day 30: i was elbowed by heaven

For lovers of all things sweet and delicious, and especially those of us who occasionally like to throw a party in our mouths, Kansas City chocolatier Christopher Elbow is something of a hero.

With flavors like fleur de sel caramel, tequila lime, strawberry balsamic caramel, and Venezuelan spice, his handmade chocolates are as much works of art as candy, and he has deservedly gained national recognition for being one of America's top chocolatiers. 

So last summer when he unveiled several flavors of ice cream during the Crossroads' First Friday festivities, my excitement reached dangerous levels that have not been achieved since I was a five-year-old. And rightfully so - the naturally-flavored mint ice cream was the most amazing explosion of awesome my mouth has encountered since I had fresh ahi tuna in Maui. It was something like this:

image from Blogzarro

Then this spring came news of Glace, the new Elbow ice cream shop on 51st and Main that will allow continuous, year-round availability of the ice cream that I seriously suspect has "rainbows, harp music, sunshine and laughter" among its secret ingredients.

After an agonizing monthlong wait, I went for the first time last week armed with an arsenal of my favorite gelato-taste-test swear words, and after sampling goat cheese with honey and blueberry cream cheese, I went for the surefire sweet-and-salty combo of fleur de sel caramel with strawberry sour cream. It tasted something like this:

Yes, that's a dinosaur flying a plane. So unless that means nothing to you - in which case I have no room for you in my heart - getcha some Elbow ASAP.