You never know what's going to turn up in your food these days. Irradiated spices, maybe. Or a food additive made from human hair.
Every once in a while, the surprise ingredient is a pleasant one. Like rose.
Petals from dried, organic, heirloom roses are crumbled up and sprinkled atop the chocolate ganache on eclairs served at Hampden's Puffs & Pastries. The airy mousse filling is flavored with a rose syrup and rose water, both made with natural ingredients that give the cream a lovely pink color.
The flavor is floral to the point of perfume-y -- too much for my little boy when he tried a bite this morning. My husband and I thought the rose cream nicely complemented the rich, dark chocolate frosting, though we were happy to split a single $4 eclair.
Chef-owner Anisha Jagtap said many customers are surprised to come across pastries flavored with rose.
"They're so wary of that rose flavor," she said.
But the flavor is common in other parts of the world, including India, where it shows up in ice cream.
"It's definitely your regular flavor," she said. "It's like mint chocolate chip. There's a rose petal ice cream. ... I try to bring a lot of edible flowers to the Baltimore scene."
Photo by math-hubby