Fillings and Emulsions, SLC Airport

Airports.   Definitely not where anyone expects to find good dining, let alone high quality desserts and baked goods.  And yet, I found just that, in the Salt Lake City airport of all places.  At a little shop next to a Panda Express (which, don't get me wrong, I do kinda love, but, isn't exactly setting a high end vibe).

Now, my "discovery" wasn't exactly accidental.  I did a brief amount of research when I saw that I'd have a very short connection in the Salt Lake City airport, and one place, Fillings and Emulsions, sprang right to the top of the list.  While it was fairly new in the airport, the main location, in downtown Salt Lake, somehow had a perfect 5 stars on Yelp, even with nearly 1000 ratings.  That doesn't happen by fluke.

I looked at the online menu for Fillings & Emulsions, and I was totally and completely sold.  I knew that my layover must include a stop there.  Of course, things went awry when my inbound aircraft was very delayed, and I feared I wouldn't make my connection at all, let alone not have time to seek out the goods.  I still managed to literally run from one plane to the other, with a <2 minute stop to pick up goodies at Fillings & Emulsions (miraculously, no line!).  I really wished I could have had a bit more time to actually browse and make better decisions, but I was thrilled I succeeded at all.  I also had no time to even snap a photo of the shop, sorry, but, they had beautiful patisserie style glass displays, and everything, really, everything, looked as good as I had seen online.  Again, I say, it does not look like it belongs in an airport food court.

I don't even care much for macarons, but I was even tempted to try theirs - the unique flavors and fillings alone made them worthy of a try.  And of all things, they seemed most likely able to survive a bit of transit.  The savory creations also really called out - puff pastry wrapped hand pies, in a variety of flavors, including their play on a cubano.  If I had any extra time, I would have gotten one of those - I'm certain it would have been better than my onboard meal.  I didn't think I had the time though, as they weren't a grab n go item.  With a bit more thought, I also probably would have picked one of the viennoiserie, because, zomg, they had a dulce de leche stuffed cruffin, guava cream pastries, kouign amann ... literally, all the best things, but, it was late in the day, and I wasn't sure how fresh they'd be by then.  Those items also seemed maybe a bit too messy to eat on my flight?  And then there were the stunning tarts (I know, not what you normally hear me rave about, but, they had beautiful torched meringue!), and custards (flan, pots de creme, panna cotta) ... and cheesecakes, and individual cakes.  OMG.  The custards were my top choice, but, alas, they weren't available for a quick grab either.

My choices were fairly odd ones for me, but, I made very rushed decisions, opted for the quick to grab items, and also wanted items that would keep a day or two if I needed (I had a cooler bag with ice packs with me of course!).  My treats were beautiful, and they definitely got the attention of the flight crew and my seat mate, all of whom wanted to know where on earth I got such elaborate creations.   I liked them, and could certainly tell the quality of the bakery, but I'd like to visit again and pick items that I'd be even more likely to enjoy.  You know, next time I'm in the Salt Lake City airport ...

Petit Gâteaux

The Petit Gâteaux section of the menu is perhaps the most extensive (besides the slew of unique macarons that is).  Most of the items had caffeine - a beautiful triple chocolate mousse cake, a chocolate decadence (flourless chocolate cake with chocolate mouse!), classic tiramisu, or a double chocolate roll, and I didn't want caffeine to make my impending jetlag even worse, so that limited me considerably.  

Interestingly, it was one of the roll cakes that called out to me.  Yeah, a roll cake.  The girl who never really cares for cake (I mean, its fine, but, why ever pick cake when there are other dessert options?).  Oh, and to make it even more surprising, the roll cakes are all gluten-free too.  Why would I gravitate towards that?  Roll cakes come in 3 flavors: the aforementioned double chocolate, a pineapple yuzu one, or, the one that jumped out at me, the tres leches.  I assure you, this was no standard tres leches though.

Tres Leches. $6.30. 

"Tres Leches soaked gluten free sponge, rolled with homemade strawberry preserve wrapped in Chantilly cream. Glazed and topped with torched meringue and white chocolate."

As I mentioned, I don't normally go for cake, particularly when there were soooo many great other options, but, this looked really good.  I was definitely drawn in by the very generous strawberry and chantilly cream filling, and the mirror glaze and white chocolate ... and I had been craving tres leches randomly.

I liked this, but, it wasn't quite what I was expecting.  First, I really didn't get much tres leches vibes from it.  The cake was moist, and there was lots of cream elements, but, I  wouldn't have recognized it as a tres leches, as it lacked the strong signature sweetened condensed milk element. The cake was fairly average white cake, but at least didn't seem gluten-free or have an odd consistency as can often happen with gluten-free items.

The strawberry element was strong - this really was a fruity dessert.  While it was a thin layer, the strawberry preserves inside was quite sweet and fruity, and definitely the dominant flavor.  The cream inside was also lightly strawberry flavored, and I think the glaze was too? You needed to be in the mood for strawberry to enjoy this.  

I liked the white chocolate decoration and crispy balls, but mine didn't seem to have any of the described torched meringue?  I think that would have been a nice element.

Overall, this was good - cream, cake, fruit all fine - but not remarkable, and I really wanted some actual fresh fruit with it.  Far above average for a roll cake, don't get me wrong, but not extraordinary.  ***+.

Cheesecake

Fillings and Emulsions offers up 3 cheesecakes, none of which are remotely traditional.  In fact, they do *not* have a standard, simple, plain New York, nor Italian, nor even a trendy Basque cheesecake.  Nope, the cheesecakes are all quite elaborate, and very much not plain.  I do like cheesecake, but, I'll admit that none of them sounded very good to me.  Perhaps it is because I had just had cheesecake a few days prior, but mostly, because the options were not ones I was that drawn by: chocolate raspberry (I like both these things alone, but, rarely as cheesecake), passionfruit key lime (I love passion fruit, but, usually it winds up pretty fake tasting, and I really don't care for key lime), and, key lime (again, key lime).  But the key lime cheesecake is their top item, a signature, and I decided to just take a gamble.  I was getting two items after all, if I hated it, hopefully the tres leches would still work out?

Key Lime Cheesecake.  $6.55.

"Lime cheesecake wrapped in key lime pie filling, glazed and topped with Meyer lemon gelee and Chantilly cream. The number one seller."

Even if I don't like key lime, and even if I didn't really want cheesecake, I mean, look at this!  Again the glaze, the chantilly cream, the elaborate decoration!  What a beautiful item.  And, from an airport?  I mean, really.

The whipped cream on top looked a bit much, but actually was a nice balance to the rest of the dessert.  The crispy pearls were obviously a stunning decorative element, but they also added to it, I liked having the bit of crunch too.  The cheesecake actually had no real base, just a very thin layer that I barely noticed, and so these were really the only not creamy element.  While I don't love graham cracker bases used in traditional cheesecake, I did find myself wanting something for texture, something other than just different cream and rich elements.  I think a macadamia or coconut based crust would go wonderfully with the lime ...

Speaking of the lime, yes, there was no doubt this is a lime based dessert.  The gelee wrapping it, technically Meyer lemon I guess, was very strong in the slightly sour, slightly acidic, slightly tart, standard citrus realm.  Meyer lemon usually is a touch sweet and more tart I thought?  This really tasted more like lime, or regular lemon, to me.

Key Lime Cheesecake: Inside.

And then, inside, more lime.

In the center, the cheesecake.  It was smooth, it was creamy, and it was very much lime cheesecake.  I somehow thought the center would be perhaps regular cheesecake, and that I'd taste more of the cream cheese aspect, but, this was very lime-y.  Good lime cheesecake, but yes, very lime.

Around the cheesecake, almost hard to notice that it was a separate component, was another lime layer, the "key lime pie filling".  More creamy lime-ness.  Perhaps a touch more curd-like, a touch less cream cheese, but pretty similar in both flavor and consistency to the cheesecake.

This item was basically lime on lime on lime.  Cream on cream on cream.  It was good, but, much like the previous one you had to want strawberry, this one you really had to want lime.  I enjoyed it more once I added some fresh blackberries to bring a bit of balance.  I really did want some kind of texture too.

I probably wouldn't get it again as I'm not wild about lime, but it was a really nicely made item, and I liked it more than any other lime dessert in memory.  ****.