The Plaid Pladd

I saw this on the Travel Channel once and I was PUMPED to experience it in person. At Rick Moonen’s RM Seafood in Mandalay Bay they give you sixteen little tastes of different ice cream flavors, and you have to guess what they are. It’s way hard, y’all. Some of them are normal ice cream flavors, but a lot of them definitely are not. Plus, it’s really hard to identify taste when you don’t have other clues like texture, especially when it’s not something you’re used to encountering in ice cream. Has anyone ever gotten all of them? I doubt it.

Ready!

They give you one freebie

Here’s a close-up for reference

Starting at the top right: This one was vanilla bean. That’s the one they gave us.

Moving one left: This one bothered Steven. “I KNOW THIS FROM MY CHILDHOOD” he whined. He forced us to come back to it multiple times.
Our final answer: Rambutan
Real answer: Passion fruit. Steven overthinks everything.

Moving one left: This one was DEFINITELY some kind of nut, we were sure. But it had a lighter taste than most nut ice creams so we couldn’t decide what kind. I eventually let Steven fill in his crazy theory.
Our final answer: Gincko Nut
Real answer: Butternut squash. After knowing the answer and tasting it again, I was like “Oh yeah, that is totes butternut squash.” But it was hard to identify that flavor from the void.

Far left corner: “Nutella!” I said immediately. It had that distinctive chocolate hazelnut taste.
Our final answer: Chocolate Hazelnut
Real answer: Nutella

Moving one down: This one was chocolate but with a definite kick at the end.
Our answer: Dark chocolate and cayenne
Real answer:Togarashi Chocolate. Apparently this is a specific kind of Japanese pepper.

Moving one right: Cinnamon!!!! Clearly cinnamon!! For once there was consensus
Our answer: Cinnamon
Real answer: Cinnamon

Moving one right: We both agreed this one was butter pecan. It was especially buttery.
Our answer: Butter pecan.
Real answer: Coconut. This may seem like a weird confusion on our part, but I can see how both these flavors bring nutty and creamy elements that could be confused when you’re going in blind.

Moving one right: This one had little squishy things in it, which was the first clue.
Our answer: Rum raisin
Real answer: Rum raisin

Moving one down: Clearly raspberry! It punches you in the face with raspberry!
Our answer: Raspberry
Real answer: Raspberry Mint. You have to look for the subtle flavor underneath the pungent raspberry flavor, apparently.

Moving one left: This was way weird in both taste and consistency. I didn’t really like it, and had a hard time identifying it.
Our answer: Cheese
Real answer: Benedictine. This is some kind of herbal liqueur which I’ve never tasted.

Moving one left: This one was really strawberry to me. Steven insisted it was strawberry cheesecake, which I didn’t get from it at all, but I let him write what he wanted.
Our answer: Strawberry cheesecake
Real answer: Strawberry tarragon. Turns out Steven was right about there being some other taste in there, he was just wrong about what it was.

Moving one left: Mango! This one reminded me of my favorite Locopops flavor.
Our answer: Mango
Real answer: Mango Thai Chili. I should have remembered those popsickles are mango chili flavored. But the Thai part would have probably eluded us anyway.

Moving one down: This one pretty much tasted like nothing. Like plain ice cream, if that were a thing.
Our answer: Sweet cream
Real answer: Taro root. I’m surprised I didn’t get this one, because I’ve definitely had taro root tea and smoothies before. Those were always pretty strong with the taro root taste, and this was much lighter and more refreshing.

Moving one right: “Some kind of flower” I said immediately. But we argued about which. It wasn’t rose. It wasn’t lilac. Thus exhausting the only two flower ice creams I’ve ever tasted.
Our answer: Honeysuckle
Real answer: Lavender

Moving one right: Coffee!!!
Our answer: Coffee
Real answer: Coffee! Finally an easy one

Close right corner: This one was definitely chocolate. The richest chocolate ever.
Our answer: Belgian chocolate
Real answer: Chocolate

Even though we got a lot of them wrong, it was really fun to play! I would definitely do this again! Especially since the flavors change all the time. It’s interesting to see how much texture and visuals play into what things taste like when you don’t have those cues to rely on.

Yay!

Previously: Fancy Food!
Next: Goodbye Vegas