice cream meringue in Australia (thank you, Seira and family!) and the dessert wine Prosec in Croatia. In the Far East, I have encountered some (Taiwanese?) dessert fast food venues that serve puddings and rice set-ups with fruit and tarot jellies. They are quite exotic, but not to everyone’s taste.
Finally, the culinary empire of Italy needs a special note. Why is an almond shortbread such as amaretti made in Italy so annoyingly delicious? And their tiramisu? Do not miss a glass or a bottle of their lemon sweet liqeur, limoncello. That is fantastic to splash in any of your desserts at home as well! An article about desserts without a mentioning of ice cream and sorbets is a sin, and here we have to point out the masters of ice cream as well, the Italians. Sweet dreams!
food, travel, travel experiences
