A little over a year ago, the New York Times’ Kim Severson blogged about her close encounter with an $8.00 shake at the Brooklyn Burger Bar.
The first thing that Severson thought of was Uma Thurman and John Travolta bantering about a $5.00 shake in “Pulp Fiction.”
Her verdict on her pricey ice cream concoction? “In a word, it was OK.”
Eerily, I had almost the exact experience on Sunday at the Steelhead Diner. I was trying out the restaurant for the first time, spotted an $8.00 milkshake on the menu and immediately thought of said Tarantino flick. I adore ice cream and would gladly shell out eight bucks for a transcedent milkshake experience.
I ordered the chukar chocolate milkshake, which was made with fruit from Chukar Cherries and Olympic Mountain Ice Cream, two Seattle-area favorites.
I enjoyed the excellent fried chicken sandwich and sauteed mustard greens for lunch and saved the shake for dessert. I expected it to be an exclamation point to my entire meal.
It wasn’t.
Halfway through the shake, I was loving it and thinking that it was worth the high price. The consistency was creamy and thick, but not too thick, and the sweetness of the chocolate and the tang of the cherries played off each other beautifully. But then I got to the bottom, which was a clot of cherries that hadn’t been pureed enough and didn’t incorporate into the shake. Without the chocolate ice cream, the cherries were too bitter and cancelled out all other pleasing flavors of the meal.
Dairy Queen, here I come.
Edible Joy 