At Pops, everything on the menu is a clever reinterpretation of classic American comfort dishes — try chicken wings with a spicy sambal glaze ($7.50) instead of Buffalo wings, or truffled gnocchi with bacon ($14) instead of macaroni-and-cheese. Thus, you might expect what’s described on the menu as “Tempura Snickers Bar” to be a modified and modernized dissection of a candy bar. A peanut croquant in a cocoa-scented tempura batter with a caramel foam, perhaps. But in this case, the dish is exactly what the menu describes.
We all know what a Snickers bar is: salty roasted peanuts covered in soft caramel and coated in milk chocolate. Add to this a crisp but none-too-light deep-fried coating, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and drizzle the whole thing with buttery caramel, and you’ve got what is possibly the most indulgently sweet and gooey dessert ever conceived. Did I mention the Snickers bar is cut in half lengthwise to increase the amount of fried tempura batter you can fit on it? If the banana semifreddo that comes on the side sounds like it might cleanse your palate of the thick, sugary, chocolatey coating the warm candy bar’s left behind, think again. Made with rich mascarpone cheese, the semifreddo is the perfect partner for this double-whammy of extravagance. This one should come with a disclaimer — “Warning: reckless enjoyment of empty calories ahead.”
Available for $7 at Pops, 560 Tremont Street, in Boston. Call 617.695.1250.