Liquid gold

Just in the brief month we've been in the Bay Area, we've been lucky enough to not only indulge in some of our favorite foods--ramen, tacos-- but also discover new ones- Korean soups, to-die-for pastries, etc. But nothing, and I mean nothing, prepared us for the glorious magnificence that is the salted caramel ice-cream from Bi-Rite Creamery in San Francisco. Voted one of the nation's 5 Best Desserts of the Year in 2009 and #35 on the list of 100 Things to Try in San Francisco Before You Die, Bi-Rite's salted caramel is single-handedly the most luscious, decadent, launch-a-song-in-your-heart-good ice-cream we've had ever. So delicious I'm dedicating an entire blog post just to it.

Amidst the smorgasbord of desserts that we had for dinner last night (yes, dessert for dinner- we figured, we're in the Bay Area, dare to live a little...), we made the (fortunate) mistake of taking a spoonful of the ice-cream before anything else. And because of that, dinner basically went downhill from there. Don't get me wrong, the pastries and cakes from Tartine and La Boulange de Hayes were perfectly delicious (a goat cheese and pear tart was particularly beguiling), and on any other day, this blog post might have been on any one of those lovely desserts. But everything paled in comparison to the liquid gold that is that perfect ice-cream. Words cannot capture the complex flavor that is Bi-Rite's salted caramel ice-cream: it is at once sweet, creamy, and voluptuous like the best ice-cream should be, but also salty, and just a tad bitter from the burnt caramel to give it a depth of flavor like no ice-cream has ever been, nor will be, in my book. I love it so much that I'm almost afraid to touch the tub that we have in the freezer because it'll mean that we'll eventually run out. After Jude and I had licked the bowl clean last night, we stared into the emptiness and were existentially torn over whether or not to take another spoonful. But one more spoonful now would mean one less spoonful the next time...

How am I ever going to eat another Klondike Bar now? And Häagen-Dazs, I laugh in your face. We have been forever and eternally spoiled for all ice-creams to come.

To see how this perfection is achieved, watch here.