The Best Thing I Ever Ate

 

I’m sitting on the couch, watching a beautiful sunset over the lake, while Ryan and Lexi nap on the couch beside me. I’m watching The Best Thing I Ever Ate, which is mostly making me hungry, but it’s also causing me to think it would be fun to share some of my favorite meals and treats from places I’ve eaten during my adventures with Ryan.

            If you haven’t seen the show, the guests (usually foodies and/or celebrities) talk about the best thing they’ve ever eaten at a restaurant. The results are sometimes from really fancy places, but I’m pretty sure one segment I saw a while ago featured a hot dog cart!

            I know I’m going to end up forgetting some of my favorites, but I’ll list some that stick out to me today! And then maybe if I remember more, I’ll do another post another week. Please do not judge me that most of my winners are dessert. 😊 You’ve heard about all of these one way or another before, but they bear repeating today.

            First up…The salted caramel ice cream at Scoops in Chilton, Wisconsin. Back in 2016, right after Ryan and I moved to Kokomo, we traveled to the little town of Chilton, Wisconsin, so I could be a breakout session speaker at a women’s conference. My friend Olivia hosted us and while we were there, she and her husband took us to some of their favorite restaurants. They took us to a local ice cream shop called Scoops, and I fell hard and fast for their salted caramel ice cream. The ice cream was some of the best I’ve ever had, and the caramel was perfection in taste, consistency, and ratio to ice cream. I loved it so much that we went TWICE in the three days we were there, and a few months later, Olivia bought me a whole pint of it and shipped it home with her mom just to surprise me. They sell this stuff wholesale, and I just want to open my own ice cream shop so I can bring it in by the truckload and share it with everyone. I have eaten a lot of ice cream in a lot of places, and while I’ve never found any I disliked, I’ve also never loved any quite as much as this.

            And while we’re talking about ice cream, I also dearly love the DeBrand Sundaes. If you’re from around here, you know. If you’re not, you’re missing out. DeBrand is a local gourmet chocolate shop, and they’re known for their truffles and giant caramel apples and other such goodness. But in their stores, you can get one of their sundaes, and nothing compares. Vanilla ice cream in a hard-shell chocolate dish – either milk or dark chocolate. You can choose two syrup toppings, and never in my life have I had such a hard time choosing just two. It is rare for me to like ALL the options. I like them all here: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, caramel, peanut butter, and raspberry. You can also add pecans, and I find that totally worth it. I share these with Ryan because it’s the responsible thing to do. I don’t actually want to share them. They are simple, yet rich and amazing and completely unique. The ice cream is quality. The chocolate shell is quality. The sauce (regardless of the flavor) is quality. So. So. Good.

            Let’s keep the dessert love going, shall we? When Ryan and I lived in Grabill, we often sneaked away to the little coffeehouse for dates. And our favorite, favorite thing to get was fresh brew and carrotcake. I have no idea if they made the carrot cake in-house or if someone locally made it and sold it to them. But I know the pieces were generous (we always shared, but per usual, I could have eaten the entire thing by myself) and it was perfect. Perfect flavor, perfect consistency, perfect frosting (generously applied), and it was comfort on a plate. I have tried to duplicate it. I have failed. I have tried carrot cake other places. Always disappointing. This cake was so good. Here’s how good it was: I chose it over chocolate. That’s saying something, isn’t it? (I chose the photo with me in it so you can see how big the pieces are!)

            One more dessert! This one is my current favorite treat. I’ve mentioned these on the blog before, but I’m going to mention them again! 😊 When we moved to this area, there was a little restaurant called The White Cottage. We ate there once and enjoyed it. But it sold not long after we moved, and the new owner turned it into a sweet shop. Baked goods, candy…just about anything you could want. But the owner is known for her amazing eclair-making talents. I had heard about them, so one night I stopped to get some for us, and now I want one every single day. I do not buy one every single day – or anywhere close to it. But I could. They are just absolute perfection. They’re generously sized, a very light pastry, perfectly flavored cream, and amazing chocolate on top. Ryan surprised me with one not long ago, and I almost cried real tears. SO GOOD. If you’re in the area, go to the White Cottage Sweet Shoppe and get you an éclair!

            This is one of my favorites, but I’m so sad it’s no longer an option. When Ryan and I went to Siesta Key for our wedding, there was a gentleman who had a food cart on the property of the resort where we stayed. He made the BEST breakfast burritos I’ve ever had in my entire life. He gifted us our breakfast the morning of our wedding (when he found out it was our wedding day) and we went back again before our honeymoon was over! We were SO sad, when we went back for our fifth anniversary, to find out he had moved away and taken his food cart with him. But this remains my favorite. (Also – our sweet resort is closed for the rest of the year and still unsure of how much damage they’ve sustained after Milton’s hit.)

            Here’s another one that is no longer an option. But I can’t let this list go without some kind of coffee making an appearance, right? My favorite frappe of all time came from Gaither Family Resources in Alexandria. If you’re not familiar, the Gaithers (yes, the singing people) had a store in their little hometown of Alexandria, Indiana. I adored the store. It had books and home décor and clothing and…well…a little bit of everything really! There was also a café integrated into the store, and I enjoyed their food very much, but it was the frappes that held my heart. I don’t know what they did to make them extra amazing, but they were just that. The store closed back when Ryan and I lived in Kokomo, and I still think that is a great travesty. (The photo is with my final one – during their going-out-of-business sale.)

            And if I had to name the meal I talk about more than any other, it would be this one. Ryan still laughs that this was my favorite meal out of all time. We tend not to go to very many fancy restaurants. We’re more value-menu people. But we have gone some really nice places, and yet this is my favorite. Are you ready? It was the dinner we had at Kings Island’s Winterfest during an anniversary trip. Seriously. All-time favorite. Most of their restaurants and food kiosks were closed, since it was winter, but they had some food places open, and our dinner came from one of them. The concept was similar to Chiptotle – building a meal. But the base was a choice of tater tots or macaroni and cheese – and then we built it up with meat, salsa, cheese, and all the toppings. I ate every single bite and have never forgotten that dinner.

            So there you go! The best thing(s) I’ve ever eaten! How about you? A favorite?