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Every year, bow-tied U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer
sends fruitcake to friends, family and favored local news outlets. This
year, there was a twist. Local ice-cream monolith Salt & Straw made
fruitcake ice cream with Blumenauer's recipe, and Blumenauer put on a
green bow tie and red shirt to deliver his normal fruitcake, plus his
new fruitcake ice cream, to local media, including The Oregonian, The Portland Mercury and…well, not Willamette Week. Oh, Earl. While those outlets dutifully reported on the Blumenauer-flavored ice cream, WW
was in the enviable position of being allowed an unbiased review. So we
did what no one ever does, ever, which is go out and buy a fruitcake.
Except we bought it in ice-cream form at Salt & Straw. What we found
was, you shouldn't take a notoriously hard, gummy, bitter dessert and
freeze it. The fruitcake was all of those things, but also cold, and a
little dry, and a textural nightmare amid milky, corn-syrupy ice cream.
But, hey, it's for charity—proceeds go to buy bikes for kids. So, uh, go
to the Community Cycling Center and buy a kid a bike. Then go get an
ice-cream cone at What's the Scoop? on North Williams Avenue.
WWeek 2015