Nov/Dec 2006

13 Sweet Eats

A baker's dozen of delectable desserts from HR eateries

By Patrick Evans-Hylton

Sugar, spice and everything nice-the sweetest promise of our childhood is that if we clean our dinner plate, we can have dessert.

Isn't it good to be an adult? Skip the appetizer, cruise past the entrÇe and don't even think about the cheese course; we've found a baker's dozen of delectable desserts that are reason alone to visit 13 eateries across the region.

Indulgence is in with these offerings, which includes everything from pies and puddings to cakes and confections.

Ancients first found a way to craft sweets from sugar cane, a giant grass native to the Ganges delta region in India, at least by the seventh century AD and perhaps as early as 1200 BC. Before that, honey added dreamy elements to everyday life; it was used to enrobe fruits and nuts creating the earliest forms of candy.

But it is cane sugar that would be crafted into all sorts of tempting treats and the primary ingredient today that makes our sweet tooth sit up and take notice.

Perhaps it's the holiday feel of the season, or maybe it's just that these sweets are so good that we don't care, but calories and carbs fly out the window when items like homemade banana pudding, Dim Sum Doughnuts and Chocolate Chopsticks, carrot cake laced with homebrew beer and Cräme Brulee Napoleon appear on the dessert menu.

We invite you to venture out, loosen your belt just a bit, and find out why these 13 desserts are part of what makes living in Hampton Roads so sweet.

To find out which 13 restaurants have the top desserts in Hampton Roads and what they are, see the Nov/Dec 2006 issue of Hampton Roads Magazine, currently available on newsstands.