July 21 Section B

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The Leader • Saturday, July 21, 2018 • Page 1B

Summer Sweets

Dessert is a must

Photo by Zarah Parker Matthew McKenzie, co-owner of Avid Coffee Co., and Milk tea with boba created from his own recipe.

Quench your thirst this summer By Zarah Parker zarah@theleadernews.com

Photo by Jean Dukate

To create the chocolate shell that holds the mousse, the chefs use a balloon as a mold.

Cavatore adds creativity to the season Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com After a full meal at Cavatore Italian Restaurant, 2120 Ella Blvd., you might be tempted to skip dessert. That would be a big mistake. Although many of the favorites on the menu have been around for a long time, Federico Cavatore, who has worked at his family’s restaurant since 2001, says that in the past couple of years, they’ve taken their desserts to the next level. After sampling most of them, I’d have to agree. Cavatore said that they get some of their cakes and pies from Three Brothers Bakery, but in a recent informal social media poll, readers mentioned the in-house offerings as their runaway picks.

Photo by Jean Dukate Tiramisu has been a staple on the menu at Cavatore since the beginning.

Giancarlo and Ana Cavatore opened their Italian res-

taurant in 1983 but what you may not know is that two

years before that they opened La Tour d’Argent – now the Rainbow Lodge – across the street. Their French restaurant was where mousse first appeared on the dessert menu. To create the chocolate shell, or bowl, that the white or dark chocolate mousse rests in, the chefs at Cavatore heat chocolate and dip a balloon in it. When they pop the balloon, presto – a chocolate vessel. Another Cavatore specialty with a French influence is their profiteroles, sometimes known at choux à la crème. A profiterole is a pastry ball filled with something moist and sweet, like whipped cream, custard, pastry cream, or ice cream. At Cavatore, the See Cavatores P. 3B

Sometimes water doesn’t cut it in this Houston heat and you just need something sweet and delicious to slake your thirst. From milk tea and smoothies to cocktails our local hubs have the perfect drinks to make summer a little more bearable. The latest addition to the Avid Coffee Co. truck is milk tea with boba. It’s made in the truck by Avid’s co-owner, Matthew McKenzie who became familiar with the different techniques and styles of making milk tea while in China. “Being in a foreign country, especially one with a vastly different culture than yours for an extended period of time, you experience culture shock...it’s good to have something you can latch onto for comfort. Mine was milk tea,” McKenzie said, “it being my comfort food, I drank a lot of milk tea.” With the sealing machine and boba straws already available from a different almostbusiness venture, McKenzie decided to create his own recipe and add it to the menu. And although he couldn’t reveal the entire recipe, he gave enough information to know the drink is perfect for the summer heat. “The boba is created by boiling tapioca balls and then after the process of cooking them you soak them in a syrup. Then the tapioca absorbs the flavor of the syrup. So, I use half brown sugar and half white sugar for the syrup then

I throw in honey,” McKenzie said. The milk tea is pretty sweet, but McKenzie is careful not to overdo the sweetness. “I brew tea concentrate and then I use whole milk with a little bit of half and half and make a syrup for it. I actually throw in a tiny bit of cold brew to give it a little bit of oomph,” McKenzie said. Other cold drinks available on the truck are frappes, smoothies, and a cold brew latte. Currently the Avid truck parks at Millie’s (the old Oak Forest Chill) at 3542 Oak Forest Dr. You can also catch the truck at Eleanora’s Market on Saturdays. For something healthy and refreshing, Juiceland has options aplenty. They offer wellness shots, superfood lattes and tonics, fresh juice smoothies, and cold-pressed bottled juices. “One of our bestselling drinks in the summer is fresh pressed watermelon juice. Watermelons are in season, so their juice is more flavorful in the summertime! Watermelon juice is a popular summer goto because it is refreshing, and you can get a large juice for under $5,” said Lexie Shook of Juiceland. Another summer favorite is the Rehydrator smoothie, which has watermelon, raspberry, mango, peach, beet, coconut oil, mint, lime, and sea salt. The Rehydrator keeps the promise of its name and will hydrate you in the Houston heat. See Summer Drinks P. 2B

Pick your flavor and celebrate with ice cream Since July is national ice cream month, two ice cream shops in the Heights spilled the milk on what makes their ice cream special. Fat Cat Creamery, 1901 N. Shepherd Dr., began because the Heights was absent of an Ice cream shop. Owner Sarah Johnston began making ice cream at home and soon it developed into Fat Cat. “The thing that sets our ice cream apart that I don’t think everybody realizes is that we make it completely from scratch,” Johnston said, “we get all the eggs from the farm and hand separate them. Our waffle cones—the batter is made completely from scratch, so everything that we do, we make from

scratch; we make it from raw ingredients.” “We pasteurize our own milk; our own base, and that’s the difference between fresh made ice cream and made from scratch,” input Dylan Rodriquez, the ice cream chef and production manager at Fat Cat. Rodriquez is inspired to create new ice cream flavors from all over the world like Asia and Europe. But he also tries to do modern takes on classic flavors, like whiskey butter pecan, milk chocolate stout, chai tea coconut, and reverse milk and cookies. They change their seasonal flavors, soft serves, and sundae every month. Salted butter caramel and whiskey butter pecan have become the most popular seasonal flavors. And because they ro-

July is officially National Ice Cream Month. How will you top it?

Photo by Zarah Parker Sarah Johnston, owner of Fat Cat Creamery, and Dylan Rodriquez, who is the ice cream chef and production manager.

tate them in and out, customers are often calling inquiring whether or not they have a certain flavor because of how much they love it.

This summer season is pushing out watermelon, berries, and cucumbers, so the flavors at Fat Cat are more likely to reflect what’s fresh

We have an extensive variety of organic products.

Think Key Lime, Coconut Cream, or Strawberry Cream Cheese.

Buy One Get One Half Off pricing through August 31.

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months ahead. Some of the new flavors to look out for at Fat Cat soon are coconut macadamia nut, stone cold cream Austin, which is caramelized white chocolate ice cream with brownie bits, strawberry ginger beer sorbet, honey toffee ice cream, chocolate banana nut, and more. Over the Moon, 238 W. See Ice Cream P. 3B

New Summer Sweet Treats @

Fresh Fruit Tarts Mini Key Lime Pies Pineapple Coconut Cupcakes Sugar Cookies 2032 East TC Jester Blvd. • 832-834-6958

www.ashleycakeshouston.com

Assorted Cupcakes • Cookies & Bars • Mini Tarts

Cool off with our Summer favorites!

on the market. “We’re really heavily influenced by the seasons,” Rodriquez said, “I just got ahold of sugar cube melon, so I made a bunch of sugar cube melon sorbet.” A typical batch of ice cream takes about three days starting from the kitchen with nothing to the front of the shop. That means they’re always thinking at least a week ahead and with new flavors,

Cakes by the Slice • Custom Cakes to Order • Pafaits

By Zarah Parker zarah@theleadernews.com


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