10 The Boston Courant A U G U S T 7, 2 0 0 910 The Boston Courant

“He’s so thin, I can count his ribs,”my relatives would joke as theymade me eat enough cakes, can-

dies and confectionary concoctions to putme in a diabetic coma. Putting on weightwas once a problem. It still is but for verydifferent reasons. As a food writer con-cerned about weight gain from eating someof our city’s most decadent desserts, Iwonder, “How bad is this stuff?”

“These days, the worst thing is the por-tion size – even if you have a calorie filleddessert,” said Debra Hollon, M.S., a clinicalnutrition specialist at MassachusettsGeneral Hospital. “You have to ask yourselfwhether you need to eat the whole thing.”

Hollon suggests sharing.“Those huge portions are usually

enough for two or three people. Sharinggives you the taste without all of the calo-

ries for the entire dessert.”Boston restaurants offer a mix of seri-

ously high calorie delights and a fewhealthier alternatives that really aren’t sobad. Let’s look at both.

Finale Desserterie & Bakery is locatedat Park Plaza and is Boston’s premierdessert restaurant featuring delicious saladsand entrées along with gorgeous architec-tural sugar structures. In a business wheremost pastry chefs are relegated to a cornerin the kitchen, Finale’s executive pastrychef Nicole Coady gets to run this kitchen.

Coady’s Strawberry Shortcake includesbuttery sugar cookies with fresh strawber-ries tossed in rhubarb sauce and servedwith Bavarian cream and fresh whippedcream. How many calories? Nobodyknows, but it’s up there. I guess the safestattitude is: “Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell.”

Bouchée Urban Brasserie is located at159 Newbury Street. The menu includeseverything from exquisite escargot to thehumble hamburger. The dessert menu sug-gests perfect profiteroles with vanilla beanice cream and chocolate sauce. Add freshberries and you have an incredible dessert.With a glass of Bouchée’s blueberry san-gria, ooh la la c’est magnifique!

BoYO just opened in the Charles RiverPlaza shopping center and you won’tbelieve how healthy everything is.Standard flavors of frozen yogurt, sorbetand gelato along with several flavors younever heard of are being featured. Oh sure,you can add M&Ms and candies to the topof your favorite fruit-flavored dish turninghealthy into decadent, but you can alsohave a delicious dessert with half the calo-ries. Each week, BoYO introduces one ortwo new sugar-free, low-fat desserts. Youwon’t believe how delectable the sugar-free strawberry is. It’s not exactlycalorie free, but it’s lighter andhealthier than most dessertchoices.

Oceanaire, located at 40Court Street, is famous forits oysters, clams, lobsterand great seafood dishes.You wouldn’t expect to finda classic decadent dessert at arestaurant that serves the bestVietnamese Tuna you’ll ever eat.John Nugent, one of my favoriteBoston waiters, presented me with aBaked Alaska birthday bombshell,flames et al. Looking like a small albi-no bomb, covered in marshmallow cream,the “151” rum was lit and poured over theentire dessert. In a minute, the marshmal-low was toasted and then cut with a warm

knife revealing a spumoni-like cherry icecream center on top of chocolate ice creamon top of a thin chocolate cake that justhappened to be soaked with the “151” rum.Look out, this most decadent of all dessertshas got to be the worst, best and most deli-cious of all. What’s the caloric content?Are you kidding? It’s well over the recom-mended maximum – for an entire month.

Hollon suggests using the internet tolookup calorie amounts.

“Calorieking.com is a great place tocheck out the calorie amounts of food youlike to eat,” Hollon said.

But if you’re like me, desserts have atendency to cause a temporary Alzheimer-like condition. As the spoonful of caloriesslowly makes its way to my mouth, Imomentarily forget – everything!

Bouchée’s profiterole

BoYO’s yogurt and fruit

Finale’s parfait

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