Critic's Notebook
This Dessert Confection Is Suddenly Everywhere
Dang, meringue.

A Whale Wins Eton mess.
Image: Emma Zimmerman
Seems lately I’m running into meringue desserts everywhere I go. Maybe the five-year-long 15 minutes of the macaron has upped the stock of the egg white confection.
Last week at Mamnoon, a cloud of frothy milk chocolate mousse along with dense dollops of dark chocolate crema and a couple of chocolate cookies made for a novel pavlova, starring strips of meringue gently flavored with mahlab, the Mediterranean aromatic made of the seeds inside cherry stones.
A few weeks back in Georgetown, halved apricots got tossed on Ciudad’s busy grill for a caramelized fruit finisher, embellished with dark chocolate and crunches of meringue.
A few weeks before that at The Whale Wins, we ordered the classic English trifle known as Eton Mess. Traditionally made with strawberries, this one was a revelatory riff involving fresh raspberry jam, whipped cream, and cracked bits of irresistibly chewy meringue. Insanity in a dessert dish. The good kind.
As always, menus are mutable as the weather, so call first if you’re counting on something. That said, I see that the Whale Wins’ website menu currently lists an Eton mess made with strawberry plum jam.
Dang.