The Crème Brûlée Cart

Last stop at Off the Grid: Fort Mason with Rodney H last Friday, March 4th. I was grabbing a frozen custard and Rodney decided to get a creme brulee. It was around 8:30pm.

He got the Bulleit bourbon butterscotch ($4.50). I had a small taste. I liked the crusty sugary top. It had a nice crunch when breaking through the torched sugar. The flavors of the bourbon butterscotch were delicious! I loved the combination of creamy caramel with a hint of alcohol. Though I liked the flavor, I thought the texture of the brulee was too soft. I like a thicker, more set creme brulee.

Good choice as a last stop. Who wouldn't want to end OtG on a sweet note?

I finally had the chance to try this renowned San Francisco-based creme brûlée cart after years of hoping it would conveniently pop up on my side of the East Bay--and thank GOD it did, because it was more satisfying than I ever expected.

Silky smooth custard. Torched on top with a live flame to caramelize. And BAM! You've got yourself a creme brûlée! I've only ever had very few creme brûlée's in my life, and I've always thought the others were just "okay." They weren't enough to convince me I was a creme brûlée lover... So I waited and wanted to try the real one that people have raved about for years from this cart.

It seems their flavors run out fast early on in the day. They came to Off The Grid: Pleasant Hill this week and were out of the Honey Vanilla by the time I got there. Their staff and customer favorite combinations seemed to DIE for--for $6.25 you can get a custard base paired with a crunchy topping and liquid topping. (Pecans and dark brown sugar chocolate? Whoa.) I decided to go basic and try their creme brûlée as is for $5 and got the Bourbon Butterscotch which was...surprisingly not as scary or strong or overly sweet as you'd expect from its name! The guy torched it up, I handed over my five and took a bite and... WHOA. I was in love.

The crispy caramelized top broke through the smooth and silky sweet custard and delivered a lovely texture balance. It wasn't overly sweet and the flavors weren't overpowering. It seemed like a pleasing silky caramel with light hints of bourbon to make it interesting (but I could barely notice it). It was delicious.

I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I would, considering I wasn't hungry nor craving it when I got there. But, I knew I had to order it while it was right in front of me and I was not disappointed. It did not feel heavy or extra creamy at all--just a nice silky smooth custard-y brûlée to call it a night... And make myself a fan.

Date & Time: Thursday May 28, 2009 @ 8:30pm
Mission: To Locate The Creme Brulee Cart
Company: Michael & Jack
Crowd: Neighborhood Couples in Lucy Work-Out Clothes w/ Dogs & Hipsters
Vibe: Chill
Decor: Creme Brulee Cart in Top Secret Location
Service: Curtis is Nice, Friendly, Awesome w/ Torch
Devour: All Quatre Flavors: Dark Chocolate, Vanilla Bean, Raspberry Basil, White Russian $3
Total: $12
Note: Creme Brulee Guy is Getting Married & Taking Two Weeks Off- Will Be Back June 14th. Congratulations Curtis!!!

Hip Hip Hooray for Creme Brulee!
At long last, the famous Creme Brulee Cart.

Creme brulee is one of my Yelp loves, and like to consider myself a connoisseur (or wanna-be). I was super jazzed to finally try the sweet goodness with my fellow Sweet toother and Yelp pal, Patty P. Of course, we are both fans of dessert for dinner OR dessert before dinner. :0

We arrived at Fabric 8 fashionably early (so non-filipino of me), and walked towards the back patio as that's where CBC chef was situated. http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/1nAjLUw-2NdlQUwXGoY6fw?select=yj-QH0jktFFRMprNHBtVKA After perusing the 5 brulee options and a brief chat with the confident chef, we finally decided on 3 (as we didn't want to go overboard). Here he is with the infamous torch http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/1nAjLUw-2NdlQUwXGoY6fw?select=paZAn4Udh1izGiXIOmTFCA. These flavors are also listed in my fav order:

- Lavender: Not only did it smell lovely, but tasted just as divine. I agree with Patty in that this was the perfect brulee texture. Spoon tap tested and approved! Oh Mylanta! The flavor was absolutely perfect, which is great as you don't want an overpowering flavor when it comes to something so fragrant.

- Ritual Coffee: This smell and tasted so good. The brulee texture was just ok and not as good as Lavender. It needed more sugar, as it was spoon tapped (and not approved). However, the coffee flavor was bursting in every delicious bite.

- Meyer Lemon with Blueberry Sauce: Fragrant, but the taste was disappointing. Brulee was spoon tapped and not approved, and the blueberry sauce, while tasty, took away from the crisp brulee texture that I love.

From left to right - Ritual Coffee, Meyer Lemon, and Lavender (and some gobbas)
http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/1nAjLUw-2NdlQUwXGoY6fw?select=A7ttfV0ybhEucBppgpIFbw

All in all, a great first CBC experience. Look forward to trying more digalicious creme brulees in the near future. See you soon CBC man!

I finally found Chef Curtis Kimball and his Crème Brulee Cart as I was driving down Market Street.

His cart is located in the Financial District (Sutter and Sansome Street); an area I infrequently go. http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/1nAjLUw-2NdlQUwXGoY6fw?select=o4ZzJV7B5y_vQ_sqPJmCQA

Parking for my city vehicle was never a problem. I get to park at any bus stop. That is one advantage that I have over the "hot-shots" from the downtown area!

There are four different flavors to choose from for $4.00 a small cup. And I chose the Ritual Coffee as one and Honey Vanilla as the other. Chef Kimball grabbed the pre-made custard, adds sugar on top and used the torch to burn the sugar topping into a caramelized glaze. That is a "work of art" right in the Financial District.

One bite of the Honey Vanilla Brulee, I was in sweet-heaven. Too bad the sweet treat was so small, in which I finished the treat in two scoops. $4.00 doesn't go far these days. http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/1nAjLUw-2NdlQUwXGoY6fw?select=MttYnZdHJGmxqeyaukAOJw

My daughter took the Ritual Coffee one and put an immediate smile to her face.

You can follow Chef Kimball and his cart on Twitter on his ongoing journey spots, daily flavors and updates.

I've had it in my mind to try the Crème Brûlée Cart, but I just never made any plan to chase it down. Alas, the custard clock has been ticking. After all, it's been well over 2 1/2 years since local taste maker Genevieve Y. Yelped about it, and that's usually my barometer for trying something new. In SF foodie terms, that's an eternity, so why bother at this point? Well, I happen to have met a friend for lunch near the Citicorp building in the FiDi, and lo and behold, there it was just waiting for me to try it at last.

Now he doesn't actually make the custard part there. It looks like he already has that in his fridge, and there were five flavors from which to choose, most of them with too-cute names (see photo). Succumbing to the marketing, I ordered the "Yes Please", which I assume is the line taken from the orphanage scene in "Oliver Twist". It was a custard filled with nutella and strawberries (see photo), though honestly I couldn't tell.

The server covers a small custard tin with a tidal wave of brown sugar, lights us his torch, and burns it until you can crack the top. It was fine in a generic sort of way but gone far too soon for a $4 price tag. Perhaps my expectations grew too much for that cart to deliver reasonably, or maybe I just think of crème brûlée as a capper to a fine meal, not a culinary destination in itself. Ah well, my curiosity has been addressed, and I can move on now...

DESSERT - 3 stars...awfully big build-up followed by a mighty small tin
AMBIANCE - 3 stars...fine as far as carts go
SERVICE - 3.5 stars...handles that torch like a pro
TOTAL - 3 stars...I came, he torched, I devoured...the end

How can you not like mobile Crème Brûlée?

See video of the creme brulee man in action: http://www.flickr.com/photos/calmenda/4297643563/

Last time I gave the Creme Brulee guy 4 stars and said he was quiet. I visited him again courtesy of Twitter giving me his location and this time he wasn't swamped so he was really nice and talked to me, which I appreciated. He seemed a bit cold last time. I tried the dark chocolate chambord and vanilla. Both were excellent. For $4 you can't get a better creme brulee.

The Creme Brulee man definitely wins in the price/quality battle. I've rarely had better creme brulee but its close to $10.

These people have a winning concept-Grab and go Creme Brulee! Having baked and consumed a good number of creme brulees in my lifetime, it was absolute perfection! Even better than I've had in some restaurants...no kidding!

Each Brulee came in a foil cup and priced at $4 which wasn't Bad at all. The flavors of the night were:

Vanilla Bean-Classic, Self explanatory

El Jefe-Mexican Chocolate and Dulce De Leche

Dulce de Loco-Dulce De Leche with Goat's Milk

Si Por Favor-Strawberries and Nutella!?!?!

So we got the El Jefe, and the Si Por Favor...The sugar layer had that perfect "crack" when you first broke into it, and the consistency was perfect in both brulees, which is very hard to do if you do not know how to bake ANY type of custard properly-Yes, I'm looking at you Hapa SF....

The Strawberry-Nutella combo sounded strange, but definitely worked and was our favorite of the two. I wished we had stopped there and ended on a high note, but we went to one last stop.....ALOHA!!!

YELP 365 CHALLENGE-(267/365) "Brulees To Go"

Really good creme brulee with some fun/unique flavors!
They are here 12-6 Monday-Saturday. Service was awesome.
Great place to come for an afternoon office break/snack :)

Still not overly impressed by these new flavors, though I was very tempted to try the s'mores one with graham cracker crumbles on top.

Vanilla - good for a classic flavor. A little overly sweet for me.

Chocolate - more of a dark chocolate flavor, more intense. But with the flavor being more intense, I expected the texture to be heavier & denser, which I didn't get.