Sweet of the Week: Matcha and Lychee at Acadia

Matcha and Lychee at Acadia: 

Every now and then, I need a break from sugary overload. I love indulgent cookies, doughnuts, and pies to an almost dangerous degree, but on occasion it's a nice diversion to enjoy a dessert that toys with my taste buds and impresses from a visual, textural, and flavorful standpoint. One dessert menu capable of such is the one at Acadia, where pastry chef Thomas Raquel stuns with aesthetic dessert marvels that often toe the line between savory and sweet. Or at the very least, he takes a thoughtful approach to sugar, incorporating it mercifully so as to highlight and accentuate other flavors and elements. One such impressive feat is his matcha, toasted rice, and lychee dessert, a stunning bowlful that looks like it should be on display somewhere and preserved forever. 

This dessert tastes like the forest floor, in the best way possible. Maybe the forest floor in Candy Land, consumed by dragging my mouth across it. Due largely to the matcha component, the dessert contains a heady, earthy undertone, which lays the framework for toasted rice and lychee. So it's an Asian forest in Candy Land, apparently. The first thing you'll notice is the incomparable luster of this dessert, displayed with a delicate arrangement of beautiful elements, which together look like some sort of saccharine architecture. Dip your spoon into the dessert and immerse yourself in a textural wonderland. It's a dessert that dares to define your notions of desserts, and that is a very good thing. 

- Matt Kirouac