Papa Haydn's

On my friend Katie's recommendation, we walked all the way across town to this little cake-and-coffee place near Trendy-Third street. They have a most excellent display of cakes in their front dining area, and soon after we arrived, I ditched my boring, yellow, 2D menu in favor of drooling on the cake case.

^This is Katie and her Turtle Cheesecake! Several hours later After much deliberation, I decided on a Baked Alaska. It sounded the biggest, and weirdest. It was a layered confection of dulce de leche and chocolate ganache, banana ice cream and bruleed meringe on a vanilla sponge cake base.

This thing was ginormous, I tell you! Each layer was like two inches thick, and as wide as a pizza slice. By the time Katie was done, I was still left with a good half pound of sugar on my plate. To gorge, or not to gorge: that is the question. It should be Papa Haydn's motto.

I definitely recommend Papa Haydn's. There are so many more things to try, I'll be back!

Mio Gelato

A sunny Saturday morning spent visiting the Japanese Gardens can only be followed by having gelato.

So we went to Mio Gelato, on NE Brazee St. We ordered paninis first, partly because we were hungry, and partly to give us more time to decide which flavors of gelato we wanted! Black Forest Ham, and Chicken. The chicken one had red peppers and avocado -- perfect!

And the gelato. After four different samples and many, many minutes staring at the swirled masses of white and brown and pink and yellow and green delights, I decided on a double-header of Italian Sweet Cream, and Strawberry. The sweet cream was what vanilla usually boasts: light and sweet. And the strawberry -- oh, the strawberry! -- sorbet had real strawberry parts in it! Imagine! :)

Panini: 5.9 (ea)
Gelato: 3-5 (or pints for 7, quarts 14)