Churn in Phoenix, AZ

Some places do the classics so well, they don’t need to do anything else. Churn is one of them. And they know it. Just check out this humble selection:

You can’t lose, but here are my thoughts on what’s best: 

Strawberry: Quite simply, this is the best strawberry I’ve ever had that wasn’t made by my own hand. This is the MUST TRY. 

Butter Pecan: Many capture the butter, but this one also captures the pecan as a flavor, not just a mix-in. Quite possibly the best butter pecan I've ever had.

Honorable mention: Double Chocolate and Malted Milk Chocolate, which are distinctly different and both more chocolate-y than your average brown ice cream claiming to be chocolate.

This Phoenix scoop shop fantastic. I wish I had the words to sell it better. I dunno...This has not been my best post, but after over 15 years I have spots I wish I'd blogged about and didn't. This is the one I think of the most.

For the Instagram set, I'm also a fan of Churn's decor, which like the menu is simple but elevated.

Parlor Doughnuts (located in multiple states)

Pictured: Cookies N' Cream, Cherry Cheesecake,
Coconut Cream, and Hibiscus Glazed

I have seen the future and it is Parlor Doughnuts. Just as Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams has grown from a humble Columbus, Ohio operation into a nationwide phenomenon, so will Parlor Doughnuts take over the USA. They are already off to a good start with locations in 13 states. Happily, I have eaten at them thrice: twice in Indiana (including their headquarters in Evansville) and once in Kentucky on my recent tour de south.

So what makes Parlor Doughnuts so special? Creative flavors, new spins on classics, and a donut design that is guaranteed to please.

What is this doughnut design, you ask? Beyond being gigantic, these doughnuts solve the cronut problem. Parlor Doughnuts makes layered doughnuts, fried to perfection with a crisp exterior and a flaky, doughy middle. Whatever they have done to seal the exterior successfully keeps the oil from seeping into the center--my biggest complaint with cronuts. They are neither a yeast doughnut nor a cake doughnut. Appearance-wise, Parlor's doughnuts are like croissants baked into a circle, whereas cronuts looked like doughnuts, only taller. And best of all: ALL of their doughnuts are made in this style, unlike cronuts which were always a specialty doughnut in short supply.

In my three visits to Parlor Doughnuts, I have tried a bunch of flavors: Strawberry Shortcake, Cookies N' Cream, Turtle, Coconut Cream Filled, Raspberry Pistachio, Hibiscus Glazed, Cherry Cheesecake, and their best seller, French Toast. Some of their doughnuts have filling, while others offer creative toppings. My favorites have been Hibiscus Glazed, which is their classic doughnut with no filling, and French Toast, which has cinnamon on top and layers of maple within. A lot of their flavors skew in the dessert column vs. the breakfast column, but for an occasional treat I will make an exception and eat dessert for breakfast.

Another cool thing is that each Parlor Doughnuts location has a unique logo. My only complaint is that the headquarters in Evansville, IN was out of their location-specific XL shirts.

Quick post: Four shops to try

Salt & Straw.

As time passes, there are four spots I wish I'd blogged about when it was fresh in my brain. Consider this humble post a small tribute to four places I hope to visit again so I can make good on a full-length post for each. Here they are, all different time zones!

Salt & Straw in Portland, OR - Ate there two or three times. Multiple varieties of chocolate and some weirdo flavors here, too, like Pear & Blue Cheese and Arbequina Olive Oil. They have locations in California now, too.

Churn.

Churn in Phoenix, AZ - When I went to Phoenix for work, a friend directed me here. Of the flavors offered, I only recall one of them being off the beaten path. Classics are the focus at Churn and they do them well, so well that Churn has earned a spot in the TOP 25 TO VISIT.

Betty Ringer Ice Cream in Dallas, TX - Betty Ringer hadn't been open long before the Dallas Observer named it the Best Ice Cream Shop in 2017. This one is actually fresh in my mind, but I feel I needed to visit multiple times to do it justice. Sadly, this was the last ice cream shop I stopped at after a week in Dallas!

Sister Pie.

Sister Pie in Detroit, MI - What I can tell you is I went for up for seconds...and I would have gone up for thirds if the store hadn't been closing for the day.

Top 5 Cookies-n-Cream Ice Creams

1.) Kopp’s Frozen Custard (Greater Milwaukee, WI) – Cookies-n-Cream

One day I will do a full post on the wonder that is Kopp’s Frozen Custard. In the meantime, the teaser is that theirs is the best Cookies-n-Cream I’ve had in my life. The bad news is, like most frozen custard places, they only do vanilla, chocolate and their flavors of the day. So Cookies-n-Cream is only available when it is one of their two special flavors of the day. I recall going to Kopp’s with my family and my aunt’s family in my youth , persuading my parents to let me order a triple scoop, finding chunks of whole Oreos within and my Dad and I being unable to finish it.

2.) Gelati Celesti (Richmond, VA) – Oreo

The bases of cookies and cream ice creams are either white (playing up the “cream” part of the name) or speckled with black cookie dust. Not this flavor, which is pure grey. The reason? The Oreos are blended completely into the base, not simply mixed in to a sweet cream base. Translation: the base tastes like Oreos, not cookies “in” cream. This explains why the flavor isn’t named Cookies-n-Cream…because it’s straight, undiluted Oreo. Gelati Celesti aren't the only ones to have this idea, but they perfected it.

3.) Golden Cow Creamery (Charlotte, NC) – Salted Oreo

I may be a foodie, but I generally find the trend of adding salt to desserts that never needed it before to be bougie nonsense. Sure, a little bit is science, but a lot bit is superfluous. But this flavor, Salted Oreo, made me eat my words and then lick the bowl. Adding salt to this Oreo ice cream created a completely new flavor, one I loved. When I ate at this spot in fall of last year, they had only been open a couple months and didn’t have enough flavors to fill their freezer yet. Once operating at full freezer capacity, I have no doubt, based on this and the others I tried, that their place on the Charlotte foodie map will be staked.

4.) Turkey Hill (grocery store) – Double Dunker

This paragraph previously appeared in “Top 5 Cookie Dough Ice Cream”

Years back, Ben & Jerry’s created Milk & Cookies, a mash-up of Cookies-n-Cream and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. It was simple and brilliant, but a combination not represented in grocery stores before then. Turkey Hill came up with their own twist on the idea (“Mocha ice cream swirled with chewy cookie dough and crunchy chocolate cookie swirl”) and created a superior product, which was no small effort given that Milk & Cookies ranks among one of the last of Ben & Jerry’s best flavors of recent years. Suffice to say, when a half gallon of Double Dunker is in the house it isn’t there for long. I consider it one of my Freezer Favorites.

5.) Josh & John’s (Colorado Springs, CO) - Colorado Cookies-n-Cream

A scoop shop of personal legend, I recall eating a Josh & John’s on a snowy winter day in the early 2000’s, marveling at how ice cream is good no matter the temperature and drawing in the snow on the outdoor picnic tables after. But mostly I recall their twist on Cookies-n-Cream. It was the first time I saw the base for a Cookies-n-Cream ice cream be chocolate. And, really, since the base is always ice cream, the “cream” part of cookies-n-cream is up for wider interpretation. The answer was there all along, waiting to be found. I doubt anywhere else refers to Cookies-n-Cream with a chocolate base “Colorado Cookies-n-Cream,” but I did for years because Josh & John’s was so tasty.

SLC Night: Dolcetti Gelato

I know, Open Hands. I too wish there was more.

Part of the series SLC: Morning, Noon & Night.

• • •

"Taste it. I think you'll find it's a bit of a revelation."

I took the sample spoon of Lime-Basil Sorbetto from the friendly poet behind the counter. Indeed, the flavor seemed to reveal new taste buds and revive dormant ones, as if my mouth had been transformed from a studio apartment into a high-ceilinged cathedral. I wanted more. I needed more. He continued, "It's like a mojito with basil instead of mint." I don't want to drink it, I thought. I want to eat it by the shovel-full.

Italian 101: The "ce" in dolcetti is
pronounced "cheh", like "Chet."

Studying the display case, it was immediately clear that Dolcetti Gelato was much more than I expected. (One can be a little hoity-toity about gelato after a trip to Italy, even if that trip was five years ago.) Their flavors ranged from oddball (Jalapeño Chocolate) and uncommon (Lavender Honey) to simple (Blueberry Lemon sorbetto) and classic (Hazelnut). The only problem was the limit of two flavors per cup, which is both frustrating to a glutton who wants to eat everything he can and sensible to a connoisseur who wants to get a clear, uncontaminated understanding of the flavors tried. I settled on Coconut Sticky Rice gelato to go with my Lime-Basil Sorbetto, a combination both the gelato poet behind the counter and I agreed was a delightfully Thai combination.

I considered taking up
residence in this nest.

In addition to offering a fantastic product that mixed the contemporary with the classic, the place also featured a mishmash of contemporary decor. I wasn't sure whether it was a sleek café lovingly adorned with hipster flair or the other way around. My favorite parts were the showcase tables full of trinkets and an enormous metal bird's nest chandelier. This would be a great place to sit for an evening, playing Bananagrams with friends between bowls of gelato.

They also offered little sweets--dolcetti--like pastries and imported chocolate, all of which made me wish my stomach joined my mouth in suddenly feeling bigger. Much bigger. One shovel-full of Lime-Basil Sorbetto was not enough.

After I tried Jalapeño Chocolate, I was offered a palate cleanser.
Just another reason to love Dolcetti Gelato.

Dolcetti Gelato was easily the stand-out among frozen desserts downtown. I also tried the old fashioned Leatherby's Family Creamery and the island-themed Tropical Dreams Hawaiian Creamery. For dinner in Salt Lake City, I'd point you to Cucina Toscana where I received truly memorable service to go with an exquisite special: Halibut Umido, halibut in tomato-basil sauce with scallops, shrimp, squid and clams. Be warned, though: when SLC restaurants advertise that they closes at 10, it means the kitchen closes at 9. Take note.

SLC Noon: Les Madeleines

In Salt Lake City, Kouing is king.

 Part of the series SLC: Morning, Noon & Night.

• • •

Shortly after arriving at my hotel in Salt Lake City, I ran out to grab some food. My first stop was Les Madeleines Patisserie and Café. Upon entering, it was very clear that this French bakery had more than few items that I wanted to take home with me. (I believe the phrase vous le vous coucher avec moi, ce soi? is appropriate, oui?) But the pastry du jour was to be their famed Kouing Aman.

"I'll have the one I can't pronounce."

Crispy on the outside with caramelized sugar and airy/chewy on inside, I knew from my first bite that this was one of the best pastries I've eaten in my life. Pronounced kween ah-MAHN, it is no wonder that this treat national treasure has won awards and has been featured of the Food Network. It has a Food Network price attached to it as well, but, trust me, when the person behind the counter asks how many you want, do not say "just one." Once you taste it, you'll join me in bowing to the Kouing.

While you're in the area, I recommend checking out the roof of  nearby City Library. It offers a lovely view of the city and the surrounding mountains. You may also want lunch, so walk north up nearby State Street--Yes! A street with a name instead of a number!--to Alamexo. Their Cochinita Pibil (achiote & bitter orange marinated pork shoulder, cooked in banana leaf, served with habanero pickled escabeche) was extraordinary and their free chips and salsa were the best I've ever had.


Other mid-day pastries I consumed were a chocolate chip coconut macadamia cookie from Tony Caputo's Market & Deli--so much yum in one city--and the vanilla liege waffle from the Belgiumphilic hole-in-the-wall Bruges Waffles & Frites. But the Kouing Aman at Les Madeleines was far and away my favorite. As for the other restaurants I tried, check out SLC Night.

SLC Morning: Vosen's

In the left-hand display case, Nusskipferl is top-left
and Plunderschnecke is top, second from right.

Part of the series SLC: Morning, Noon & Night.

• • •

Looking in the display case, my eyes and my stomach were at a stalemate. The woman behind the counter said, in a German accent, that I could take my time.

The pastries at Vosen's are huge. 1980s mobile phone huge. Hollow it out for your toddler to use as Crocs huge. And they all looked delectable. I needed to phone a friend.

I confided in the polite German woman. I told her I'd narrowed it down, but couldn't decide. I knew I was getting the apricot jelly croi-liner (croissant/berliner hybrid AKA cronut, were the name not trademarked), but couldn't decide between the plunderschnecke (custard-filled spiral pastry) and the nusskipferl (hazelnut croissant).

Danke schön, Vosen's!

"That is a tough decision," she agreed. "You like custard?"

"Yeah."

"You like hazelnut?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm...You choose one and I'll throw in the other."

This is where indecision and high tipping meet.

Each of the pastries were good in their own way. The apricot jelly croiliner, while the smallest, was enough for breakfast by itself. It was more oily than a doughnut (on account of its flaky, absorbent layers), but the jelly and custard cut through really well. The nusskipferl was a dense pastry filled with hazelnut butter/paste that consistency-wise was somewhere between peanut butter and the marzipan that often fills almond croissants. It put more emphasis on the hazelnut flavor than it did being sugar-y sweet. The dough of the plunderschneke, my favorite, was also dense and yellow. There were bites where the custard was the main event and others where the custard moistened the dough until the two flavors blended together.

Apricot jelly croi-liner.

I wish I had more days in Salt Lake City to come back and try more of the pastries at Vosen's, even branch out into something savory. It definitely was my pick for best breakfast pastry.

In addition to selling breads and pastries, Vosen's also features a small market of imported items, including Ritter Sport chocolate bars, Kinder products and Biscoff brand speculoos spread.

For breakfast pastry downtown, I also tried the très chic Eva's Bakery and the more traditional Banbury Cross Donuts, as well as those I mention in SLC Noon. While both of these were good, I feel Vosen's is the better bet downtown. I had hoped to try a Cherry Limeade doughnut at Beyond Glazed, but unfortunately their downtown location closed. If you are looking for more of a savory and sweet brunch experience, may I recommend the chicken and waffles at Pig & Jelly Jar. Be sure to use both the syrup and the hot sauce.

SLC: Morning, Noon & Night

View from atop SLC's City Library.

Welcome to Salt Lake City! Home to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Utah Jazz and uneven sidewalks that are shaved down to accommodate people in wheelchairs!

People here are nice, reeeeeally nice. Even the beggars are polite! It makes sense. Standing in the valley that is downtown and seeing the mountains in every direction, it's no wonder why Brigham Young said to the other LDS pioneers, "This is the place" and settled.

Buildings in foreground are
all part of Temple Square.

Though the streets are wide--wide enough for a horse and wagon to turn around--and the buildings spread out, it is a walkable downtown...if you have a map and the patience of a (latter-day) saint. The city is a grid (easy to follow) where street names are numbers (good so far) based on their relation to the Mormon church's Temple Square (okaaay), meaning there's a 300 N, 300 S, 300 W and 300 E (oh, no) and that intersections have names like E 900 South & S 900 East (please, no) and addresses are like numerical torture devices, 425 South 300 West (make it stop!). To make matters easier(?), locals have nicknamed the streets with shorthand names; E 900 South & S 900 East are referred to as 9th S & 9th E. (Kill me.)

Pictured: the thin line between
healthy curiosity and obsession.

Not only does Salt Lake City have friendly locals and a gorgeous, pedestrian-friendly downtown, but it also features fantastic dining options. Like any good culinary tourist, I did my research beforehand, pouring over articles, review sites and blogs searching for destinations for my Stomach (praise be unto It). Having tried multiple food items at over a dozen of SLC's highest reviewed places, I've narrowed it down to your best bets for both dessert and meals.

Check back here for three more posts covering the best of Salt Lake City: Morning, Noon & Night!

L to R: Pig & Jelly Jar's Chicken and Waffles
Alamexo's Cochinita Pubil and Cucina Tosacna's Halibut Umido

Ep.2: A Growl of Approval

My dad and I's cross country drive brought us from Seattle to North Bend to Grand Coullee Dam to Yellowstone by way of Missoula, Montana.
---
 
My friend in food Aimee has been immortalized for my family and friends because of her recommendations of a delicious nature.* On my recent trip through Yellowstone, I was able to test another of Aimee's tried-and-true.

Big Dipper's in Missoula, Montana offers unique, homemade ice cream at a walk-up stand. The young woman behind the sliding glass window smiled as my father and I took our time deciding what flavors to try on our once-in-a-lifetime trip through Missoula, even though it was 9pm and we were standing in falling snow...The smile faded as it became clear from the passage of time the life-or-death importance of our decision. Finally, I chose the winning combination of cardamom with huckleberry and, while the girl scooped mine up, Dad settled on Mexican chocolate. Each stood out as the best possible choice.

Also featured at Big Dipper's was an 87 oz. five flavor tub known as The Growler. The image featured the same boy from their vintage-looking sign--Great cones! Oh boy!--wearing what looked to me like a Sasquatch costume. During the remainder of my stay, however, I learned that Missoula is home to University of Montana, whose mascot is the Grizzly.

Following the collegiate theme, my stomach roared with approval after finishing my scoops as well as my dad's. And I'm not ashamed to say it: The mixture of cardamom, huckleberry and Mexican chocolate made for an enjoyable burping experience.

Thanks for another great recommendation, Aimee!

*Her most famous example has been Southern Kitchen in Tacoma, WA, home of the best southern cookin' I've had outside of my native region. Everything there is incredible! Everything! You'll get there, order a mason jar of strawberry lemonade along with your entree, which comes with three sides and a corncake, and stuff yourself silly. But it is imperative that you still get their award-winning peach cobbler! Yes, you're full but you'll thank me later.