Pineapple Express Pineapple soft serve: Right in the middle of the ultra-touristy (and, thus, overly-stressful) Chelsea Market is a little oasis in the form of Pineapple Express, a stand/hut wrapped in bamboo sticks and straw trim, decorated with hanging pineapple-shaped Christmas lights. Here, they serve a variety of tropical treats, from fresh coconut juice to full-on ice cream sundaes. The price tag is still entirely Chelsea Market (get ready to dish out $7 for Dole Whip), or you can opt for the minuscule soft serve cone, bar... (read more) 4.5/5.0
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Tartine Manufactory Blood orange sorbet and cardamom soft serve: Tartine Manufactory closes its bakery section, including soft serve, for dinner service, but if you ask nicely, they will serve it (as I found out last night). This swirl of blood orange and cardamom was one of the best things I ate all year, with potently spiced cardamom and sharp citrus. The texture was smooth and consistent. Often, independent flavors in swirled soft serve compete and don’t quite work in harmony, but this unexpected combination was both balanced and even better with one a... (read more) 4.5/5.0
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Screamers Dole Whip: Screamers is a soft serve treats stand at Stevenson Wharf in Richmond, BC (a 30 min drive south from Downtown Vancouver). Their signature offering is a "screamer" drink they describe as a combination of ice cream and slurpee – it comes in a variety of classic fruity Crush soda flavors. Their other speciality is soft serve dole whip, a tropical treat combining pineapple and vanilla soft serve. The kiddie size (pictured) is more than enough for an adult and barely costs $3. The texture is i... (read more) 4.5/5.0
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Morgenstern's Tour Pine'Our soft serve: One of my favorite chefs, Paul Liebrandt, recently collaborated with the LES ice cream shop Morgenstern's and introduced a series of special soft serve flavors over the course of a month. I sampled the last one, a swirl of strawberry hibiscus sorbet and sunchoke ice cream. The texture of the soft serve was excellent, and I especially loved the sharpness of the sorbet. The sunchoke ice cream was fine, but more of a neutral base for the sorbet. The entire dessert was topped with toasted hazel... (read more) 4.0/5.0
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Wiz Bang Bar Smith Teamaker Big Hibsicicle Sherbert: In the Pine Street Market, an indoor food hall in downtown Portland, is a soft serve and sundae bar named Wiz Bang from Salt & Straw, the ever-popular ice cream shop that has branched outside of the city to several LA and San Francisco locations. Central to Salt & Straw's success is their ability to strike a chord between the familiar and unexpected, with comforting flavors that are also intriguing and sometimes daring. The soft serve that I ordered, the Smith teamaker big hibiscicle sherber... (read more) 4.0/5.0
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Uji Pineapple softserve in small taiyaki cone: Two exciting updates on the Uji-front (my favorite soft serve spot in Berkeley): they now have "small" sized taiyaki cones, which are ideal (you still get a ton of soft serve, and it's about $5), and the new seasonal flavor is pineapple. The taiyaki cone is as good as ever - a fish-shaped waffle that's crispy on the outside and soft and chewy inside, with a surprise of red bean plugging the bottom. It's the ideal serving vehicle that holds up especially well compared to regular cones (it d... (read more) 4.0/5.0
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