With so many blog posts yet to write from our trip to Portland, I figured I’d enlist some help from my dessert loving wife Robyn and have her tell you all about our many visits to iconic Portland Ice Cream Shop, Salt & Straw. You can find her blog at Joyful Follies, when she has time to write again.

Enjoy!

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My husband may be the resident expert on all things pork-related but, when it comes to sweets, I reign supreme. This is probably why he has tasked me to write this blog on Portland ice cream maker, extraordinaire – Salt & Straw.

a rare, quiet moment at in ice cream heaven

On our first night in Portland, OR, we were wandering the streets around our hotel, when we noticed a large group of people congregating around one of the businesses.

As we got a bit closer, the congregation showed itself to be a line.

A few steps more and we discovered it was a line for ice cream!

I LOVE ICE CREAM!!!!

I looked up at Phil with a huge smile and eyes full of desire. He just shrugged his shoulders, looked at the line and kept walking. He, obviously, does not love ice cream nearly as much as I.

a hip queue

He’s right, I told myself. It was almost 10:30pm on a Sunday night, there was a huge line, we had already had a big dinner and big scoop of, surely, decadently rich ice cream would have kept me up sick for most of the night. I reminded myself that we would be there for a few more days and I would have plenty of time to try the cool, creamy goodness so I, too, walked on by.

But when we were finished our exploring and started making our way back to the hotel, we kept passing people with these overflowing cones of delicious-looking ice cream. My resolve held firm until we neared the open doorway of the ice cream shop again, and the smell of fresh-made waffle cones knocked me off my feet.

I planted myself at the end of that line, looked up at Phil and shrugged, “Sorry, Babe, I just gotta do it...”

And it proved to be the best decision of the entire trip (Until the net day when I decided to have it again. And the next day…and the day after that…).

There were several flavour options up for grabs and they were all unique in some way. By the end of our trip we had sampled every sigh-inducing one of them.

Decisions, decisions…

It never mattered how much I had already eaten that day, I always made sure to save room for another flavour from Salt & Straw… And though I always told myself I would save calories and money and just get my scoop in a cup, as soon as I was enveloped by the scent of warm waffle cones, I knew I had to have one.

hot off the press

the perfect vessels await

The Strawberry Honey Balsamic w/ Black Pepper was an early favourite, as was the surefire hit of Stumptown Coffee & Burnside Bourbon. The Cinnamon Snickerdoodle tasted just like (and also included chewy bits of) my favourite cookie, the Sea Salt w/Caramel was an obvious taste sensation and the Freckled Woodblock Chocolate was a luscious twist on an old standby.

mmm…late night, ice creamy goodness

But after several samplings, my overall favourite was the Almond Brittle w/Salted Ganache. There were many, large pieces of crunchy brittle and soft, gooey chunks of perfectly salted chocolate ganache throughout every cone I ordered. It was…divine.

And then, on our last day in Portland, those sneaky confectioners went and changed up the menu! The limited editions now included Hawaiian PB&J, Coconut Milk w/Cashew Brittle and Pandan, and something so surprising (and surprisingly yummy!) that I had to get it as my last cone of the trip…Mint w/Sea Urchin Merengue.

So my last day in Portland, I was eating a cone full of minty sea urchin roe and loving every lick!

How very hipster of me.

OK, so maybe not all that hipster of me at all