Best Thing I Ate This Month: The Budino Caramel Pudding at Folietta

My boss, Anicka Quin, showed up to our Monday morning editorial meeting a few months back with stars in her eyes, downright giddy. She’d visited the buzzy new Italian spot Folietta over the weekend, and, days later, the budino (a type of Italian caramel pudding) was still on her mind. This was a woman in love.

I was intrigued. Everything she was describing—chocolate toffee chunks, light-as-air whipped cream, a beautiful balance of salty and sweet—seemed right up my alley. Could this be the dish that turned around my opinion of pudding? I traditionally have not been a fan (chalk it up to an unfortunate meal as a teen that involved a warm custard and a head cold), but in the interest of normalizing being wrong, of opening myself up to new experiences, I had to try it for myself. Self-improvement, you know?

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Putting myself out there—or, rather, up there on a stool at the busy bar in the jam-packed east-side space—proved to be as delicious as Anicka had promised. The budino al caramello features a pleasantly firm and creamy salted caramel base that is taken to new heights by fluffy Chantilly cream and the crunch of a generous sprinkle of almond roca. It’s the perfect, satisfying, textural treat to cap off a great meal… or for ordering a second helping to reward yourself for being such a brave dessert-sampler. 1480 Nanaimo St., folietta.com