Today marked the second and final round of the Stargate Ice Cream Throwdown pitting Writer/Director/Show Creator/Show Runner/Executive Producer Robert Cooper against Blogger/Orange Belt in Judo/High School Clarinet Player yours truly. As those of you who read yesterday’s blog already know – which should be all of you – I was down after a (debatable, in my opinion) first round tie and (fully acceptable) loss. My record stood at 0-1-1 going into today. I would need back to back wins to pull off the victory. Could I do it?!
Rob’s Peanut Butter Crunch Ice Cream vs. Joe’s Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream
I started with this one, my strongest entry, figuring I would probably take the round and set up a nail-biter of a finale in the Battle Chocolate round. The Peanut Butter Crunch was, in my opinion, Rob’s best creation, beating out yesterday’s Smores Ice Cream. A nice balance of taste and textures. While the flavors of my Butter Salted Caramel were definitely bolder, texture was again a problem as it started to melt the instant it hit the bowl. Rob went so far as to declare my creation the “Best Sauce”. When it came time to pass judgment, the jury was conflicted. Carl felt both flavors were the best of the two days, “1A and 1B” so far as he was concerned…but he had to choose one. They all did. And the voting broke down as follows –
Brad: salted butter caramel, John: peanut butter crunch, Carl: salted butter caramel, Linda: salted butter caramel, Paul: salted butter caramel, Lawren: peanut butter crunch, Ashleigh: salted butter caramel.
Final Score: 5-2 (Butter Salted Caramel – Thank you, David Lebovitz!).
And that set up the final battle…
Rob’s Chocolate Brownie Ice Cream vs. Joe’s Double Chocolate Ice Cream (Pralus Milk Chocolate with Chopped Amedei Chuao).
We’d each won one and shared a tie. This was the deciding ice cream. And, because Kerry was unable to make the tasting, a potential tie was out of the question. Still, this one was VERY close. The voting broke down as follows –
Brad: chocolate brownie, Carl: chocolate brownie, Linda: chocolate brownie…
Immediately putting me down 0-3 with four votes to go. Then –
Lawren: double chocolate, Paul: double chocolate, Ashleigh: double chocolate.
Which left the deciding vote to John Lenic. Yesterday, he cast a final vote for Rob’s mint chip that forced a stalemate in the opening battle. Today, after much hesitation (and, I suspect, a desire to slip away unnoticed), he finally cast his vote…
For my double chocolate!
Final Score: 4-3 (Double Chocolate).
Which gave me the come from behind win with two victories today and a final all-round score of 2-1-1.
No sooner had I claimed the win than Ashleigh intimated the voting may have gone differently had it been a secret ballot, that – just maybe – some of the voting may have been a little…political. Of course, she immediately backtracked when I asked her to elaborate, but the damage had been done. My victory was tainted, now rendered as bittersweet as my chocolate ice cream.
Looking back over the Throwdown as an impartial (as possible) observer, I honestly thought the throwdown could well have ended in a tie.
My Vanilla-Advokaat with Flake Crumble over his Mint Chip: I’m sorry. I’m sure that Vanilla was killer, the best ice cream I made last weekend.
His Coconut-Raspberry over my Coconut Cream Pie: Although I preferred the flavors of my entry, I have to admit there were major textural problems that sunk it.
His Peanut Butter Crunch over my Salted Butter Caramel: To be honest, this one was a toss-up and could have gone either way. The caramel was unique and delicious, but that Peanut Butter Crunch was damn good. I would have accepted a close loss on this one – provided I got the win on the vanilla.
My Double Chocolate over his Chocolate Brownie: The stellar bittersweet combo of the Pralus milk and Amedei Chuao was tough to beat.
So, I would have been perfectly happy with the tie.
But I’ll take the win.
Today, we had a discussion of Rob’s new story that eventually devolved into a heated debate about gate travel, subspace sensors, and Swiss Family Robinson.
Don’t ask.
Tomorrow = that long awaited Q&A from actress Elyse Levesque, SGU’s Chloe Armstrong!
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