Q: What's Good for a Sore Throat? A: Bent Spoon

My pre-Valentine's Day masterpiece from The Bent Spoon: chocolate port ice cream on the bottom and chocolate-covered-strawberry sorbet on top.

To celebrate Valentine's Day, Gary and I were supposed to go to Avenue last night - a beautiful French restaurant in Long Branch with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the ocean. Unfortunately, I've been plagued by flu-like symptoms for the last few days: sore throat, runny nose, aches, sneezing, ear infection ... the works. Gary was such a good sport though; he just canceled our reservations and instead took me -sniffles and all- for a steaming bowl of noodle soup at Rai Rai Ramen followed by ice cream at The Bent Spoon in Princeton.

TripAdvisor ranked The Bent Spoon #2 out of 68 restaurants in Princeton, and it's probably one of the few ice cream places in the world that has a line out the door in the middle of winter (with only three indoor tables). If waiting in a long line to eat ice cream outside in the freezing cold seems like a ridiculous notion - it's obvious that you have never eaten at The Bent Spoon before. Publication after publication (NY Times, NJ Best, Time Out NY, NY Post) have touted the glories of The Bent Spoon's crazy delicious treats, and I too have been known to blabber on incessantly about their legendary flavors to anyone who will listen.


Above is a picture of The Bent Spoon menu from Serious NY Eats. The flavors change all the time depending on what they can get locally, so you never know what flavors will show up on those little brown paper bags. The owners (a husband and wife team) estimate that they have about 380 flavors in their rotation - every single one using only organic, locally grown ingredients like "honey culled from Jersey bees or chocolate laced with mint grown by student farmers at a nearby Riverside Elementary School" (NY Times). Probably two of my all time favorite flavors are blueberry mascarpone (only in summer) and Guinness - Baileys cream (only around St. Patrick's Day), but the chocolate-covered-strawberry sorbet that I had yesterday is definitely in my top 10.

The sweetest thing about the afternoon, however, wasn't the velvety perfection in that little black plastic cup... it was the fact that I was with Gary, and thanks to my doctors I hopefully will get to spend many more Valentine's Days with the love of my life.