Posts Tagged ‘absinthe’
Creole Creamery
4924 Prytania St
New Orleans, LA 70115
December 28, 2011
It had been hours since we visited Emeril’s and I knew it was time to visit Creole Creamery. I’m a sucker for sweets that include odd flavors, and as soon as I read the list of past flavors on the website, I knew I was going to enjoy our visit.
Chef Bryan Gilmore is a mad genius. His ability to coax out the sweet-friendly flavors in savory ingredients is truly impressive. His ability to then balance those flavors in a frozen dessert despite the cold’s notorious habit of turning down flavor compounds is almost beyond reckoning.
Here’s what we tried. Yes, this was one sitting. In my defense, I had help. Yes, that help consisted of one adult and a toddler. So, yes, I guess I have some gluttony to repent for.
Black and Gold Crunch
Red Velvet
Tiger Bait
Cookie Monster
Lavender Honey
Christmas Morning
Gingerbread Cheesecake
Chef’s Perfect Chocolate
I Scream Fudge
Chocolate Pecan Pie
Peanut Butter Fudge Pie
Nutella Banana Toffee
Spiced Pomegranate
There was not a single flavor that wasn’t delicious, smooth, and free of ice crystals (a pet peeve of mine, as it indicates melting and refreezing). The fact that they manage to keep the quality of the ice cream this high while offering so many flavors at the same time is truly impressive. There is a famous San Francisco ice cream purveyor called Humphrey Slocombe who offers similar flavor profiles about six flavors at a time. Creole Creamery literally wipes them off the map both for quality and flavor.
Favorite flavors from the list include the Tiger Bait, which I would have happily had another two scoops of after we left. The Chef’s Perfect Chocolate is very aptly named. It’s impressive to me that the chef bothers to use high quality Valrhona chocolate anywhere in his ice cream, much less in a flavor that is offered at the same price as the other scoops.
The chef happened by and I asked if he was working on anything new. He mentioned a flavor that, at the time, he was calling Green Fairy that was flavored with absinthe. He kindly let us sample it and it was to die for.
I have a long list of places that we weren’t able to make due to a lack of time, enough for four trips. I don’t think any future trip will be complete with a visit to Creole Creamery, though. I can’t wait.
