sobremesa (S)
Nachtisch, dessert (g)
sobremesa (P)
dessert (E)
dessert (f)
no chocolate, please?
Dessert: for some people, it’s the only course of a meal they care about. For others not so much. But everyone craves a dessert now and then. So, focusing on our six languages, you’ve got your dolce (cannoli, tiramisu, gelato); your sobremesa (churros, flan); your nachtisch (black forest cake, apfelstrudel, sacher torte); your sobremesa (pastel de nata, bola de berlim); your dessert (trifle, lamingtons, cheesecake and brownies) and your dessert (crème brûlée, chocolate mousse, French pastries). But as Peggy Lee memorably sang in the movie After Hours starring Griffin Dunne, “Is that all there is?” Au contraire, there are other desserts just as beloved around the world, and, perhaps, better for your health? Let’s talk about a few of them (in no particular order).
india
Gulub Jaman: About the size of a Dunkin munchkin or a small cream puff, the dough for gulab jamun is made with cow or buffalo milk simmered for hours. The dough is fried in ghee (clarified butter) and then the spheres are soaked in a syrup infused with cardamom seeds and roses.
Rabri: Rabri is a dessert or pudding from the northern part of India. Milk is cooked until it is thick and then flavored with cardamoms, saffron, nuts and dried fruits.
Kulfi: Think a popsicle made of ice cream. Milk is simmered for hours with constant stirring, leading to a caramel taste. The popsicles are flavored with rose, cardamom, saffron or pistachio and frozen. They are bought at, where else, a kulfiwallah.
Your host is sensing a theme here: rose, cardamom and saffron flavors.
morocco
Moroccans have several famous desserts to choose from:
Cornes de Gazelle: Cornes de Gazelle are dough filled with ground almonds scented with orange blossom water and then baked. They’re often served at special meals and occasions, not only in Moracco but also Tunisia and Algeria. The fanciest cornes de gazelle come from the city of Tetouan in Morocco.
M’hanncha: Thin dough (even thinner than phylo dough) filled with ground nuts, orange blossom water and mastic, formed into a spiral and put on a hot griddle.
turkey
Baklava: Baklava is made in a pan with multiple layers of phyllo dough, covered with ground nuts and honey syrup. It’s popular not only in Turkey but also Greece, the Balkans, the Middle East, the Caucasus and North Africa.
Borma: Similar to baklava but it’s often fried and rather than baklava’s horizontal layers of phyllo, borma is rolled and sliced so that the eater can see the walnuts, pistachios and/or pine nuts inside.
singapore:
Cendol:
Cendol consists of iced coconut milk sweetened with palm sugar syrup combined with green rice-flour jelly. The bright green jelly gets its coloring from pandan juice. (You host admits to looking this word up-pandan is an herb, with a scent something like vanilla.) Cendol is often topped with sweetened red beans. Other countries have similar desserts: for example, Vietnam has Chè ba màu or Vietnamese three color dessert. Something like a parfait, the dessert has three layers: one of red beans; another layer of mung beans; and, finally, a layer of green pandan jelly topped with coconut sauce and shaved ice.
hong kong
Dan Tats: Looking like the pastel de nata found in Portugal, dan tats are small egg custard tarts. The resemblance to the pastel de nata is probably not a coincidence: Dan Tats likely got to Hong Kong from Macau, across the Pearl River, and first visited by, wait for it: the Portuguese in 1513.
middle east
Ma’amoul: Shaped in wooden molds, these cookies are made out of semolina (coarsely milled wheat). The dough is wrapped around chopped dates, nuts or both. Ma’amoul are universally popular: enjoyed as a special treat by the Jewish community during Purim; by Christians at Easter and at Eid, the Muslim festival celebrated at the end of Ramadan.
Qatayef : This dessert consists of a sort of pancake cooked on one side. It’s usually filled with some combination of cream, nuts, dried fruits or cheese. The filling is often scented with rose water or ground cinnamon. Sounds really good but that’s not the end of the preparation. It’s usually also fried before serving.
Knafeh: Knafeh is pastry on top of cream, nuts or salty cheese soaked in a roses or orange flavored syrup. The Palestinian city of Nablus, with claims of the invention of knafeh, traditionally makes theirs with a special goat cheese.
Knafeh
By Bazel – Own work (Original text: self-made), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4801159
Iran
Saffron Ice Cream:
Known as bastani, it is ice cream scented with saffron, rosewater and pistachios. A favorite version is the Iranian ice cream sandwich, bastani between two wafers. (Now, that sounds really good.) Bastani is particularly popular on Nowruz, the Iranian or Persian New Year, which marks the spring equinox or the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
taiwan
Snow Ice: Taiwanese snow ice is different from other shaved ice versions as it’s made with a flavored creamy base and then shaved extremely thinly into a big pile of ice flakes or made with sheets of condensed milk. Toppings might include taro, fresh fruit, mochi, grass jelly or red bean paste. (Sounds a bit like Cendol from Singapore?)
thailand
Sticky Rice with Mango
Sticky or glutinous rice is combined with coconut milk and palm sugar and then topped with one of two types of mangos favored for the dish: nam dok mai, a sweet, yellow fruit, or aok rong, a mango that’s more acidic.
Tub Tim Krob:
This dessert is so beautiful, your host had to start with a picture. The base is crushed ice and a sweet coconut liquid infused with pandan. The dessert’s name translates to red rubies referring to a main ingredient: water chestnuts soaked in grenadine (pomegranate syrup), rolled in tapioca flour and then boiled. From the picture, it appears that pomegranate seeds may also be added.
Well, you might have noticed, not a bit of chocolate in any of these desserts and perhaps, to quote the domestic maven Martha Stewart, that’s a good thing. In 2022, the Hershey Company, one of the largest manufacturers of chocolate in the world, and Trader Joe’s, an American supermarket, were sued: accused of misleading consumers who buy their dark chocolate products by not disclosing potentially unsafe levels of lead and cadmium.
Chocolate is made from cacao beans which naturally contain lead and cadmium. Since dark chocolate has more cacao in it as compared to milk chocolate, there is more lead and cadmium in dark chocolate. As you might know, lead can cause developmental issues in children (think ban on lead paint) and cadmium can cause kidney disease. So, maybe a rethink of your dessert choices to something sans dark chocolate?