Creative flavor combinations
May. 5th, 2012 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasThis weekend is ROFLCon, the Internet Meme convention at MIT. Antoine Dobson, the Double Rainbow guy, LEEEEROOOY JENKINS, and dozens of other Internet-"famous" people are there as guests. Dozens of webcomics cartoonists. People whose photos have funny sayings in Impact fonts attached to them? They are there -- Scumbag Steve, Success Kid, folks like that.
Anyway, in honor of ROFLCon, local top-end ice cream store Toscanini's were challenged to create a flavor based on Nyan Cat.
The chefs at Tosci's decided to focus on two factors of Nyan Cat: rainbows, and strawberry pop tarts. As one would.
But the thing is -- they took it in a completely different direction than I would have thought about. They decided that the strawberry pop tarts were primarily a texture component, since pop tart pastry is actually pretty bland, and, as pastries go, pretty tough. The strawberry filling, when frozen, gets chewy. So they wanted to play off of the "strawberry" flavor, a little, but mainly with texture.
So, for "rainbow" . . . they went with those colored candy-coated fennel seeds that they have in dishes near the door at Indian restaurants. Which gave them a crunch component, and a fennel flavor. So, for the base, they used coconut sherbet.
The flavors, therefore: coconut, fennel, strawberry jam-type filling.
The textures: sherbet, candy-shell crunch, chilled-jam chewy, pastry thick-flaky.
It's REALLY good. The tastes blend pretty well, but it's the textures that really sell it for me.
In other thoughts, Lis turned to me this morning and said, "It's Cinco de Mayo, AND Derby Day. You should have invented a tequila julep."
I've been thinking about that, and I THINK it could work.
Anyway, in honor of ROFLCon, local top-end ice cream store Toscanini's were challenged to create a flavor based on Nyan Cat.
The chefs at Tosci's decided to focus on two factors of Nyan Cat: rainbows, and strawberry pop tarts. As one would.
But the thing is -- they took it in a completely different direction than I would have thought about. They decided that the strawberry pop tarts were primarily a texture component, since pop tart pastry is actually pretty bland, and, as pastries go, pretty tough. The strawberry filling, when frozen, gets chewy. So they wanted to play off of the "strawberry" flavor, a little, but mainly with texture.
So, for "rainbow" . . . they went with those colored candy-coated fennel seeds that they have in dishes near the door at Indian restaurants. Which gave them a crunch component, and a fennel flavor. So, for the base, they used coconut sherbet.
The flavors, therefore: coconut, fennel, strawberry jam-type filling.
The textures: sherbet, candy-shell crunch, chilled-jam chewy, pastry thick-flaky.
It's REALLY good. The tastes blend pretty well, but it's the textures that really sell it for me.
In other thoughts, Lis turned to me this morning and said, "It's Cinco de Mayo, AND Derby Day. You should have invented a tequila julep."
I've been thinking about that, and I THINK it could work.