Ceci Cela
Description: Ceci Cela Sorbet Review c. 2007 by Laura Brose
Ceci Cela is one of my favorite cafes to begin with: high class without being pretentious, high quality pastries and coffee at a reasonable price, a place where the reproduction antique ads adorning the dining area seem a brightening touch rather than an artifice, and Art Noveau prints look naturally at home on warm-toned walls and exposed brick.
Seemingly as impromteau as the hand-lettered sign announcing its availablity, is Ceci-Cela's decision to serve homemade sorbet this summer.
They offer the option of cone or cup to go, but the cup is so small, like the kind they use for mouthwash at the dentist's, that you feel shortchanged at the notion. They must scoop the sorbet with a melon baller.
I ended up taking a table and ordering a Tasting Palette so I could try every flavor, eight melon-ball sized scoops for scoops for $9.75, which works out to about a dollar a scoop. (Ordering just one flavor is not a bargain at $3.00 for one scoop, and $5.00 for two scoops).
With tax and tip, ordering one Tasting Palette, which they suggest is a "good way to please a crowd", comes to $15.57.
Having thus tried every flavor, here is my opinion of them:
The Melon was very strongly flavored, and more properly should have been called cantelope, because it tastes like fresh cantelope and is slightly paler than the genuine article. The Mango was much like the Melon, and must have been made with mangoes at the peak of their ripeness, rather than firm, crispy mango slices like you get from street vendors in some ethnic neighborhoods.
They must have pureed the Banana to a state resembling syrup because the banana sorbet had no actual lumps of banana but had the cloying sweetness and and starchy "body" to the aftertaste which bespeaks the Real Thing rather than artificial flavoring.
The Passionfruit sorbet was highly acidic and reminiscent of the jarred jackfruit used for making halo-halo. The Casis was ok, but it couldn't make up its mind as to whether it was a fruit or an alcohol flavor. The Raspberry was a hot pink color my mother would love and better than average.
The Coconut was rich and flavorful and contained little grains of ground coconut.
However, being a purist when it comes to chocolate chip mint, I must give their attempt at a small-serving sorbet version a mixed review: the mild spearmint flavoring is daring and sophisticated, but the tiny specks of chocolate of quality which cannot be determined and which render the coloring muddy and unappetizing only detract from the whole.
For all the flavors, I must say that the texture of the sorbet was extremely fine and not grainy at all: kudos to whomever is doing the mixing and controlling the tempurature at which the ingredients are handled and stored.
The creative minds in the kitchen of Ceci-Cela have come up with a unique treat which was delivered to the table next to mine: frosted sundae glasses filled with plain vanilla ice cream (they have that, too) and adorned with bright spheres of sorbet, providing visual interest at the side of each glass.
Unfortunately, the cafe is not wheelchair-accessible.
Submitted: 06/03/07 (Edited 06/12/08)
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Ceci Cela is one of my favorite cafes to begin with: high class without being pretentious, high quality pastries and coffee at a reasonable price, a place where the reproduction antique ads adorning the dining area seem a brightening touch rather than an artifice, and Art Noveau prints look naturally at home on warm-toned walls and exposed brick.
Seemingly as impromteau as the hand-lettered sign announcing its availablity, is Ceci-Cela's decision to serve homemade sorbet this summer.
They offer the option of cone or cup to go, but the cup is so small, like the kind they use for mouthwash at the dentist's, that you feel shortchanged at the notion. They must scoop the sorbet with a melon baller.
I ended up taking a table and ordering a Tasting Palette so I could try every flavor, eight melon-ball sized scoops for scoops for $9.75, which works out to about a dollar a scoop. (Ordering just one flavor is not a bargain at $3.00 for one scoop, and $5.00 for two scoops).
With tax and tip, ordering one Tasting Palette, which they suggest is a "good way to please a crowd", comes to $15.57.
Having thus tried every flavor, here is my opinion of them:
The Melon was very strongly flavored, and more properly should have been called cantelope, because it tastes like fresh cantelope and is slightly paler than the genuine article. The Mango was much like the Melon, and must have been made with mangoes at the peak of their ripeness, rather than firm, crispy mango slices like you get from street vendors in some ethnic neighborhoods.
They must have pureed the Banana to a state resembling syrup because the banana sorbet had no actual lumps of banana but had the cloying sweetness and and starchy "body" to the aftertaste which bespeaks the Real Thing rather than artificial flavoring.
The Passionfruit sorbet was highly acidic and reminiscent of the jarred jackfruit used for making halo-halo. The Casis was ok, but it couldn't make up its mind as to whether it was a fruit or an alcohol flavor. The Raspberry was a hot pink color my mother would love and better than average.
The Coconut was rich and flavorful and contained little grains of ground coconut.
However, being a purist when it comes to chocolate chip mint, I must give their attempt at a small-serving sorbet version a mixed review: the mild spearmint flavoring is daring and sophisticated, but the tiny specks of chocolate of quality which cannot be determined and which render the coloring muddy and unappetizing only detract from the whole.
For all the flavors, I must say that the texture of the sorbet was extremely fine and not grainy at all: kudos to whomever is doing the mixing and controlling the tempurature at which the ingredients are handled and stored.
The creative minds in the kitchen of Ceci-Cela have come up with a unique treat which was delivered to the table next to mine: frosted sundae glasses filled with plain vanilla ice cream (they have that, too) and adorned with bright spheres of sorbet, providing visual interest at the side of each glass.
Unfortunately, the cafe is not wheelchair-accessible.
Submitted: 06/03/07 (Edited 06/12/08)
Hits: 43 to site, 0 from site. Averaging 0 out and 0 in per day.
In the most recent 30 day period, there've been 1 to the site and 0 from the site.
Reviews: 0 comments
Trader Rating: 0
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