Banana Bread Pudding (Diamond Market Bar and Grill, Pittsburgh, PA)

Location: Diamond Market Bar & Grill (Pittsburgh, PA)
Name: Banana Bread Pudding
Beer Pairing: Blanche de Chambly – Unibroue

I was only in Pittsburgh for a short period of time, and wasn’t really paying attention to much except the fact that MY SISTER GOT MARRIED!!!  Also, there was a penguin. I don’t remember his name, but he was pretty chill.  HAHAA GET IT BECAUSE HE’S A PENGUIN.

The penguin eyes me suspiciously

However, I had to sneak in a quick bread pudding stop right before leaving this wonderful city.  Diamond Market was a casual restaurant located in the heart of Market Square, with a decent beer selection and relaxed ambiance.  After stuffing myself with delicious Pittsburgh food, I actually almost bowed out of the bread pudding.  Luckily, I had two others to share the dessert so between the three of us we convinced ourselves that it was a good idea.

Bread pudding is one of my favorite things.  Banana bread is one of my favorite things.  So, naturally, banana bread pudding is DEFINITELY one of my favorite things, especially if it is made with actual banana bread, which this was. The natural banana flavor hit me immediately upon first bite, along with cinnamon and brown sugar.  It was a wonderful taste, summery and light, but with enough body to remain a formidable dessert. The bourbon sauce was sugary and a bit tart, a perfect match to the sweetness of the pudding.

The texture was slightly spongy, but pleasantly soft and separated nicely with a fork.  If there was one flaw, it was that the top crust was slightly burnt and bitter, which could have easily been removed from the serving. Burnt crust aside, the portion was large and the whip cream was home-made. Overall, I enjoyed this bread pudding, almost as much as I enjoyed my time spent in Pittsburgh for a truly wonderful event.

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Beer Review

We paired this bread pudding with Blanche de Chambly by Unibroue (draft, not bottled as the picture suggests).  Beer is good.  This beer was good. Gah, I need Sean to write these. Remind me to bother him about this later.

Banana Bread Pudding (American Tap Room)

Hi folks,

This is my first Bread Pudding and Beer review!  I’ll post these whenever I get the chance to try a new (or favorite) bread pudding.  There will be mentions of beer too.  Beer is pretty great.

Location: American Tap Room
Name: Banana Bread Pudding
Beer Pairing: Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout by North Coast Brewing Company

I’ve enjoyed food & beer at the American Tap Room on several occasions, but this was my first time trying their bread pudding.  Since they don’t have a written dessert menu, you’d have to spot the bread pudding by sight.  That could be a little tricky because calling what we were served a bread pudding is a bit of a misnomer.  I would probably name it “Weird, Dense Banana Muffin Drenched in Caramel,” but I can see how the marketing department might have a problem with that.

When the “bread pudding” arrived at the table, my first thought was that it looked a bit off, and my second thought was “ignore first thought – damn, that’s a lot of caramel!”  However, upon taking the first bite, I realized all my hopes and dreams for this dish were smashed to pieces.  The texture was lacking in all key areas (inside, crust, sauce).  Instead of having a light, moist bread-y center, it was more like a dense muffin.  I’m not talking about a good muffin; this is the kind of muffin you purchase on a Tuesday morning to add more fiber to your diet.

You’d think the pure caramel sauce would be delicious, but the muffin had a strong, tangy flavor to it, and altogether the flavor with caramel was overwhelming.  It doesn’t add the moisture and depth that a traditional sauce, such as a rum or bourbon sauce, would add.  Given that the texture of the bread pudding itself was dense and lacked moisture, a lighter sauce would have worked much better.

Something was off about the flavor overall, but I couldn’t really put my finger on what it was.  The natural banana flavor was present but was overwhelmed by everything else going on in the dish.  The Banana Muffin atrocity did come with a candied banana on the side, which was pretty tasty.

Would I order it again?  Probably not.  There was a nice brownie a la mode on the dessert tray that looked like it would be hard to mess up.

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Beer Tasting Notes by Sean

The first thing I noticed after pouring is the thick, persistent tan-colored head.  It smelled of coffee, roasted malt, and chocolate.  The color was an opaque black that did not let any light through, which was difficult to judge because the restaurant was very poorly lit.  The beer tasted similar to how you would expect based on the aromas – malty, roasty, some coffee and chocolate undertones, while not being too bitter.  The bitter hops balanced well with the sweetness of the bread pudding.  Trying to find a beer to match the banana flavor profile was difficult; perhaps this would have been better with Wells Banana Bread Beer.  Overall, the strong malt backbone of the imperial stout paired relatively well with the bread pudding.  The beer was the star of this pairing.