Your Last Meal | The scoop on Salt & Straw’s wacky flavors
Co-founders Kim and Tyler Malek had never made ice cream when they decided to open a shop in Portland in 2011. Plus, the treat's fascinating history!

From pear & blue cheese to bone marrow with bourbon smoked cherries, Salt & Straw has always been experimental, and eager to weave local products and ingredients into their flavors. On this delightful episode, the cousins share how the highly successful brand got started (the story involves Portlandia, an ice-cream maker from Goodwill and Cheetos), the grossest flavor head ice-cream maker Tyler ever developed and, of course, their last meals – both chose sentimental dishes made by their Grandma Malek.
Speaking of grannies, we’ll meet the owner of Enoteca Maria, a Staten Island restaurant where the food is cooked by a rotating cast of "nonnas." This month alone, the Nonnas of the World program welcomes women from 12 different countries, eager to share their unfussy homestyle dishes.
It’s hard to imagine a world without ice cream. Food historian Sarah Lohman shares the history of the sweet treat, and says we have Black enslaved Americans to thank for the invention of the creamy, delicious ice cream (and scooping tool!) we know and love today.
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