In an article in the New York Times magazine, there’s a lovely picture of a plate of…something. In the center of the plate, there is an oval of green that could be some of kind of jell or anemic guacamole. This oval of green rests on four (?) white balls that appear to have been rolled in crumbs. Surrounding the white balls and the green oval are three curled bits that resemble beef jerky or some kind of edible leather. The finishing touches—a nest of swirled green stands on top of the oval and to one side of the plate, two splashes of something dark as blood.

What could this be?, you might wonder, and I wondered the very same thing when I first saw the picture. Readers, this is dessert, created by New York pastry chef Brooks Headley. However,“ ‘I don’t think of myself as a pastry chef, exactly,’ the 38-year-old Headley says. ‘I just make food that happens at the end of the meal.’”

And what happened with this dessert I just described? Well, the green oval with the nest is celery “sorbet with a little dressed celery salad”; the white balls are “goat-cheese-mousse balls coated with olive-oil-sautéed bread crumbs”; the leather, “macerated figs with balsamic vinegar.” The two splashes of something dark as blood? The article’s writer—who just happens to be Mark Bittman—didn’t say, but I’m guessing it’s balsamic vinegar.

Would I try this dessert, if given the chance? Sure, I would. It’s odd, but none of the ingredients are really that far out. Mark Bittman says it’s “incredible,” and I’m inclined to believe him.

Would it be something I would eagerly order for dessert after a good meal? Since I haven’t actually tasted the celery sorbet concoction, I can’t really say for sure, but my guess is that it wouldn’t be my first, second, or even third choice for dessert.

One reader’s comments sums it up perfectly for me: “Why does this look like the dejected remnants of a dessert rather than a lusty dessert itself? The tongue, I assure you, does not easily tire…”

I’ll take this one step further: In our house, except for ice cream, dessert is not common. We do not always have a tin filled with, say, chocolate chip cookies or brownies at the ready for whenever the urge for something sweet hits us. Much as I like making apple and blueberry pies, there usually isn’t a pie just tucked in the cupboard on top of the plates. (My resting place for pies.)

We have desserts on special occasions—for holidays, for birthdays, for when company comes for dinner, and because we have them somewhat infrequently, “the tongue does not easily tire…” Just the reverse, the tongue eagerly awaits a “lusty dessert,” and celery sorbet with a little dressed celery salad somehow seems a little, well, anticlimactic.

So please, just give me dessert—chocolate cream pie, mousse, apple crisp, lemon squares, cheese cake, strawberry short cake.  The list is long. And save the celery sorbet for an in-between kind of course, maybe even for a salad.