ColumnArtisanal ice cream gone wrong.

Salted caramel ice cream. Orange coriander ice cream. Sweet summer corn buttermilk sherbert.

The whole put-anything-you-can-find-and-see-if-it-works-in-ice-cream-trend is tasty at times, edgy at best, but has become so ubiquitous that off-color flavors rarely merit a reaction.

That was until I saw the geoduck ice cream sign.

I was driving home to my parents’ house, a big yellow house nestled somewhere between some trees and a few salt water bays in the Puget Sound. I had taken the backroads to avoid traffic, which entailed driving through a quaint, waterfront town of Allyn. There is a knitting store that we go to in the winter, a burger joint in the summer and a small dock to walk on. A good afternoon excursion on the days when you need to spice up country life.

Windows down, music blaring I slowed down to the required 35 miles per hour and took in the sea salt air of home. I was going slow enough that the sign was hard to miss.

“Geo Duck Ice Cream.” Right below the “Fresh Peach Sunda.” Who needs the “y” anyway?

I’m sorry… what?

I was tired of driving and didn’t have the energy to turn around, but I was so shocked that anyone would ever dare make ice cream out of Washington State’s most treasured/hated shellfish that I made a mental note of the sign, and told myself that before the week was up I would have to return.

For those who aren’t well versed on the geoduck, it’s a shellfish that happens to be the largest bivalve along Puget Sound. In laymen’s terms: it has a three foot-long neck and looks pretty gross. But we kind of have a thing for them up in Washington. A sort of love/hate affair. The Chinese certainly love them, which means they’re good for the economy, and Evergreen State College thinks they’re so great that they’ve even made mascot status.

A Washington native, I had personally never tried one. But this was the summer of “just say yes” policy. It’s a travel policy that I try to stick to, even when travel means returning to my home state. And of course, even when it means tasting geoduck ice cream. Fortunately my good friend Dave had come up for the weekend, and as my regular co-host of dinner parties and lover of all things food related, I knew he had to be up for the challenge.

“I am so glad you wanted to go do this with me,” I said, after parking in Allyn and walking up to the small Olympic Mountain Ice Cream shop.

“I didn’t say I wanted to do this,” he responded.

Right.

It should be noted that when you walk into an ice cream shop featuring geoduck ice cream with two cameras in hand, it’s sort of obvious what you want to order.

“Oh, there’s the cream kind and a sorbet,” I said, wondering why in God’s name you would make two variations of the stuff.

“Well, the cream based one is a stronger one. A really strong geoduck taste with butter. That’s what we recommend for people that really like geoduck.” said the young woman working behind the ice cream counter. I tried hard not to visibly shudder. “The other one has a really good lime taste and is a little lighter because it’s a sorbet,” she continued. “You really should test both.”

And that was how Dave and I came to be standing with test spoons of geoduck ice cream and sorbet.

A normal person would of course try the samples, pat themselves on the back, kindly say “that was interesting, but I think I am good,” and continue on their merry way. Not in my case. I was just off a week of picking backyard blackberries, muddling them with basil simple syrup and baking almond, cardamom, red currant scones for breakfast. I had to switch things up. You can only go the mason jar and sea salt route for so long.

“Well, we have to get a full scoop… it is what we came here to do,” I looked at Dave somehow trying to coax some encouragement from him.

“Ok, fine, a cup,” he said.

$2.71 later and we had ourselves a styrofoam (I know, I know) cup of lime geoduck sorbet. The things you do for a culinary experience.

If you’re wondering what geoduck sorbet tastes like, it’s simple: a delightful, zesty dose of sweet lemon, lime flavor, followed by a really weird infusion of chewy geoduck, which really just tastes like a bad clam. No really, it’s sorbet with small pieces of geoduck in it. As Dave put it after we both agreed that despite our hatred of food waste, we simply couldn’t finish the thing, “I only had one meal, I really should have been able to eat more of that.”

Appropriate solution to geoduck sorbet? Big Bubba’s Burgers of course, an institution in the town of Allyn. As we walked, I spit out a piece of geoduck that had lodged itself in my teeth. Traveling is a funny thing, causing even the most devoted kale and quinoa addict to  order a sorbet and then opt to follow up with the “Western,” a burger with barbecue sauce, fried onions and pepperjack. Dave added bacon. We got a small order of fries.

We walked down to the water and took in the salt air.

“Geoduck sorbet followed by this? I am totally going to puke later,” I said.

“Yeah, but at least you’ll have a column,” he responded.

And a renewed sense of why I don’t like shellfish in my ice cream, or sorbet for that matter, but a reminder of why I love coming home. It’s real. Not upscale. Not serving a new crazy dish because that’s what they read on about on a food blog. Just sort of off-the-wall local food that’s worth eating at least once in life, because it gives you a sense of the place. The kind of thing that we’re all somehow looking for, right?

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

The post Foodie Underground: Would You Like a Scoop of Geoduck Ice Cream? appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now. 

Politicians are duking it out for the “woman vote” this election season. Since when did the entire female gender constitute a special interest group? [via The Daily Muse]

If you’re not so keen on Mother’s Day bouquets after reading our investigative piece on the flower trade, try your hand at a DIY terrarium instead. [via Casa Sugar]

Bamboo bikes: a low-cost solution to the world’s transportation problems? [via Mashable]

How fair trade fashion label Afia embraces the maxim “form follows action” with their work in Ghana. [via HAND/EYE Magazine]

Kale… quinoa… avocado… this college chef speaks our language. [via Small Kitchen College]

Artisanal craft has gone mainstream, but has it lost its meaning? An ethical fashion columnist investigates with a case study of the “Made In Italy” label. [via GOOD]

Image: store.obama.com

The post Link Love: Transportation and Terrariums appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnArtisanal ice cream is keeping the summer streets hot.

It’s June, which means you’ve only got one thing on the mind: summer (or at least that’s what I spend my time daydreaming about as we approach the equinox). Long days, dinner parties in the garden and plenty of warm weather drinks. Seasonal bliss to the max.

So let’s talk food. Take a moment and imagine a hot, sweltering summer day. Then think of the most iconic American food image that comes to mind. What is it? Better say ice cream. But what was once a classic has taken an underground turn, being infused with lavender, mixed with beer and topped with sea salt, making it a go-to classic with an artisanal twist, perfect for the foodie summer you’re about to embark on.

I remember my first time at Bi-Rite in San Francisco, where salted caramel reigns and the definition of artisanal ice cream was practically created. A staple of the Mission District, the line around the block sort of says it all: San Franciscan locals and tourists alike are obsessed with artisanal ice cream. And they’re not alone.

Ice cream is so hot on the foodie list, that hip new shops can’t even stay open because of ice cream mavens eating up all the inventory. That’s the case in Brooklyn where Ample Hills Creamery, which boasts a handmade Stout ‘n’ Pretzels blend, had to shut down four days after it opened. Apparently that’s how long it takes to sell out of 130 gallons of homemade frozen cream.

Last week in London you could score a cone on a floating ice cream truck, the HMS Flake 99, putting the ingenuity of most food carts to shame, while in Portland, Salt & Straw embodies the “farm to cone” ideal, whipping up batches of ice cream with local ingredients like Rogue Creamery Blue Cheese and Olympic Provisions charcuterie. A calm spoonful of exotic green tea ice cream? Compared to the creative combinations of this summer, that seems so early 2000’s.

Forget the organic, specialty flavor pint cartons at your local co-op though; when it comes to ice cream, any self-respecting foodie is buying it from the source, or local markets. At Ashland Farmers Market you can pick up a pint of Chocolate Oatmeal Stout from Artik Creamery and at the Brooklyn Flea Market you’ll find yourself drooling over shaved ice from People’s Pops, flavored with syrupy goodness like organic lemon and rhubarb cinnamon.

And if ice cream stands are too mainstream for you, there’s always ice cream from the back of a tricycle. Still not sure about investing over a few bucks a cone? All you need is a good how-to guide (snark included) for how to best enjoy the artisanal treat.

Of course the ultimate in artisanal anything is mastering it yourself. Start with sorbet, which entails a whole lot less work and really only requires a freezer. My current “must try” recipe comes from Food & Wine:

Sour Cherry Lambic Sorbet

Ingredients:

1. 3 cups pitted sour cherries (18 ounces)
2. 3/4 cup Sugar Syrup
3. 1 cup cherry lambic beer

Instructions:

1. In a blender, puree the cherries until smooth. Stir in the Sugar Syrup and the cherry lambic beer. Pour the sorbet base into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
2. Pack the sour-cherry lambic sorbet into a plastic container. Press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the sorbet and close the container with an airtight lid. Freeze until firm, 4 hours.

Then again, maybe artisanal ice cream is just the new cupcake, and after we gorge ourselves on too many blends of cream, eggs, sugar and ice, we’ll be desperately hoping that those smarter than us will be putting the recipes to good use, like fighting terrorism. But for now, let’s just enjoy that cone of bacon-java-sea salt bliss.

It’s good. I swear.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: Anna Brones

The post Foodie Underground: We All Scream for Artisanal Ice Cream appeared first on EcoSalon.