Salted Caramel
I just dropped in to tell you a few things.
One: I may have a bit of an ice cream problem. Not news.
Two: My new neighbour-slash-mixmaster, Billy Friley, may not help in this regard, and I’m so grateful that he had a quarter-life crisis, crashed out on his Grandma’s couch for a week, tasted some huckleberry ice cream from a micro-ice creamery in Montana and had an epiphany, deciding right then and there it would become his life’s work. Or at least his Next Big Thing.
Three: After said epiphany, Billy spent 13 months in a little space in a parking lot off 10th Ave SE learning how to make ice cream from scratch, with only Jessica Alba to keep him company. She still oversees the machine in the corner, where over the weekend Billy gave W a quick tutorial in homemade salted caramel ice cream. His place is open now, called Village Ice Cream, and it’s worth poking about until you find it in that back parking lot by the train tracks. He makes huckleberry ice cream, and cardamom (freshly ground, from Silk Road Spice Merchant), and Girl Guide mint with homemade chocolate cookies, and toasted coconut using his mom’s recipe. And salted caramel.
Four: I’ve had salted caramel before, but never like this. I have become mildly obsessed with the idea of setting a creamy scoop on top of a stack of pancakes, and letting it slowly melt down the sides. This will happen. Oh yes. I’ve also heard it makes a divine float in banana bread beer. (Also a thing.)
Six: I meet interesting people and taste new things all the time, and don’t always manage to post about them here. Or often I choose not to, because not all of you are from Calgary, and unless you’re planning a visit or just love reading about what people are doing with food in other cities, it may not be relevant.
And so one day, after we went for ice cream, my teenage niece (E) helped me figure out Tumblr while hanging out on the couch, and I kindasorta wound up starting a new offshoot blog – a spinoff, like Frasier from Cheers, that’s a kind of a cross between a blog and Twitter. I can post quickies from my phone, like Twitter, and just snippets, not whole big long posts like I tend to do here. I called it The Gullet, because I liked the name, and right now I’m just playing around with it – it will become part of my summertime blog makeover project, as this place could do with an overhaul. (And good news! I’m switching servers, so we shouldn’t have any more problems with slow downloads.)
So there you go. Everyone, meet Billy! Really, his ice cream is completely divine. And they make all their waffle cones FROM SCRATCH, ONE AT A TIME. Yes, it happens. If you’re going to go for ice cream, I think, it should be this good. This is exactly what ice cream should be.
I love The Gullet! Total awesomeness, like everything you do.
Also – I might have to put salted caramel i.c. on the to-do list…
It makes me wish that I still lived in Calgary since slated caramel is my absolute favourite!
Hi Julie
Some of your readers do live in Calgary! Thank you, we will check out the village and The Gullet.
I tasted nirvana, er Billy’s salted caramel ice cream, at Avec Bistro a couple of weeks ago. Words cannot describe.
Now, to check out The Gullet…
Did five get rejected? 🙂
GIRL GUIDE MINT? I can’t get past that. MUST GET SOME NOW.
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Yay…you shared it! I think it’ll be a hit….
Hee hee hee… not only do some of your most faithful readers live in Calgary, this one lives just down the road from you and Village Ice Cream in Inglewood. One could say that’s good and bad. The good part is that I can pop into Village Ice Cream any old time I want (and I can’t wait to try that salted caramel!), the bad part? Well my weigh scale will be able to tell you that part of the story!
Thanks for another great posting and I can’t wait to head over to The Gullet.
Julie,
Should you ever (can’t imagine why you would, but should you ever ever) land in Columbus: you, me, Jeni’s ice cream. Her salted caramel is maddening. Add chopped smoked almonds, and I am unstoppable.
Seriously. Ohio. It’s calling your name…
xo,
M
Meeting you and trying Jeni’s ice cream is reason enough to pack a hobo stick and walk to Ohio…
Thanks to your recommendation, we stopped in at Village Ice Cream today. It was wonderful. We tried the Salted Caramel, Huckleberry and Cardamom. All were fantastic! We’ll definitely be back again.
I was at Cows Ice Cream in PEI on the weekend waiting in line while they made a fresh batch of waffle cones. It was pure torture waiting to get to the front of the line to get my own cone! Homemade waffle cones are FABULOUS!
Taking my number 1 and only daughter tomorrow!! Thanks Julie!
I finally got to stop by Village and the salted caramel ice cream is absolutely DIVINE. In fact, my mouth is watering just thinking about it!
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