Alla Spina...Just Desserts.

Alla Spina
Price: $$
Forks: 9.3

1410 Mt. Vernon St.
Philadelphia, PA

Okay so as most of you know, I'm a dessert devil. When it comes to the finish of a meal, I just feel that its always better to end on a sweet note. Especially because I believe it ensures sweet dreams. If I ever say, "I don't want dessert," or "I'm too full," that's me lying because I either have to leave and do homework or am getting antsy from sitting down. Order it, hand me a spoon, and I will do some serious work. The embarrassing part of this post is, the post before was the dinner, Tria. If you read it, you know that it was a very very big meal. BUT, we couldn't finish the night without dessert, so our trio decided it would be a good idea to head down to Alla Spina, to sample one or two items and call it a night. I could stop and let you think that was it, but then I'd be seriously committing a felony/majorly fabricating my life. Let's just say we tried the whole dessert menu...but actually. And more. Consider this your dessert guide to everything sweet at Alla Spina. All I can say is, recovery was needed, I slipped into a sugar-induced coma shortly after, and it was only 24 hours before I came back and went for round two..
Our tour begins with the special of the evening, an Apple Strudel. A simple strudel was filled with gooey tender apples, pine nuts and raisins and was served with a light pastry cream. The pine nuts and raisins made this a standout as they added a welcome textural twist that totally worked with the apples. YUM.

 Next we visit the Whiskey Baba, a whiskey soaked brioche topped with a soft serve twist of fiordilatte and burnt caramel. The brioche was lovingly soaked, a strong whiskey flavor perfumed every bite. The whiskey's potency was only further heightened by the milkiness of the soft serve. Umm...beyond.

Then, because ice cream included in a dish just wasn't enough, we ordered each soft serve flavor on its own. The fiordilatte...imagine if somehow the pillows on your bed melted together into an ice cream that was so soft, smooth, and fluffy you didn't know what to do. Well thats that. Jenna and Raya put a candle in the burnt caramel flavor for me, yaaaay i got a job!, and it was just as delicious. It was richly flavored and buttery tasting, with hints of brown sugar coming through each bite. No pix...eaten too fast.
So now we have a minor intermission. We were done, so done...for the time being at least. Raya ordered some interesting dessert wine that tasted like potpourri and we sipped casually. We chatted to each other and chatted to the cute chef and soon found ourselves wishing we "could have tried" the crispy marshmallows that topped the chocolate budino. And wishing we could "only taste" the bread pudding. Well, turns out it was our lucky night because our wishes came true. First, the aforementioned cute chef, sent over some brûléed marshmallows and a graham/(ginger?) cracker cookie. I love s'mores, and these included. So we sat some more, and the longer we sat, the longer we longed. Before I knew what was happening we were asking the waitress for the Donut Bread Pudding. I don't know what happened, it all went down so fast. I laughed it off, thought they were kidding. But then it came. And not only was our waitress carrying the bread pudding, but a choco taco as well, because our new pal wanted us to taste the whole menu. Taste the whole menu? This is the point in time when I realized we actually did just that. To be embarrassed? To be flattered? To be PROUD? So many questions, too much to eat to care. Hands down, the donut bread pudding was the best. Perhaps one of the best desserts I've ever eaten, and clearly if this is any indication, I've eaten a lot. House made donuts are bread pudding-fied with raisins and some delicious sauce that had me licking the plate. It's fluffy yet moist, and with each bite I could feel myself *at this point* rolling into the gates of heaven.

Besides being the size of my face, the choco taco was incredible. A "taco"shaped waffle cone held house made vanilla ice cream with chocolate swirls, was dunked in chocolate, and then topped with candy coated hazelnuts. I have few words to describe this, NOM, OUTRAGEOUS, UNBELIEVABLE, being a few choice ones.

 kk.

So I'm not sure how to close this post. All I can say is that somehow I found myself perched at the bar 24 hours later with some new companions enjoying the choco taco again. This time, I stopped at one, but secretly yearned for that donut bread pudding on my way out. Because let's be honest, one is never enough. I'd stop eating dessert, but I've never quit anything in my life, so why start now?

rolling out...literally

xoxo

hungreegirl.