Feast Ice Cream! (Unofficial to Feast Portland)

Feast Portland is almost here! Feast is almost here (September 19-22, 2013)! Feast Feast Feast!

A few unofficial Feast ice cream events are currently happening in Portland that you can catch. I thought I would point these out particularly because even though it’s mid-September, it is 90 degrees out. Whaaaa!!??

1. Ruby Jewel Scoops: Best of the Northwest Ice Cream Contest

From September 9 through 17 from noon to 11 pm at the two Ruby Jewel Scoops locations (3713 N Mississippi St and 428 SW 12th Ave) you can join in to cast your ballot for your favorite Northwest Ice Cream inspired ice cream flavor. All of these ice cream flavors celebrate local Northwest ingredients. You can try the four contending flavors, which include

• Garden Tomato with Basil (seriously, it tastes just like a farmers market fresh caprese salad)
• Hazelnut with Honey Bar
• Chevre with Spiced Peach Jam
• Espresso with Housemade Chocolate Covered Almond Brittle

The ingredients in the ice cream celebrate and support other local artisans, such as nuts from Freddy Guy Hazelnuts, honey bar from Beans and Bees, the chevre from Portland Creamery, peaches from Baird Family Peaches, and espresso from Nossa Familia Coffee Roasters.

As if eating the ice cream isn’t enough incentive, participating voters will be entered to win a ticket to the Feast Grand Bounty Tasting (which I previously wrote about here, in case you want to check it out) and three pints of ice cream.

Ruby Jewel will be present at the Widmer Brothers Sandwich Invitational at Directors Park on Thu Sept 19 6-9pm (which I previously blogged about here). The tickets just sold out to the Sandwich Invitational yesterday on the 12th, but you still have a chance to try out what Ruby might be offering at this event, which was $95 a ticket. Visit one of their two locations now, plus win a possible ticket to the Grand Tasting! The winner will be randomly selected on September 18, so get in there, taste and vote!

2. Salt and Straw Guest Chef Collaboration Series #2

For the month of September, Salt and Straw is doing their Second Annual Guest Chef Series! They have five new limited edition ice creams made in collaboration with world-renowned chefs participating in Portland’s Feast Food Festival that are special just for this month. A portion of the proceeds from these flavors are donated to Partners for a Hunger Free Oregon.

• Loaded Baked Potato, a flavor collaboration with Michael Voltaggio that “on a playful note, where savory collides with sweet” is loaded with bacon chocolate crumbs, onion juice caramel, and white cheddar cookie dough.
• Sweet Corn, Waffle Cones & Caramel, a flavor collaboration  with April Bloomfield that has sweet corn as the foundation and then folds in chocolate covered waffle cones, salted brown butter, and ribbons of vanilla caramel
• Mint Leaves with Sea Urchin Meringues, a flavor collaboration  with Jenn Louis with west coast harvested sea urchin and fruity Italian pimente d’espelet that are utilized to make little meringues then folded into the steeped in mint leaves ice cream
• Hawaiian PB&J, a flavor collaboration  with Gabe Rucker, which translates to toasted bark from a Heart of Palm tree, peanut butter crumbles, and caramelized pineapple jelly
• Coconut Milk with Cashew Brittle & Pandan, a flavor collaboration  with Gregory Gourdet which results in a vegan ice cream built on a coconut ice cream foundation with spiced, candied, and compressed pineapples, hand-burned cilantro-pandan caramel, and crunchy brittle spiked with red Thai chilies.

CRAZY right? INTRIGUED? I am! You can check out these flavors at Scoop shops at 3345 SE Division St, 2035 NE Alberta St, or 838 NW 23rd Ave. Salt and Straw is also one of the participants for the Oregon Grand Bounty Tasting on Fri and Sat 20/21 12:00pm – 5:00pm at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Tickets for this event ($60, all inclusive) are still available for the Friday Grand Tasting or Saturday Grand Tasting events!

Now don’t you want some ice cream?