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Salt & Straw ice cream

If you’re looking to spice up your holiday meal this Thanksgiving, consider this: an entire meal in five pints of ice cream. And not just any ice cream — handmade, small-batch Salt and Straw ice cream direct from Portland, Oregon.

So what’s so special about Salt and Straw? Cousins Kim and Tyler Malek use only all-natural dairy; local, sustainable and organic ingredients; as well as imported flavors from small, handpicked farms and producers. The ice cream is made with 17 percent butterfat, little air and low sweetness. And then there are the unique flavors: Honey Balsamic Strawberry with Cracked Pepper, Coffee and Bourbon, and Pear with Blue Cheese, among others.

Which brings us back to the Thanksgiving flavors. The Maleks recently visited the only place outside Oregon that serves their ice cream — Joan’s on Third in Los Angeles, which carries the five-pack and serves Salt and Straw by the scoop (we Angelenos are super lucky) — to share these unique holiday flavors with us.

Herewith, Salt and Straw’s Thanksgiving dinner:

Sweet Potato and Candied Pecans: pureed sweet potatoes in the ice cream, with marshmallow fluff and roasted pecans. I much prefer this to the real thing.

Sweet Potato and Candied Pecans

Apple Cranberry Stuffing: celery-sweetened ice cream with cranberries, apples and a white bread pudding flavored with a variety of spices. Really interesting — and delicious — given the celery ice cream. I also like chewing on the bits of bread.

Apple Cranberry Stuffing

Salted Caramel Thanksgiving Turkey: Salted caramel ice cream with turkey skin brittle. Really, really interesting. It’s reminiscent of candied bacon ice creams, but it takes like turkey. Definitely tastes like turkey.

Salted Caramel Thanksgiving Turkey

Mincemeat Pie: holiday spiced ice cream with dried figs, cherries, currants and apples steeped in brandy and fresh citrus. Apparently mincemeat pies don’t actually contain meat (at least, not anymore). This ice cream is super spiced, with lots of cinnamon, clove and all kinds of good holiday flavors.

Mincemeat Pie

Pumpkin Custard and Spiced Chèvre: pumpkin custard piped into a spiced goat cheese ice cream. This was my favorite, hands-down. I love pumpkin-flavored treats and look forward to pumpkin pie every Thanksgiving. I thought Trader Joe’s made the best pumpkin ice cream I’ve ever tasted. There’s no comparison next to Salt and Straw’s.

Pumpkin Custard and Spiced Chevre

All five flavors, and you have to buy them as a package, are available while supplies last at Joan’s on Third for $65. While you’re there, pick up some of Joan’s tasty housemade potato chips.

Note: This tasting was hosted.

Further reading:

Turkey Ice Cream? Thanksgiving Flavors from Portland’s Salt and Straw, Now at Joan’s on Third by Gourmet Pigs

Burger Lounge wild elk burger. Courtesy of Burger Lounge.

Burger Lounge, the San Diego-based chain that’s making its way into the Los Angeles area, has started offering a seasonal wild game menu with a different featured burger every two months (priced at $9.95 each and available at all locations). The first special, available this month and through December, is the grass-fed Minnesota bison burger with bleu cheese and pickled red onions.

Here’s the rest of the lineup:

January/February 2013: Grass-fed Texas wild boar burger with applewood-smoked cheddar, oven-roasted tomato relish and sriracha aioli

March/April 2013: Grass-fed elk burger with fontina, duck cracklings and jicama slaw

May/June 2013: Grass-fed BBQ venison burger with house-made BBQ sauce, crispy onion rings and smoked mozzarella

You may have noticed that all the meat on these burgers is grass-fed. That’s Burger Lounge’s thing: free-range, grass-fed meat, which applies to both the beef and turkey on the regular menu, too (the salmon burger uses wild Alaskan salmon). The company makes efforts toward environmentally sustainable choices, too.

As for Burger Lounge’s everyday menu offerings, don’t overlook the turkey burger, which is made with basil ground into both white and dark meat for a juicy, flavor-packed patty. It’s my favorite item on the menu. The salmon burger, with fried green tomatoes, sounds good, but the patty is too fishy-tasting for me. Whichever burger you get — even the very respectable house-made quinoa veggie burger — make sure to get a milkshake (they even come in small sizes!), which don’t contain any gross syrups, or a fair-trade Maine Root soda made with organic sugar cane.

Turkey burger

Chocolate shake

Note: This meal was hosted.