Food review blog from San Francisco.

Restaurant: Absinthe (San Francisco)
Food description: Scharffen Berger chocolate pot de crème with crème Chantilly
Food rating: 9 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

I'll describe this dish in two words or less: positively addictive. I've been fantasizing about having this dish over and over again, and with Absinthe just a block away, I'll be lucky if I dont' end up in rehab or Jenny Craig. Even if you hate chocolate (though I can't imagine such a person), you won't after trying this pot de crème. It's made from Scharffen Berger chocolate--for those of you who aren't familiar with the name--it's the granddaddy of American dark chocolate and was the key ingredient to this dish's success. The consistency of the pot de crème was thick and smooth, less thick than a chocolate mousse cake, but thick enough so that if you stuck your spoon all the way in and lifted, the entire dish would be picked up. The high density of the chocolate made each spoonful extremely rich and decadent and was almost too much, even for 2 people (of course we ate it all though). The Scharffen Berger chocolate used in this dish was the real deal, not your everyday wannabe Ghirardelli chocolate. It was bittersweet and probably at least 70% cacao (translation: high quality, very dark, more bitter than sweet), with a deep roasted flavor similar to coffee, and would thus accompany coffee perfectly.

Though I thought the crème Chantilly and shaved dark chocolate topping gave it a nice presentation, I sort of dug around those elements with my spoon, so as not to taint the perfection of the chocolate beneath. I tasted the shaved chocolate alone, and it wasn't the same chocolate flavor used in the pot de crème itself, and not nearly as good. The crème Chantilly was good by itself, but I didn't want anything messing with the pureness of the rich dark chocolate. I'm sensitive to desserts that are overwhelmingly sweet, and this dish delivered exactly what I look for in good dessert: high quality ingredients that can stand on their own without relying on sugar to make them good. I won't dock points for this, but the presentation was slightly lacking. If you'll notice in the picture, the dish was served on a piece of triangular paper. Perplexed, I unfolded the paper and realized it was a piece of an old menu folded in half. Did they run out of doilies or something? Nevertheless, after taking one bite, they could serve it on a Post-It note for all I care. It was some of the best dessert I've had in a while. Indulge yourself!