The Crab Meat Eclair That Took Berlin Fine-Diners By Storm

Desserts have become more inventive over time, especially in the fine dining world. And with more innovation comes more exploration — whether executing a new version of an old classic, dreaming up something entirely new, or finding ways to creatively implement surprising ingredients into a dessert to offer an updated version.

Some of those ingredients defy everything we believe dessert to be. Dessert implies a sweet course at the end of a meal. When that last dish is placed in front of us at a fancy restaurant or a tasting menu experience, we expect something sugary, chocolatey, creamy, or pastry-based. What we don't expect is seafood.

Sure, savory elements in a dessert are nothing new and often welcomed. Like apple pie made with cheddar cheese for a complementary sharpness or cakes that use herbs like rosemary and basil for added flavor depth. But seafood? Indeed seafood doesn't belong in a dessert ... or does it?

This past summer, the sustainable seafood importer Fish Klub in Berlin, Germany, opened a pop-up fine dining restaurant that featured Mexican-influenced seafood dishes. Chef Francisco Hernandez, who runs the popular seafood market, served fresh, seasonal dishes like shrimp tostadas, aguachile, and yes — crab eclairs for dessert.

Hernandez told The Takeout that once he came up with the idea, it took him nearly a month to get it right — and he almost gave up. He married fresh, slightly sweet, shredded spider crab claw meat with French pastry and a cream filling and brought it all together with fresh yuzu. "They're intrigued at the beginning," the chef said of curious restaurant-goers tasting the dessert, "but amazed after the first bite."

Part of Hernandez's inspiration for the seafood sweet came from a shrimp-flavored ice cream he had in Mexico. If people can enjoy shrimp ice cream, they'd certainly give a crab-stuffed pastry a chance, right? Right. It turns out most diners weren't afraid to try the concoction, and Fish Klub's inventive eclair was a huge hit.

You'd be surprised what you can find hidden within popular sweets around the world. And if you can get past the mental block of eating something your brain tells you shouldn't be in a dessert for dessert, these crazy savory sweets might just be worth a try.

Like tavuk göğsü, a creamy, pudding-like Turkish sweet made with chicken breast (yes, you read that correctly). And this one's a bit shocking: veriohukainen, popular in Scandinavia, is an eerily red pancake made with milk, sugar ... and pig's blood, and it's usually served with a sweet jam.

Sticking with the seafood-in-desserts theme, an Irish dish called carrageen pudding is a thick, jelly-like dessert made with dried and rehydrated Irish moss seaweed. And there's more where that shrimp ice cream came from — like the fish sauce caramel ice cream from chef Jenny Dorsey and the oyster ice cream served at Palette in San Francisco.