Le Grand Bistro and Oyster Bar, Take 2

We went back to Le Grand Bistro and Oyster Bar last weekend after a LivingSocial deal of $50-for-$25 was finally activated.

There seemed to be a theme to our meal of eating everything out of its original shell.

Not pictures were a zillion oysters that tasted just as fresh as the ones we had at our previous visit.

1/2 lb Crab Legs ($21)

1/2 lb Crab Legs

The crab legs were served in a traditional manner on an ice bath, with butter on the side. They were very fresh but basically tasted as expected.

Escargots ($9)

Escargot

I loved the presentation in the shells. The escargot were easy to remove, so they may have been replaced into their original packaging just before being served. The snails were meaty, buttery, and garlicky. They were served with a sauce of butter, parsley, salsify (a root vegetable), and parsnip. 

Moules Marnieres avec des Frites ($16)

Mussels

The mussels were served with a fragrant white wine sauce with parsley, tarragon, chives, sofrito and olive oil. They were large, fresh and mostly very tasty, except for the one I bit into that was extremely gritty. 

We wanted to try dessert this time around since we had to cut our meal at bit short at our last visit.

Le Grand's "house specialty" dessert is a Foie Gras Creme Brulee. It sounded intriguing, but we were skeptical that we could like any creme brulee more than what we had at Opus, so we opted for something different.

At our waitress's recommendation, or maybe subconsciously to stick with theme of eating everything in shelled form, we ordered the Profiteroles ($9).

Profiteroles

Le Grand went for a definite holiday feel with this dessert, with bay leaf ice cream, egg nog anglaise, and clementine chutney. Bay leaf was an ambitious flavor for ice cream, but it worked, and it blended well with the other flavors in the dessert. However, the whole dish was dragged down by the tough, chewy, and flavorless profiterole pastry. They would have been better off to just serve a bowl of ice cream. 

Le Grand serves some very lovely French food, but I still feel service is slow and the price tag is a bit steep.

Website:

http://www.legranddenver.com/

Boulder Ice Cream: Caramel Pecan and Coconut Crunch

While I've reviewed many different treat shops to date - Gelazzi Gelato, CJ's Custard, and Sweet Action Ice Cream - it's about time I gave my two cents on some sold-in-stores stuff.

I spent over two decades living in Boulder and I never tried Boulder Ice Cream until last week. It went on sale at my local Whole Foods for $2.5/pint, and I figured it was time to put it to the taste test.

Boulder Ice Cream flavors are either All Natural or Organic, and they have about an equal number of varieties in either category. All ice creams are batch churned and use local dairies for milk and cream.

The two flavors I purchased were All-Natural Caramel Pecan, and Organic Coconut Crunch.

The Caramel Pecan was excellent. The ice cream had a smooth, velvety texture and rich flavor that reminded me of Ben & Jerry's.

I love lots of "mix-ins" in my ice cream, so I was happy to see large pecan pieces everywhere. The caramel in this ice cream came in the form of the caramel-flavored ice cream base and caramelized pecans.

Nutritionals and ingredients:

I checked this against some Ben & Jerry's we had in the house and noticed that Boulder Ice Cream contains more fat but less sugar than Ben & Jerry's (this applies to both flavors).

Next up for a taste test was Coconut Crunch.

The coconut ice cream base tasted and smelled strongly of coconut, but that was only the result of added coconut flavor. There's no actual coconut in this ice cream. While I was excited to find a coconut-flavored ice cream, I was disappointed there were no coconut pieces in it.

The "crunch" in the name comes from toffee pieces in the coconut ice cream base. I was hoping for substantial, rich chunks of toffee, but instead found only tiny pieces that didn't contribute a strong toffee taste.

Finally, the texture of the Coconut Crunch wasn't as creamy and smooth as the Caramel Pecan. It was harder to spoon out and had a bit of an icy taste. I'm not sure if this was a result of all-organic ingredients in the Coconut Crunch or if it was due to a different issue. Still, this was a good ice cream flavor, but it didn't impress me like the Caramel Pecan did.

Coconut Crunch Nutritionals:

I definitely preferred the Caramel Pecan, but my husband loved the Coconut Crunch. 

I was very pleasantly surprised with the texture and quality of ingredients in the Caramel Pecan. It rivals some of my favorite national premium ice cream brands, but its base price is more expensive. I'll be happy to buy it again when it goes on sale to promote a local company. 

Website:

http://www.boulderhomemadeicecream.com

Sweet Action Ice Cream

Sweet Action is kind of a big deal, and everyone I know has been telling me this for months now.

So it finally came time, on an insanely hot summer day this past weekend, for me to check out what exactly the big deal was.

Sweet Action is known for delicious ice cream, but it's even better known for a constantly changing array of unique flavor options. Think Horchata or Strawberry Balsamic. Or Biscuits and Jam. Flavors change on a weekly-ish basis and are difficult to pinpoint at any particular point in time without walking into the store. Their website is sparse on flavor details in any form, but their Facebook page divulges new flavors regularly. Vegans will be happy to know that they offer several vegan options at any time.

After all the excitement building up to my Sweet Action visit, I was surprised to see the complete lack of decor both inside and outside the shop. It's like someone took an insanely clean car repair garage and turned it into an ice cream parlor. The interior has only a few tables, and a garage door that gets retracted on searing hot days like the one when I visited.

This is just part of the flavor list for the day:

Flavors offered the day of my visit - some of them

Life has been a bit hectic lately, so I had to suffice with grabbing a couple pints for later enjoyment between Mr. Oyster and myself. I selflessly picked out two flavors I thought the husband would love - Red Velvet and Crunchy Peanut Butter - before rushing out the door. At $5.25 each, I thought it was a bit pricey, even for an avid sugar freak like myself.

Flash forward a few hours later, back at the house, spoons in hand, and we went to work:

The red velvet had a white ice cream base that tasted like regular vanilla, with small pieces of red velvet cake mixed in. The texture was perfectly light and fluffy. My first few bites, however, were disappointing. The base ice cream and red velvet pieces lacked punch. It took me several spoonfuls before I finally found what I was looking for: cream cheese frosting.

Red Velvet Ice Cream Pint

Cream cheese frosting is the amazing component that makes a red velvet cake not taste like nothing, and I wish there was more of it in this ice cream. The flavor was decent overall, but didn't quite provide enough tastebud excitement to live up to my beloved Ben and Jerry's Red Velvet Cake.

The Crunchy Peanut Butter flavor had a peanut butter ice cream base, with salted peanuts interspersed throughout. The ice cream had the same wonderfully fluffy texture as the Red Velvet, and a light peanut butter taste. I enjoyed the salted peanuts, but wished there were far more of them, and I would've preferred a stronger peanut butter taste to the ice cream base.

Crunchy Peanut Butter pint. More peanuts please.

My husband, the peanut butter fanatic, was only lukewarm about this flavor. I liked it alright, but slightly preferred the Red Velvet.

I'm obsessed with the flavor options at Sweet Action, and want to go back to try more of their varieties.  I didn't fall in love with either of the two flavors I tried, but I hope my ice cream soulmate lurks among their other zillions of flavors.


Everyday Dining

(7 of 10)

Pros: Endless flavor options, excellent texture, clean store
Cons: Not enough taste to some flavors, expensive (in pint form at least), lack of parking

Website:
http://www.sweetactionicecream.com/

CJ's Frozen Custard

CJ's is the ultimate mom-and-pop custard stop. Their small location is located in Lone Tree at Lincoln and Yosemite, in a strip mall near Safeway and in between a couple of random stores.

The interior of CJ's is pretty bare-bones, with six or so tables and fliers everywhere for every local thing imaginable.

CJ's offers the traditional custard-stand staples of chocolate, vanilla, and "flavor of the day" custards, as well as Vienna hot dogs. I've never tried the hot dogs, but I do know all about the custard. The frozen treats are offered with a variety of standard toppings, and can be ordered as part of a sundae or malt. CJ's also sells "flavor of the day" pints.

My husband's favorite thing ever is the marshmallow malt, made with vanilla custard ($5.5).

Marshmallow Malt

My selection on this particular visit was a small cup of chocolate custard with peanut butter cup pieces ($3.5).

Chocolate Custard with Peanut Butter Cup Topping

And one of my husband's favorite "flavor of the day" selections, in pint form:

Cherry Amaretto Custard Pint

CJ's isn't anything terribly unique, but it is a solid neighborhood custard stop.

Everyday Dining

(7 of 10)

Pros: Unique flavor of the day options, custard in every form consumable
Cons: Slightly expensive, very average custard options

Website:

http://www.cjsfrozencustard.com

Gelazzi Gelato

My husband and I spotted Gelazzi at our local suburban strip mall, and we drove by maybe five dozen times saying "oooh hey we should try that place" before finally checking it out.  We've now made about three or four visits to the location. 

Walking into Gelazzi for the first time, I was surprised at how large the place was and how many different frozen treats were on the menu.  They offer about a million different ways to ingest gelato, including cannolis, cookie sandwiches, cakes and pies. There's ample seating for 20-30 people, plus a party room in the back.  The decor is a little over-the-top - think Greco-Roman meets the 1980s - but maybe the kids love it? 
Every time we've gone has been at what should be peak hours, and the place has a steady stream of traffic but its never terribly busy.

Another thing that sets Gelazzi apart from most ice cream or gelato stops is the vast array of alcohol-infused gelato treats on the menu.  Given the wide selection of these "gelatinis", they must be pretty popular.  However, I'm surprised many people would order them, considering their primary demographic in this deep-in-the-'burbs location is families and teenagers.

I'm not a huge fan of mixing dairy treats and booze, so I've always just stuck to the former. There's at least 20 different flavors available at any time, ranging from mango to Oreo to pistachio. The gelato is - as advertised - lighter tasting (and presumably lighter in fat and calories) than ice cream.  I actually find it slightly bland, but my husband loves it and will be very upset when he sees what I just wrote.  His favorite selection is amaretto chocolate chip gelato in a waffle cone bowl.  I've had a few different chocolatey flavors, all in plain cup form, with chocolate chip cookie dough gelato being my favorite.  The two of us usually get out of there for under $7.



Front: Amaretto Chocolate Chip in a Waffle Cone Bowl
Back: Chocolate Chip Cooke Dough



Everyday dining

(7 of 10)


Pros: Good service, any permutation of gelato goodness you can dream of can be ordered
Cons: Slightly expensive

Website: http://www.gelazzi.com/