Foie Gras ice cream!

Foie Gras ice cream goes on my Kiliminjaro food list: stuff I had to try just because it is there. As with braised fruit bat and scorpion toast, I ended up enjoying more than just the novelty.

All credit to Humphry Slocombe, the creative San Francisco ice-cream shop, for pairing its creamy, savory product to its best advantage.

Most of Humphry Slocombe's outrageous flavors, like Salted Licorice (my fave so far) and Balsamic Caramel, are available by the scoop or pint. But the Foie Gras -- only occasionally available (maybe when the geese are flying?) -- is sold only in an ice-cream sandwich cookie ($4) made with ginger snaps.

The beautiful and helpful shopkeeper (how will she ever keep her figure there?) let me try the ice cream by itself after I announced my purchase, but before I handed her the money. She also didn't appear disheartened when I immediately reduced the number of sandwiches I wanted.

By itself, Foie Gras ice cream was a little unnerving -- very rich and like all of Humphy Slocombe's flavors, accurate. It tasted so much like chilly, milky foie gras terrine that I wondered if I would encounter chopped-up bits of liver (on my mind because I just read this excellent Japanese noir novel.)

The crunchy, slightly sweet ginger snaps make a perfect counterpoint, both in flavor and texture. You get the rich, creamy, meaty taste initially, and then just as your brain is starting to scream "liver, liver!" the ginger snaps take over. You need to crunch them in your teeth to finish the bite, and that's the final textural impression.

Now I can't want to try the Government Cheese flavor, which the shopkeeper tells me will only be served with an apple tart. Few patrons of pricey ice-cream boutiques know what government cheese actually tastes like, so the shop will have some leeway.

By the way, if you're a foie gras hater, you might feel more comfortable at this silly website where a vegan tells us nobody should eat meat because she has this pet that feels really nice when it lies next to her. Seriously. There are lots of great arguments for vegetarianism; this one has to be the worst I've ever heard. Lucky for her Humphry Slocombe doesn't do lapin a la moutarde ice cream. Yet.