Ssshaved Ice offers Portland Japanese Shaved Ice

With the heat wave, I thought it was an appropriate time for me to have this post where I highlight SSshaved Ice. I included SShaved Ice, a pop up on which offers Portland Japanese shaved ice on announced Saturdays at Courier Coffee, on my Eater PDX article The Hottest Portland Pop-Ups Right Now, Summer 2017. Here are some more detailed photos of some of the amazingness that you can find. You can find out when they are popping up by following their Instagram, @ssshavedice, usually it is Saturdays at Courier Coffee at 923 SW Oak from Noon – 4 PM (or until run out!).

Ssshaved Ice, a pop up offering Japanese Shaved Ice, this is the Ssshaved Ice Strawberry Milk Kintoki with Ricotta Caramel.

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Flight Dessert Bar – Midwestern Roots

After reading a post from Erin of Bakery Bingo about a dessert pop-up called Flight Dessert Bar, I did a little investigation and saw they were putting together a special themed menu called Flight Dessert Bar “Midwestern Roots”. This was a reflection of the Flight Dessert chef’s origin from the Midwest, Wisconsin. Being an original Midwesterner myself, I felt compelled to support this dinner, just as Erin knew that the “Variations on a Theme: Chocolate” that she experienced with them was right up her alley.

Also, I saw from their twitter there would be PBR Frozen Custard.

Tickets bought!

The Dessert Bar experience consists of a six-course dessert tasting menu with beverage pairings for each course. However, each course wasn’t just a sweet dessert- he leverages experimental techniques and flavor combinations to blur the lines between sweet and savory.

Six courses sounds like a lot of sweet dessert, but I promise you that it does qualify as dinner that will leave you satiated like a meal and not just a flight of desserts. Do not eat beforehand thinking you are just coming here for dessert!

Flight Dessert Bar- This dessert pop up was held March 1 2014 at Bluebird Bakers in NW Portland Flight Dessert Bar-  Midwestern Roots started off with tyler mackie's brandy old fashioned Flight Dessert Bar-  Midwestern Roots started off with tyler mackie's brandy old fashioned

Flight Dessert Bar was created by Chef Nate Hamilton and Annie Massa-MacLeod. In the sweetest story, after meeting in Madison, Wisconsin, he left his position at farm to table restaurant Harvest and followed her west to Annie’s original roots, here in Oregon. Aw, a love story.
Annie and Nate of Flight Dessert Bar, on a train in Morocco

Flight is their brainchild, with him in the back of the house and her running the front of the house. You can still feel their tentative and excited energy- the newness, the still trying to figure it all out. It’s like being invited into the initial feelings when you are first trying to establish roots when you first move into your first job after graduating college.  Not that Nate or Annie are inexperienced- it’s just the feeling in the energy of Flight. There is an element of unsureness and transition, but also the freshness, the bravado of venturing and searching for something more, the exhilaration of discovery as life is changing.

So now to recap my experience. The experience of Flight I had was when they held the pop up at Bluebird Bakers, in NW. Their next space for their pop up is going to be Racion in SW be sure to check their website and Facebook for the latest updates and what menu Chef Nate may be creating.

Flight Dessert Bar- This dessert pop up was held March 1 2014 at Bluebird Bakers in NW Portland Flight Dessert Bar- This dessert pop up was held March 1 2014 at Bluebird Bakers in NW Portland

Midwestern Roots

Course 1

Pleasant Ridge Reserve by Uplands Cheese, bread and butter pickles, cranberry jam, Beaver Sweet Hot mustard, bread. This was paired with tyler mackie’s brandy old fashioned.
Flight Dessert Bar, Midwestern Roots Menu Course 1 Pleasant Ridge Reserve by Uplands Cheese, bread and butter pickles, cranberry jam, Beaver Sweet Hot mustard, house crackers. This was paired with tyler mackie's brandy old fashioned.
This was a pleasant starter. I’ve had this award winning nutty Pleasant Ridge Reserve cheese from Uplands in Wisconsin before, and it was a nice statement in Flight Dessert Bar’s commitment to the midwestern theme that they served a WI cheese.

At the same time, they demonstrated their commitment to marrying those sensibilities with what is available locally here, such as the nose tingling excellent Beaver Sweet hot mustard that is a strong punch of flavor to counter the richness of the cheese and the sweet and sour of the cranberry jam and pickles. The lost opportunity here was with the bread here, which was just white noise.

I think everyone loved that Old Fashioned- almost everyone had already finished their sample even before the cheese plate arrived, since we were welcomed with the little juice glass of it once we were shown our seats upon arrival. I could have used 2 or 3x more of that refreshing cocktail.

Course 2

Whiskey poached apple, spiced citrus “jello salad,” pie crust, sour cream mousse, molasses. This was paired with lambic kriek shandy.
Flight Dessert Bar, Midwestern Roots Menu Course 2 Whiskey poached apple, spiced citrus “jello salad,” pie crust, sour cream mousse, molasses. This was paired with lambic kriek shandy. Flight Dessert Bar, Midwestern Roots Menu Course 2 Whiskey poached apple, spiced citrus “jello salad,” pie crust, sour cream mousse, molasses. This was paired with lambic kriek shandy.
This was not what I expected at all- and I love to be surprised. I thought the spiced citrus salad might be an enhancement to whiskey poached apple, but it was the justifiable star of this course. I took little quarter of a spoon bites, nibbling on this, trying it in all the flavor combinations of just the jello, jello with mousse, apple with jello, apple with mouse and bit of pie crust, apple with molasses, etc. The play on the different flavor and texture contributions here was fun and invigorating.

The lambic kriek is a belgian raspberry flavored beer that brought a tartness that I understood conceptually was to reinforce the jello salad, but though it was individually delicious I thought was an overwhelming pairing when combined with a mouthful of the more subtle dessert plate. It worked best I thought at the very end, as sort of a palate cleanser.

I have a hard time deciding if this or the next course were my favorite of the evening.

Course 3

Buttermilk fried chicken, maple gelato, pecan-black pepper slaw. This was paired with occidental altbier.
Flight Dessert Bar, Midwestern Roots Menu Course 3 Buttermilk fried chicken, maple gelato, pecan-black pepper slaw. This was paired with occodental altbier. Flight Dessert Bar, Midwestern Roots Menu Course 3 Buttermilk fried chicken, maple gelato, pecan-black pepper slaw. This was paired with occodental altbier.
This was so full of win. The sweetly glazed gelato melding with the crisp yet tender chicken, the crunch of the pecans, cut by the crisp and refreshing slaw… my other dining companions agreed we could have eaten 2 or 3 of these.

I loved that this was paired with a beer, and the Occidental Altbier here added a malty, hoppy, with touch of wood flavor to the dish that balanced the sweet and fat from the chicken and maple, yet some of the nuttiness and caramel toffee in the beer also complimented the pecans and the maple. Even writing this post a week later, I can still recall the flavors of this dish, mmmm.

Course 4

Pineapple upside down cake, tarragon, maraschino cherry, marshmallow fluff. This was paired with chateau st michelle 2012 riesling.
Flight Dessert Bar, Midwestern Roots Menu Course 4 Pineapple upside down cake, tarragon, maraschino cherry, marshmallow fluff. This was paired with chateau st michelle 2012 riesling. Flight Dessert Bar, Midwestern Roots Menu Course 4 Pineapple upside down cake, tarragon, maraschino cherry, marshmallow fluff. This was paired with chateau st michelle 2012 riesling.
This was the sweetest plate of the evening. Besides the 2 whole maraschino cherries you see in the dish, there was also fizzy cherries that were on that dish which were carbonated using a whip cream canister which are coloring the pineapple chunks…

Course 5

State Fair funnel cakes, milk chocolate-stout ganache, Pabst Blue Ribbon frozen custard. This was paired with hale’s ales nut brown ale.
Flight Dessert Bar, Midwestern Roots Menu Course 5 State Fair funnel cakes, milk chocolate-stout ganache, Pabst Blue Ribbon frozen custard. This was paired with hale's ales nut brown ale. Flight Dessert Bar, Midwestern Roots Menu Course 5 State Fair funnel cakes, milk chocolate-stout ganache, Pabst Blue Ribbon frozen custard. This was paired with hale's ales nut brown ale.
This was the course I believe the whole room was looking forward to. As of this date, it is still the only way I have had PBR. Unfortunately, this was a case where because so much anticipation had been built for this dish, and it didn’t quite meet those expectations (even if those expectations may have been unrealistic and unfounded).

A great deal of this dish relied on the funnel cakes, and trying to live up to the nostalgia of the last time you had funnel cake. This is a pretty difficult high bar to reach, or at least it was for me. Although I enjoyed the crunch of the funnel cake here (and unfortunately it was no longer warm by the time they had enough to serve the table), the dough was not delivering on flavor – it seemed like it needed some cinnamon, or sweetness in some other form (like a lot more powdered sugar!).

But, I appreciate the idea, and the milk chocolate stout ganache was scraped clean. It wasn’t a bad dish, but after 10-15 minutes of basically the entire room looking at the open pop up kitchen and the deep pot the funnel cakes were attempting to be made in (and I think the oil not being hot enough), it’s was just hard to deliver so was a little underwhelming. Frying to order for a staring crowd is not an envious task.

Course 6

Grasshopper milkshake, creme de menthe, dark chocolate “puppy chow”. This was paired with coffee or tea, with a little brandy for your coffee if you were so inclined.
Flight Dessert Bar, Midwestern Roots Menu Course 6 Grasshopper milkshake, creme de menthe, dark chocolate Flight Dessert Bar, Midwestern Roots Menu Course 6 Grasshopper milkshake, creme de menthe, dark chocolate
Why haven’t Grasshoppers ALWAYS come with dark chocolate puppy chow like this? I was scraping at the end, even though I was sooo full already.

I had earlier described that there is still a feeling that Flight is getting its bearings- and so it shouldn’t surprise you that there were a few small missteps here or there in service, or in executing what I had already thought might be difficult, making the fresh funnel cakes. Although Nate came out while the funnel cake course was getting ready, I wish similar to other pop-ups I had attended that more descriptions of how the dishes were conceived or interesting tidbits about each dish could have been shared before each course, instead of all at once. It’s one of the outstanding things about pop-ups- the closer access to the creativity process behind the scenes, unlike at a restaurant.

At the same time, that slight awkwardness is easily forgiven, as I think Flight will begin to settle in soon, and they have great potential. Their fresh perspective is fun and progressive, and I think as they get through this first year (they are only a few months into this!), their passion and hunger to share this perspective will quickly mature into success.

Their next space for their pop up is going to be Racion in SW- they have announced at least one date for each of the next 3 months (April 6th, May 4th, and June 1st), but more may be coming, be sure to check their website and Facebook for the latest updates and what menu Chef Nate may be creating. From their FB, it looks like the next dinner on April 6 is going to be an Herb dinner, with each course featuring a different local herb- tickets are available now.

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Desserts Reborn by Morgan St Theater

Disclosure: This tasting of desserts was complimentary (the beverages were paid for by donation), but I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own.

This past Thursday I was very flattered to be asked to join a few other awesome bloggers in checking out a new pop-up dessert club. Morgan St Theater was a literal dessert club, extremely exclusive, you could only get in by personal invitation from the chef himself, so you had to be introduced!

Fortunately, Chef Jared is now looking at expanding the reach of his dessert experience – you still need to join in the mailing list in order to be in the know, but now you too, join in on the explorations that Morgan St Theater is embarking on monthly.

The menu below is from the tasting flight I experienced, and is the current theme for March/spring into Easter. However, Chef Jared is a big fan of dramatic themes, so expect these to change out soon, and often!
"Morgan Morgan St Theater March 6 2014 dessert flight menu focusing on reinventing the sundae and paired with cocktails

Morgan St Theater’s focus is specifically on crafting themed dessert flight experiences that are delivered via the concept of an artisan sundae that rather than going nostalgic and retro, are deconstructed and reconstructed. Each plating was full of textures and flavors, and at this tasting paired with a cocktail courtesy of Marc of Tannery Bar. In this tasting flight, the three desserts being reinvented included the Brownie, Root Beer Float, and Banana Split.
Morgan St Theater- Chef Jared Morgan St Theater- Chef Jared and partner in crime tonight, Marc of the Tannery Bar Morgan St Theater had pairings of the desserts with a cocktail courtesy of Marc of Tannery Bar

March Tasting Menu March 6, 2014

Sundae Bloody Sundae

Tarragon olive oil ice cream, chocolate orange wafer crumble, blood orange gastrique
Morgan St Theater: Sundae Bloody Sundae, Tarragon olive oil ice cream, chocolate orange wafer crumble, blood orange gastrique Morgan St Theater: Sundae Bloody Sundae, Tarragon olive oil ice cream, chocolate orange wafer crumble, blood orange gastrique

Paired with “The Pool of Bethesda”

Cognac, Aquavit, Combier, Lemon, Bay Leaf Syrup, Bitters
Morgan St Theater dessert flight and cocktail pairing, Marc's cocktail The Pool of Bethesda with Cognac, Aquavit, Combier, Lemon, Bay Leaf Syrup, Bitters Morgan St Theater dessert flight and cocktail pairing, Marc's cocktail The Pool of Bethesda with Cognac, Aquavit, Combier, Lemon, Bay Leaf Syrup, Bitters Morgan St Theater dessert flight and cocktail pairing, Marc's cocktail The Pool of Bethesda with Cognac, Aquavit, Combier, Lemon, Bay Leaf Syrup, Bitters

So this is the rebirth of the brownie. It’s a pretty bloody rebirth, as you can see from the color of the gastrique, and as it rises from the earth it has taken on a the flavors of the earth with the natural roasty earthy chocolate now being combined with the herbaceous tarragon (which is further reinforced via the herbaceous qualities of the cocktail), and the orange brings out some of the winey characteristics of chocolate with its bright fruit.

I am awaiting to see my other fellow bloggers who attended to see what they thought of the presentation, but to me it was reminiscent of what I’ve seen from  the Moto roadkill dish (if you are curious, you can google it yourself and I have my old old photo from then here). I felt a little mixed here- on one hand, I did enjoy the crispy crumbly texture here. However, part of what makes a brownie so wonderful, at least for me, is also some of its gooeyness, which was missing here. I wish there could have been both, but I did enjoy it.

Kah-pow!

Black pepper ice cream, plum soda, salted honey rim
Morgan St Theater Pairing: Kah-pow! Black pepper ice cream, plum soda, salted honey rim

Paired with “Tiberius Quelled”

Hendrick’s Gin, Cucumber, Lemon
Morgan St Theater: Tiberius Quelled cocktail with Hendrick's Gin, Cucumber, Lemon Morgan St Theater: Tiberius Quelled cocktail with Hendrick's Gin, Cucumber, Lemon

This reinterpretation of the root beer float was my favorite of the three, although I do think it was a lot of liquid to be having- I think it would have been cute to actually have poured the plum soda in a martini glass for a better ratio of liquid to ice cream, and which also would have matched well with the salted honey rim, which I kept turning my jar to keep getting it all. I do understand it gets a bit fizzy though. I love the juxtaposition of savory and sweet and salty that this dessert offered.

Chef Jared made this plum soda- in fact almost everything here is made from scratch, although he did admit they were not his bees/honey, and the mole was also sourced rather than made. Still, that’s pretty impressive! Meanwhile, this citrus refreshing drink was delicious, and I could have had a second if I wasn’t already drinking another dessert. I wasn’t quite sure how these were supposed to compliment or contrast the dessert here, though conceptually I can understand wanting to cleanse the palate and add an acidic citrus flavor profile. Still, delicious.

Planet of the Apes

Peanut butter ice cream, fried and salted plantain, chocolate mole sauce and lime
Morgan St Theater Pairing: Planet of the Apes Peanut butter ice cream, fried and salted plantain, chocolate mole sauce and lime and cocktail Powders of the Merchant with Foreign and Domestic Rums, Sherry, Becherovka, Combier, Orgeat, Citrus, Bitters

Paired with “Powders of the Merchant”

Foreign and Domestic Rums, Sherry, Becherovka, Combier, Orgeat, Citrus, Bitters
Morgan St Theater cocktail pairing of Powders of the Merchant with Foreign and Domestic Rums, Sherry, Becherovka, Combier, Orgeat, Citrus, Bitters

Finally, the banana split reborn is a rich peanut butter ice cream with a little hint surprising you now and then as the chocolate flavors open on your tongue. The cocktail Powders of the Merchant here was my favorite of the evening, just bursting with complex flavors that with each sip, I had to just let myself wait 15 seconds or so as I enjoyed the experience.

The next upcoming performances of Morgan St Theater are for the next two weeks on Thursday. The one on March 13 may already be sold out, but there is probably still room for the pop-up at Pairings Portland Wine Shop with Dessert from 7-9pm on March 20. In that pop-up, the pairings will be with wine courtesy of Pairings Portland Wine Shop, and I believe this particular pop-up partnership is going to be monthly. RSVP Here for the March 20 Morgan St Theater.

You can also continue to follow Morgan St Theater at their Facebook Page, Twitter @MorganStTheater, or Instagram MorganStTheater. As I mentioned, it seems there are so many more ideas of experiences that are being brainstormed, so more performances will be coming soon! I really enjoyed my experience, and it’s exciting watching this still young but brilliant concept of challenging the traditional sundae begin to expand its reach and be able to examine the modern sundae through the lens of more themes!

As my fellow food blogger companions post, I’ll link to the specific post from Bakery Bingo; Hummingbird High; In the Pink and Green; and Love, Rachel, but you should visit these lovely blogs anyway. Their photos will be so much better than mine.

Disclosure: This tasting of desserts was complimentary (the beverages were paid for by donation), but I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own.

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