Tacos, Tacos, Tacos!

 

Tacos, tacos, tacos!!!  Betsy here. What a joy it was to be back in the Twin Cities with my dear friends with discriminating tastes!  We had lots to celebrate (the soon-to-be arrival of Baby Cameron, Ameigh's birthday!, and my all-too-quick visit home), and what better way to do so than by STUFFING ourselves with Tacos!  We seriously ate a LOT.

To get you in the right mindset for our taco tasting, I recommend you watch this video from Peelander Z - because this is EXACTLY how our evening felt: http://youtu.be/9EvhRaqzMPY.

(OK - for those of you that watched that video - A: you're awesome. B: Peelander Z is amazing, C: all those taco places are in Austin, TX!  Which is where I live now. And also, yes we had human-sized squid bowling at our tasting too... the photos just didn't quite turn out.)

AHEM! Back to business.  We each picked up a chicken taco (the simplest house special) from a local Twin Cities eatery. Obviously, we couldn't represent ALL the delicious tacos available in the TC and there are many renowned tacos left off this list, but I think overall, we had a really good sampling of styles. Here's where our eatins came from:

• El Toro- St. Paul (Plato & Robert)
• El Taco Riendo - Northeast Minneapolis
• Adelita's Mexican Restaurant - Northeast Minneapolis
• Rusty Taco (inappropriate giggling!) - St. Paul (Lexington/Randolph)... we tried both the fried and fajita
• La Loma - Minneapolis (South Minneapolis and Midtown Global Market)
• Los Ocampo - Minneapolis and St. Paul locations
• Chipotle - Across the U.S.!
  

Disclaimer - I know there are east-side St. Paul taco shops we missed here... leave your favorites in the comments!  Admittedly, we picked up our tacos based on convenience, primarily. On to the tasting!

We soon discovered that we all had strong opinions on the style (chunky or shredded?) of the chicken, the overall flavor/spices, and the amount and quality of the toppings. Turns out that Shalee will actually get hostile with you if you try to serve her chunky chicken in her taco, Amanda's spice-o-meter is set inarguably on the green side of mild, and Vanessa is surprisingly generous in her scoring if your establishment happens to have a hilarious name.  We also rated on price, tortilla, and appearance.

Let's start with the disappointments and work up to the winners.  Adelita's, Rusty's, and La Loma were pretty lame compared to the other four joints.  Adelita's had greasy little chicken chunks with very little flavor and no toppings, Rusty's had great design but the taste didn't pack a punch (though we did all agree that Rusty's might have been tastier if eaten right after serving), and La Loma suffered from a similar weird greasy/boring chicken disorder as Adelita's and took FOREVER for the shop to make. Seriously - like 30 minutes for two tacos and some black beans.


El Toro did pretty well... the chicken was shredded and it came with lots of yummy toppings (+ cheese, although for the record, Ameigh and Amanda weren't impressed with the topping quality) and an agreeable four tortilla.  Plus, these puppies were affordable--only $1.70 each! A solid 4th place finish.

Our top three were El Taco Riendo, Los Ocampo and Chipotle.  El Taco Riendo was beautifully served (so colorful!), and though the chicken was chunky - it was mega-flavorful.  These tacos were loaded with toppings and served in a double-corn-tortilla shell which held together really nicely. Although Amanda's lips were burning and Ameigh thought the flavor was good but a bit overpowered by the spice, El Taco Riendo earned PERFECT SCORES in flavor from the other three tasters (wow!) and top marks overall from Ameigh and Vanessa.

Los Ocampo was also a beauty (pictured above) - bright orange shredded chicken, which really stood out from the pack. This one was WAY too spicy for a couple folks on the team and could've used more toppings, but earned top marks overall from Shalee and me!

Everyone loves Chipotle, and I'm a HUGE fan of their chicken tacos (although I'm sure when she read this, Shalee puked in her mouth a little)... and they did really well in our taste test (maybe the first of our corporate entries to grace the top 3?).  Their strength is definitely in the toppings (no duh) and they earned Amanda's top score by a long shot.  Plus, these tacos were ENORMOUS and quite affordable (breaks down to $2.05/taco), though I don't love that you have to order 3.  Why can't I just get one taco, Chipotle? 

After a lot of math, we discovered that the overall winner is..... El Taco Riendo!  The City Pages named them as best Taco in the Twin Cities, and the Twin Cities Taste Buds agree... these tacos are delicious!  Ameigh - please give Pat his Corona back.

BUT the real winner on taco tasting night was the five of us.  It was SO FUN to be together, to talk excitedly about what an amazing Mom Ameigh is about to be, to laugh at Shalee laughing at Vanessa, and to share a couple more hours  appreciating how full and wonderful life is when it's filled with good friends.  I'm back in Austin as I write this, but my heart is and always will be with y'all. AND - I have to say - Austin has KILLER tacos and I'm sure this city needs SOMEONE to tell them which are the best. Whaddya say?

See you again soon, friends! (Next up: CHEESECAKE)

FINALLY!!!!

By Amelia Cameron

We had our tomato soup tasting all planned out, (it was going to be a good one, mothers and all) but then people started realizing they double booked.  When you're working with 5-8 women, scheduling can get a bit hairy.  So the Taste Buds decided to post-pone the Mothers Edition until later this summer after I had officially become a mother myself. 
In the mean time, with our beloved Betsy in town for a wedding and my baby shower, we decided it was only logical to put together a tasting for the original 5.  Last night Amanda, Besty, Shalee, Vanessa and I gathered together at my house to taste chicken tacos.  Boy was it fun!  Shalee got taco drunk, Vanna got motherly, Manda got her tongue burnt, Betsy got blue arms and I got a house full of beautiful, thoughtful and fun friends!  Manda should be posting the photos for the blog soon and Betsy will be posting the commentary after traveling back to Texas.  We'll miss you terribly Betsy!!!
We are planning on our next tasting to be cheesecake in July.  We might use this tasting for our Mothers Edition or we might go for our second honorary taster, we're still working on the details.  Keep posted for lots of fun to come!

Tomato Soup Suggestions?

Our next tasting will be tomato soup on April 30th.  Shalee, Vanessa, Amanda and I will all be bringing our mothers to act as our "guest tasters."  We're going to do this tasting a little different... we are going to take suggestions on where to get our tomato soup from and we are going to making this a blind tasting.  Both are going to be enacted to help prevent preconceived notions and biases.  Please comment below to make your suggestions for where to get good tomato soup.  As always, we want all local establishments and one corporate entry.  Get suggestions from friends and family and post them below.

Thank you sooo much for reading!!!

Heart,
Amelia Cameron

How turned on are you?

By: Amelia Cameron


Let's get to the brass taxes here...what is an aphrodisiac?  Well according to all the smarty pants out there, an aphrodisiac is a substance that increases sexual desire.  The name comes from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sexuality and love. Throughout history, many foods, drinks, and behaviors have had a reputation for making sex more attainable and/or pleasurable.
This is the Taste Buds here though, so lets focus on the food and drink aspect of aphrodisiacs.  What are some of the more common food and drink aphrodisiacs?  Among them are: asparagus, coffee, grapes, honey, ginger, oysters, avocado, libations, figs, chiles, basil, strawberries, black beans, rosemary, pine nuts and chocolate.
Since this tasting was being held February 12th, we thought we'd honor Valentine's day and taste one of these tongue tickling tantalizers.  We went with chocolate brownies.  This was a no brainer though, since every year in preparation for every Valentine's day over one billion dollars is spent on chocolate alone.  Our infatuation with combining chocolate and love began over 2,000 years ago when Aztec ruler Montezuma would routinely drink a cocoa bean mixture before entering his harem, thus increasing chocolate's popularity with romance.

We decided the brownies we tasted had to be in the simplest chocolaty form possible.  No peanut butters, cherries or cream cheeses allowed.  Who was pure enough to make the cut?  Bread & Chocolate, Sara Jane's, Wuollet's, Good Earth, Bars, Mississippi Market and Starbucks were our contenders.

With Betsy moved to Texas, we brought in our first "guest taster" Jessica (Johnson) Larson.

  

Jess attended high school with the Taste Buds and hangs in our friend circles, but it's not that easy to qualify as a possible "guest taster."  You also have to an immense love and enthusiasm for food and food conversation, which Jess possesses.  Jess' perfect brownie? A dense, dark chocolaty morsel that is a little crunchy and a little chewy.  Let's see if any met her standards.

Let's start with Good Earth.  (***Disclaimer: after purchasing my brownie at Good Earth, I found out their baked goods are NOT made on site.  Although there are only two Good Earths in existence, they are owned by Minnesota parent company Parasole Family of Restaurants.  Parasole owns a string of local restaurants such as Chino Latino, Salute and Burger Joe's.  Although all local, Parasole has one bakery that makes the goodies these restaurants serve.)  Good Earth's brownie was frosted with no nuts.  It got high marks on its visual appeal, but medium to low on value, texture, aphrodisiac qualities, flavor and overall from everyone but Amanda.  This was one of her favorites!  

Next up, Wuollet's who got mixed reviews.  It was on the completely opposite end of the spectrum from Good Earth's style.  Unfrosted and filled with walnuts and chocolate chunks it earned high texture scores from most.  It's visual appeal, aphrodisiac qualities and flavor were all over the board.  It's value was scored lower due to it's smaller size and higher price.  Shalee and Jess both were fans of it's crispy outside and moist inside.  It seemed to be a "love it or hate it" kind of brownie.  

Sara Jane's definitely had the cheapest brownies at an amazing $0.75 per brownie, but they also had the smallest brownie at about half to 1/4 of the size to everyone else.  Maybe a three biter...  Sara Jane's ran the median for the majority of categories and for the majority of tasters.  I really liked the fudgey frosting and small bits of nuts, but they were reminiscent of Little Debbie's Fudge Brownies.

Starbucks's was our corporate entry and it didn't disappoint!  With it's simple but elegant chocolate chunk style it received rave reviews for it's visual appeal and texture.  It ranked medium to low on it's flavor and aphrodisiac qualities, which was unexpected because it incorporated a second aphrodisiac, coffee.

Next was Bread & Chocolate.  It was drenched with chocolate frosting and stuffed with chocolate chunks.  A full brownie would have earned a "two glasses of milk" rating.  It's soft cakeiness hit both high and low ranking as did it's flavor.  It ranked high on it's visual appeal and value.  Bread & Chocolate's overall brownie experience received solid ratings as well.

  

Mississippi Market had a hard time winning over hearts right from the start.  Although packaged the day of the tasting, it looked dried out.  Then when we cut into the bar, it's chocolate "frosting" crumbled and fell off.  It received mixed reviews on its crunchy outside and chewy middle texture, but it won back some hearts with it's deep chocolaty flavor.  We all agree though, overall we could find something better somewhere else.

Last but not least, was Bars.  Its plan brownie with light frosting received medium to low scores in visual appeal, as did it's aphrodisiac qualities (except for Jess).  It's texture ran the gamut of really low to really high.  It's flavor rated pretty average.  This brownie received Jess' highest ranking.  She said she found her ideal brownie.

Who won you ask?  Bread & Chocolate.  They didn't completely win anyone over, but they played a solid game.  The other shops had lovers and haters, but Bread & Chocolate pleased everyone's palate and stayed right on course.  Go get a gallon of milk, two brownies from Bread & Chocolate for you and your love and your sure to have a pleasurable evening!  

With Chocolaty Love, 

The Taste Buds (and Linus the dog)

Maaaarinara, where the noodles always lead to stains!

M-A-R-I-N-A-R-A!

We meet again, www, to explore all that is...red sauce.  

The Tastebuds were sooooo happy to be together again!

Since our last gathering our dear Besty has moved to Austin

(Texas, that is)!  We miss her all the time.

There was some concern that now that she has been living in Texas she wouldn't know what marinara is.

I'm pretty sure they only have BBQ down there.

I could be wrong...

But Betsy is not only pretty - she is smart too; and she remembered what marinara is supposed to taste like!  So we begin:

Each of us* brought a tub of red sauce from a local eatery and we made some noodles and chicken at the house.  The entries were as follows:

Betsy - Fat Lorenzo's

Amanda - Olive Garden (corporate entry)

Aims -  Vescio's

Vanna -  Mama's

*Shalee - I failed.  I was to bring Cossetta's, but there was a hockey game and that line gets out of control!  I'm sorry.

We judged these ruby reds by the color, texture, and taste.

Some of us like the thick heavy sauce

and others prefer theirs a little runny.

It was up to the score-er to determine the texture points on that.

 

Olive Garden was off to a lead as soon as Amanda walked in the door

FREE BREAD STICKS! 

The corporate entry was so generous when they heard of our blog they shared what we all know is the best thing about the O.G!

Although the O.G. started off strong they just couldn't pull it off!

Mama's (from St. Paul) came through with the W. 

Their sauce was ridiculously flavorful

and had a near perfect consistency! 

Oh  Mama!

Although the food is always our primary dealing,

I feel that this gathering was less about the sauce and a little more about our group as a meeting of people

who have shared the high school experience, multiple moves across the county, marriages, and much, much more.

We are gals who genuinely enjoy the company of one another. 

This was our first Taste Buds holiday gathering and I think the sauce, no matter how delicious, could not help but take a backseat to what we truly love ~

which is each other. 

I'm puking now.  And again, it's not about the food...

 

Could there be a better way to share our lives than eating together?  Nope!

Easy as Apple Pie

By Amelia Cameron

What is more American than apple pie?  Nowadays I'd say....A LOT!  First off apple pie originated out of England.  Across the pond it was served as breakfast.  A nutritious and calorie rich way to start your day.  Secondly, an average apple pie takes 1 1/2 hours to make with (on average) 25 steps.  With our immediate gratification society, apple pie takes way too much time and effort!  Thirdly, as our blog survey showed and from what I can find on the internet....pumpkin pie is the best selling and seemingly most loved pie in America.
With all that said, there is still something so very American about apple pie.  It embodies free time well spent.  It evokes memories of our past.  Grandma during simpler times, dress & heels, in the kitchen showing us how to roll dough. It congers up images of luxury and affluence. We don't need this flour and these apples to sustain us...we need them to entertain us and our taste buds.
Apple pie did just that.  It entertains us Taste Buds at Amanda's house October 23rd.  First off let me say...the real entertainer of the afternoon was Amanda Rydell.  That girl's creative decorating style is....is....sickeningly skilled.  On the counter as we entered there was a Halloween bouquet of painted branches and spooky ornaments.  It also displayed the apple pie contenders with informational signs about the bakeries from which they came.

 Yum!  Look at that sugary lattice work!

The table and counter was covered in two different apple pattern fabrics.  Our table setting were apples with "apple pie facts" pinned to them.  Seriously....this girl could have a magazine and a talk show.  Watch out Martha Stewart!!!

This tasting was a two part competition.  First and foremost, which bakery made the best apple pie.  We also decided that who ever brought the taste winning pie was also declared the winner.  Just a little friendly competition to make sure we all brought our A-Game apple pie.
And the contenders were...

Vanessa: Jerabek's Bakery
Betsy: Birchwood Cafe
Amanda: Betty's Pies
Shalee: Key's Cafe
Ameigh: Turtle Bread

I also "took one for the team" and brought our corporate entry Baker Square.  My generosity and humility got me two entries.  Someone had to do it.  Ha!

First up was Vanessa.  Jerabek's doesn't start making their pies until afternoon, so when Vanessa got there in the morning all the St. Paul classic had to offer her were mini pies (and a wide variety of delicious and reasonably priced breakfast baked goods).  We were all very excited about the thought of anything "mini," but we found the pie very average.  The crust and apple goop got very low scores, while the apple chunks and overall value scored high.
Next in line was Amanda who chose Betty's, a North Shore staple!  Betty got hip to the fact the Twin Cities loved her and they really hate having to driving 3 hours to eat her pies, so she opened a location in White Bear.  (That unintentionally sounds dirty.)  Anyway, Betty's didn't do as well as any of us expected.  The apple chunks, apple goop and crust all did average to slightly above average, but Betty's biggest downfall was the price.  A small slice of apple pie cost $4.28!  Maybe it would be best if Betty's stayed up north.

I can almost guarentee Shalee was making a sassy comment about Betty's Pies during this photo.

Betsy and Birchwood were up next.  This Minneapolis staple had a bit of a head start/handicap, depending upon your taste.  Birchwood's apple pie had cranberries in it.  Betsy made a wise choice bringing this pie because it was a hit!  Every thought it's visual appeal was top notch with it's sugared lattice work.  The price was outstanding, especially for it's large size.  It's apple chunks and apple goop got mixed reviews, but it's croissant like crust sparked every one's interest.
Now, any pie would have a hard time following Birchwood, but poor Baker Square didn't stand a chance.  It got low to average scores in the apple chunk, apple goop, visual appeal, and price.  Baker Square held it's ground when it came to the crust department, getting average to high scores.  Overall, Baker Square does the job when you are out to lunch with you Grandpa, but it's not anything we LOVED.
My real entry was next.  Located in South Minneapolis, Turtle Bread is (as I found out) a Saturday morning local favorite.  The line was to the door!!!  With the first few bites of it's apple pie, the Taste Buds found out why.  The apple chunks were big and tender, the apple goop was filled with cardamom and the crust was beautiful with giant sugar crystals.  The price was a little high, but it didn't seem to bother us too much.

Vanessa really liked Turtle Bread.  Coincidence that it is located next to Vanessa's favorite ice 

cream parlor, The Pumphouse?  Hmm....you be the judge.

Lastly, but not leastly, Shalee and Rosevilles' Key's Cafe.  First off let me say, when Shalee opened the box her apple pie looked more like apple crisp.  The apple goop was way too runny and it sloped every where.  Needless to say, it got very low scores in the visual appeal.  It's big apple chunks got high scores, as did it's crust.  It had lots of sugar on top of the crust, which pleased us all.  Overall, it fared well despite it's visual disaster.
So, who won you as?  Well let me tell you who didn't win.  In sixth and last place was Baker Square. Fifth went to Betty's.  Fourth place was Jerabek's. Third went to Key's and in second was Turtle Bread.  And the winner was..........Birchwood Cafe.

Betsy shares her pie server win with Birchwood Cafe!

Apple pie, whether it's your favorite pie or not...eating it is a wonderful way to spend a beautiful fall afternoon with your friends!

Marinara sauce......you're next!

"Our State Fair is a Great State Fair..."

Ahh...the Minnesota State Fair.....the largest state fair (in daily attendance) than any other fair in the United States.  It is a place where you can pet some sheep, watch a 4-H sewing fashion show, see the crowned dairy princess' face carved in butter, hope you don't die on the mighty midway rides, and get a deal on a backyard hammock swing all in one day.  But all Minnesotans know that the real reason you go to the fair is to indulge on all of the delicious fair fare.  It is the place where, once a year, you can put on your drawstring pants and let them out as you indulge on foods on a stick.  Where beloved food is....the TC Taste Buds are.  So we decided to take on the fair.

There are 316 vendors (each with a variety of food options) so deciding what to try was hard.  In fact, we decided to treat this outing as more of a review versus a competition.  We knew we could not try everything (or we would be in the hospital right now) and it would be crazy to limit ourselves to one variety of food because the wonder of the state fair vendors is that they are all pretty unique to each other.   So to narrow down our tasting, we took suggestions from friends, decided to try some "underdog" foods, put a fair favorite on the list, voted on our preferences, and mapped out our journey.

We took an immediate right out of Shalee's driveway and joined the crowds huffing to the fair.                       We arrived at the fair amidst the teenagers, strollers, automated wheelchairs, families, and date nighters.  We decided to start with a treat of our choice (immediately!)...the best corn dog in the world for Amanda, Betsy, Shalee and Vanessa and sweet corn for Amelia.  After our palates were cleansed, we were off to taste our first item:  The Grilled Banana, Marshmallow, Chocolate Sandwich at Moe and Joe's.

This gooey treat was basically a grilled cheese sandwich, sans the cheese, add the chocolate, marshmallow creme, and banana with sprinkled powdered sugar on top.  MMM...  In general this was enjoyed by all of the taste buds.  Amelia was hoping for something more like a stuffed french toast, Betsy wanted it a little hotter, the wait time could have been a little shorter (though we were informed the wait needed to be a bit longer so the sandwich could be delivered fresh)...but besides that...no other complaints.  For $4, this sandwich treat definitely met our state fair standards.

Next up...Soba Noodles from Island Noodles inside the International Bazaar!  This vendor gets an A+ in cuteness.  They were putting on their best performance when they heard that we were a tasting group :)  The noodles and FRESH veggies were made right in front of our eyes and the serving one gets for $7 is enormous.  It was piping hot when it was handed to us in the cute red take-out container.  The taste had mixed reviews.  Some of us really enjoyed the freshness and smokiness of the dish...others thought it was too salty.  One thing we all agreed on was that it was not very "state-fairy."  Though it fits right into the theme of the International Bazaar, the prep, the look, the container, seemed like it should have been from your favorite local asian restaurant versus the MN State Fair.  Discuss.





We continued on our adventure.  To the FOOD BUILDING!  The food building is home to about 30 food vendors.  It is the ONLY place to go to get cheese curds (in our expert opinion). Getting some of the highest scores of the night, the curds from the famous Mouth Trap were rockin' our buds.  Amelia is not a curd fan and thought that these were a tasty treat (other than thinking they were a little salty).  The rest of us enjoyed the salty tang on our tongues as we committed to our memory the perfect example of a cheese curd.  I dare you to find one better (including as creative of a name as "The Mouth Trap" and having a mouse as the mascot...one has to wonder if that was a brilliant mistake by someone with a lisp...).


The next item in the food building to try were the spiral chips from Sonny's Spiral Spuds.  React.

This pile of chips was HUGE!  The chips were freshly peeled and fried to order and the amount for $6 could "feed a family of giants" (Betsy).  Mixed reviews all around.  Some thought the amount was a perfect example of fair excess and some thought it was wasteful.  Some thought they were way to greasy and some thought that they were the perfect potato chip (though the greasiness could be due to some underdone taters).  They were addicting though and the dip that came along with it was tasty, but we had to pay $.50 extra for it.  We ended up eating 1/3rd of the chips and then passing them onto Christian  (Vanessa's brother) who was also at the fair that evening.  He was happy to accept free food...and a lot of it at that.

Throughout the evening we were on the lookout for a "drive by eye spy" (or something like that).  This was a bonus item we were going to taste when we either saw someone eating it and thought, "mmm..." or if we saw a booth that was irresistible.  It turned out to be the latter, and the delectable dessert we discovered was called Peaches and creme (found at the Midtown Global Exchange / Salty Tart stand).  

This stand was Key-uuute!  The sun was setting and they had chinese lanterns lit.  It seemed almost too upscale and romantic for the MN State Fair.  The huge peach chunks were cut fresh and layered between delicious vanilla soft serve and then topped with cinnamon cookie crumbles.  For some, it was the perfect summer treat.  It was in season and fresh (a nice reprieve from fried food).  Others thought that it was not quite right.  Maybe the peaches were too big or the cookie should have been all the way through.  Maybe it was almost too cold.  Is it worth it for $7?  You will never know until you try it.  I (Vanessa) personally loved it!  Try it next year and you be the judge.

All in all...no thanks.  Sorry Guys

The next, and final, fair tasting were the fried green tomatoes from the Corn Fritter booth near the main entrance.  This was the only treat of the night that left the buds unimpressed.  Though they came out piping hot and the booth exudes the state fair ideal, we gave the tomatoes average to below average scores.  Some complaints were that they were too salty, greasy, and not up to the name "fried green tomato."  They came with a ranch dipping sauce that made them taste sour.  If we wanted deep fried pickles, we would have gone to that booth (YUM!).

Along with our six reviewed items, we also got samples of the mashed potatoes on a stick (stick with the real thing), cinnamon roasted almonds in the International Bazaar (delicious), and Sweet Martha's Cookies (MMM HMM).  But our tummies were too full to have another bite, so we headed back down Midway Parkway where we wrapped up the night, full and lethargic from the night's fare.  

All in all, the fair was a success.  More record breaking attendance days mean that food vendors will not  be sparse next year.  Though we all agreed that the staples like cheese curds, corn dogs, cookies, and corn are a must...try something new.  You might just find your new favorite fare find at the fair.  

Signing Out..

Vanessa "I want another corn dog" Novak

P.S.  Next up... Apple Pie....mmm....ala mode....mmm.  Yes Please!

Tasting the Great MN Get-Together

by: Amelia Cameron

I hope you are all like me and are eagerly awaiting the next Taste Buds meeting.  It feels like so long since the ice cream excursion.  Oh it was fun!!!  It's really too bad we cannot do these more often...I mean come on, what is better than eating yummy food with wonderful girl friends?!?!?  Not too many things let me tell you.

You may have guessed by our poll what our next tasting is centered around...oh yeah and I guess the title of this posting gave it away too.  The Taste Buds are heading to the MN State Fair.  In the olden days the fair was about buying and selling farm gear, entering your best jam to hopefully win the blue ribbon, and a chance to catch up with distant friends.  Nowadays, lets be honest...it's about eating, Eating, EATING(.... and maybe a good Boyz 2 Men reunion).  What a better place to showcase the Taste Buds' refined culinary taste buds than at the fair!!!

One thing that we realized when planning our State Fair Addition of the Taste Buds is that we were going to be hard pressed to find one "dish" that is replicated by multiple vendors.  That is what we Minnesotans love about State Fair, its eating variety!  What is usually a heaven sent, caused a bit of a problem for us girls.  After much deliberation we decided that we were to gear the State Fair Addition to general tasting.  We are going to do less of a "contest" and more of a "review."  The Taste Buds will taste a wide variety of items on Tuesday, August 31st and report back to you on our findings.

I am very excited to engross myself in the Great Minnesota Get-Together (heck, it's only here for two weeks out of the year), eat until my hearts content and my tummy is bursting (amazingly that happens about the same time) and mostly, I cannot wait to spend time with my dear fellow Taste Buds!!!

Until then....Happy Tasting!!!

The Straight Split Scoop: Taste Buds do Ice Cream!

Betsy here. Let me begin by stating the facts: Ice cream is delicious. It's great!  It comes in tons of flavors, it's cold and creamy and refreshing, it's sweet, satisfying, and totally addicting.  It's ICE CREAM. It's automatically the best.  

So if you are a professional ice cream maker--if you make a living inventing delicious ice cream flavors and selling them to us, the grateful public--you are also automatically the best.  So before I get all critical here, let me just say - THANK YOU!!  You are making the world a tastier place.  To quote one of my favorite songs*, "Ice cream is going to save the day!"  And on many days, for me personally, it has!  Ice cream and ice cream makers are the best.  This is established.

But our job as the Taste Buds is to find out who the best-best is, and we begrudgingly sacrificed ourselves to find this out for all of you--residents of the Twin Cities.  So - in advance, you're welcome.

This time, we took the tasting to the streets! 

FIRST - CONTEXT

Our group was down a blonde member this time around - we missed you, Shalee!  Vanessa (our host) very kindly drove.  Our plan was to hit the five most famous, most respected house-made ice cream spots in the Twin Cities: Izzy's Ice Cream, the Grand Ole Creamery, Pumphouse Creamery, Crema Cafe (Sonny's) and Sebastian Joe's. There were definitely more places we wanted to visit (Edina Creamery, DQ :)) - but our time and appetites were limited, so we narrowed it down to the very best.

WHAT exactly we should taste to evaluate an ice cream makers' skill was a complex question--mostly because we all love ice cream so much and we really wanted our evaluation to be of the quality of the ice cream itself, knowing that there was no way we could evaluate all the flavors.  Here's what we decided:

1 - Pre-tasting evaluation--before we tasted, we evaluated the following:

**Price (for a single split scoop, or however we could try two flavors)

**Appearance/Presentation

**Location of Shop

**Ambiance of Shop

**Variety of Choices

**Quality of ingredients

After tasting, we evaluated:
**Initial taste
**Creaminess
**Uniqueness of taste
**Will we be back?
**Sweetness
**Firmness
**Cookie distribution (I'm getting to that...)

Ultimately, we decided to taste vanilla at each shop. I know!  Outcry! Uproar! But here's what we were thinking: vanilla is like the first step as an ice cream maker. It's square one.  It's the basis for so many other flavors!  If you can't make a good vanilla, I imagine it's pretty hard to make other flavors well. And, by tasting vanilla, we could evaluate the quality of the ice cream itself.

But we wanted to see how each ice cream maker handled their delicious flavors too - after all, how they distribute toppings in their flavors is definitely a big part of the ice cream experience.  So we picked a flavor most places would have - cookies and cream - and got a half-scoop of that, too, so we could get a sense of their approach to flavors in general. It totally worked out.

First stop: IZZY's in Saint Paul!

(Guys, this is serious)

Izzy's Ice Cream is located on Marshall and Cleveland in Saint Paul.  They got big points for presentation (beautiful scoop! great branding!), and we all agreed that the Izzy scoop is a brilliant, brilliant idea. For those of you who are unfamiliar, every time you get a scoop or two at Izzy's, you also get to choose a flavor for an izzy scoop - a little baby scoop on top!  It's awesome - it kind of feels like a little bonus, and you get to try a new flavor if you want.

The shop is totally focused on the ice cream. They have gazillions of flavors (both weird ones--like dark chocolate zinfandel and hot brown sugar--and old favorites). There's a drinking fountain and napkins everywhere and seating inside and out. We weren't crazy about the lineup layout (you have to awkwardly squeeze through and walk around the line to get in line to order) and the shop is a little off the beaten path, but the place was welcoming, smelled deliciously of waffle cones, and the staff was friendly. And they source all the ingredients they can locally, which we love!

Izzy's vanilla was solid. Creamy and not too sweet. There was some discussion in the group of it tasting a bit generic - like something you could get at the grocery store - and Vanessa got an ice chunk (oh no!), but overall, we were pleased. The Oreo izzy scoop had big chunks of cookie and plenty of them.  Amanda wasn't a superfan of the ice cream at this place, but she didn't hate it either - the ice cream just wasn't quite sweet enough or unique enough for her taste, but 3 of 4 of us said we would definitely be back with friends. 

Next, we were off to the Saint Paul-est of ice cream shops, the Grand Ole Creamery!

Grand Ole Creamery has got this ice cream thing DOWN. The line was huge-looking when we got there - but they worked it like a pro and we were sitting down with our treat in no time.  The place is totally 100% old-school ice cream shop favorite--wood floors, peppy staff, hand-written flavor signs.  Here's how walking in made us feel (Ameigh is especially loving it!):

The shop is located right on Grand Ave in Saint Paul (everyone knows where it is!) and is a frequent day and late-night treat spot. They've got lots of flavors--all the old favorites--but none that we noticed were too weird/creative. Here's Ameigh about to see how huge our scoop was (yay!):

OK, evaluation time:

Like I said, the split-scoop serving was gargantuan!  Wowza!  And it was only $4.50, which is not bad at all.  First taste was a knockout - and the consistency was right on.  The vanilla here was pretty darn sweet, which for some of us was awesome, and some of us didn't especially like as much.  But we all agreed that we would definitely be back.

There were a few drawbacks, though. We learned while we were there that although Grand Ole does make all their ice cream, their ingredients come largely from a large national food distributor (not to be named here, but it rhymes with "risko") and they don't really source locally at all, which disappointed some of us.  And - overall, we weren't crazy about the cookies and cream.  The cookies tasted a little "fake." But overall, a very solid performance. You stay classy, Grand Ole Creamery.


Our third stop was the Pumphouse Creamery in South Minneapolis.

The Pumphouse Creamery was the only shop none of the four of us had been to before. And it's adorable!  Seriously, you guys. Check this place out. It's nestled into a super cute south Minneapolis neighborhood (48th and Chicago - near Pepito's and the Parkway Theater), squeezed in next to a wood-fire pizza place. And there was a parking lot! Big bonus.  First (and only!) parking lot of the day.

We were pretty impressed with Pumphouse because of their hyper-local, super-green, socially conscious focus. They had photos of the farms that raise the dairy cows who make the milk from which the ice cream was made ON THE WALL!  They even get their fruit from local farms. Their fair trade chocolate was sourced from a local chocolatier... and they served us our scoops in Greenware!  Biodegradable!  Seriously, you guys. Shut up. You're frickin adorable.

The inside of the shop was really clean and simple (which some of us loved, some not so much), and they didn't have tons of flavors, but a good mix of favorites and creative/weird options (Sunflower Butter! Local Buckwheat Honey! Rogue Chocolate using Hispaniola!). There wasn't really any seating, though - and the shop was kind of tucked away. But overall, we liked it.

The scoops, however, were a little (I stress - a LITTLE) disappointing.  First, they were small. The consistency was less creamy than others, and the ice cream wasn't super sweet (which again - some loved, some hated - choose your own adventure). The cookie ice cream (with Newman O's) didn't get high marks either.  Pumphouse didn't win the day (they came in 4th place - but remember 4th the best!!), but they did certainly win Vanessa's heart, as they were her #1 at the end of the day.  And we were all really impressed with their philosophy and creativity. So shine on, you crazy diamond!

4th stop was Crema Cafe - which serves Sonny's Ice Cream - in Uptown:

This place wowed us with its classiness. I mean - check Ameigh out - she's a total supermodel in there by that lit-up ice cream case!  They are located in uptown, south of Lake Street on Lyndale, have lovely signage and lots of beautiful garden seating that makes you feel like you're enjoying a lovely afternoon in a bistro in rural Italy or something.  Ambiance got high marks all around... except one of us thought it looked more like a coffee shop or wine bar than an ice cream shop (can't remember who - Vanessa, I think?). But hey - we got a sweet table to enjoy our scoop.

Three more things about the shop: 1 - Their ice cream is organic and largely local. Awesome! 2 - Their flavors were tantalizing. Rhubarb! Black Pepper Cardamom! We all wanted to try a bunch of them. 3 - You pay for the classy atmosphere. Crema wins for most expensive treat of the day.

On to the scoops!  The vanilla bean we all agreed was about the right amount of sweetness.... but other than that, none of us were super impressed. Creaminess, consistency, uniqueness, cookie distribution, initial impression - all got pretty average marks. Sorry guys! I know - there are tons of Sonny's club members out there - and it was good, but it wasn't great! What else can I say... Crema got 3rd place.  Beautiful shop! I'll be back for the rhubarb next time..

Sebastian Joe's was our last stop of the day:

Sebastian Joe's is on Hennepin and Franklin, right there in the fray of Uptown. The line at Seb Joe's was looooooooooonnnnnnnnnnggggggg and full of hip folks!! But it went pretty fast.  As you all probably know, they've got bunches of flavors - both unique and classic - and the staff there didn't really know much about the ingredients, but they were super helpful and gave us the manager's number, which we appreciated.

They layout of the shop wasn't super satisfactory - as again, you had to walk in and through the line to find the end, but they have tons of seating, both inside and out. 

About the tasting - first, we all loved the Oreo. Best Oreo of the day for sure! Other than that, sorry SJoes - we just weren't super impressed. The vanilla wasn't particularly remarkable or memorable, really.  It just didn't knock our socks off. And though most of us agreed that we'd definitely be back (and maybe Seb Joes would dominate on the flavors ... that's another tasting question entirely), in our tasting, they came in last place. But last place of ice cream makers!!! Remember?


So - who was the winner!??? Izzy's - the new Saint Paul kid? Or Grand Ole Creamery - the classic that never goes out of style!!!!?????

Drumroll.

Izzy's took the day!   Congratulations, Jeff and the Izzy's crew!  You are the best ice cream shop in the Twin Cities!  You've got a swell shop and tasty ice cream there. The TC Taste Buds salute you!

Next, we're off to the state fair - to find the best FRIES.  Any stops you suggest? Leave a comment or suggestion... we'd love to hear it!

Until then - go eat tons of ice cream.  For us!
xoxo

Betsy


*Check out the song "Ice Cream" by Muscles. Right now! Do it!

We'll Be Tasting and Posting Soon!

post by: Amelia Cameron

Hello all!

Do not think we have forgotten about tasting!  The ladies and I are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our ice cream adventure June 27th.  It actually had to be pushed back due to scheduling conflicts, but it will be upon us sooner than we think.  This tasting will be our first road trip tasting.  Ice cream is hard to transport, so we thought better to transport US TO the ice cream.  What yummy fun we will have!  We will have a posting up soon after the ice cream tasting, chalked full of opinions and photos.

Happy Eating!