Best Dessert of 2009

Do you see the deep multi toned purple pansy, embedded in this gelatin mold, with the herbal centerpiece?  Go ahead, double click on it!

It's all made from gelatin.  ALL.

This has to be one of the coolest desserts on the planet!

 My daughter and I were driving through one of the barrios in Phoenix, looking for cool Mexican candy to take back to her friends in London.
She spotted the Dulceria Pico Rico, but it was too hard to get over to that side of the road.  So we parked at the Michoacana Realeza - a dessert place across the street.
Since I knew it'd be awhile before my daughter could decide (on a whole,  giant store full of candy), I decided to go into the Postreria  and get something  - as a courtesy for the parking place.

Yes, they do have extremely good helados, paletas, etc. and a bakery.  They also have fresh, ripe "aguas"( like fruit milkshakes) that brought me straight back to the streets of Panamà, and the daily fruit lady who whacked Pineapples to order.

But the most amazing things to my Gringo eyes were the "gelatinas".

Individual gelatin molds, with embedded flowers and greenery.
There were zinnias, mums, and oddest of all these pansies.  I got one to take home, thinking I could reverse engineer it, and figure out how they did it.

Turns out this is a very complex art form, well known in Mexico--and borrowed from the Japanese.

this photo is from an article in the El Paso Times, explaining a bit about the floral gealtine resurgence.

The gelatina I got was gelatine injected into flower petal shapes so thin you could barely taste them.
The surrounding bombe was a layer of aqua, then pale lime green.
The lady at the Michoacana could't describe the taste, and frankly, neither can I.
Good!  Fruity, sort of---but I couldn't identify the individula flavors, they were so delicate.

There are people willing to train you how to make these amazing edible art forms.

I found this lady on the web, who considers her "spring flower bombe" a level 8 (highest):

For $2.75 at the Michoacana Realeza, I can't even come close to this duplicating kind of artistry.  They do the most magnificent job in the Valley of making this delicious and delicate art form accessible to everyone.

They get my vote for Best Dessert of 2009!