March brings the official start of spring, and just our luck, a brand new Show Stopper Shake at Hotel Valley Ho’s ZuZu. We were so excited to be asked to taste-test and report back to all of you.
We’ll take you through the schpeil for those who aren’t in the know: every month the genius pastry at ZuZu, Chef Audrey Enriquez, creates a whimsical milkshake that’s as delicious as it is beautiful. Which is to say very delicious, very beautiful. These shakes are gigantic, probably a million calories, and delightful. We look forward to two things every month: Pay Checks and the ZuZu Show Stopper Shake theme announcement. Little else.
This month, we were invited to try the Spring Training malted chocolate shake with a sweet-and-salty cupcake, baseball truffles, chocolate-covered potato chips, cracker jack popcorn ball, and salted peanuts.
But first, dinner.
It was a cold, rainy night. We sat in the lounge for a change of scenery and opted for a lighter dinner because we wanted to save our calories for later.
We started with the Seared Diver Scallops. Perfectly cooked, the scallops sat atop toasted couscous and asparagus, but it came paired with a nice surprise; a fried Meyer lemon.
We have had a lot of things fried… Cookies, Twinkies, butter… but never lemon. Turns out you can fry anything and make it delicious. Lemon is no exception.
Next, we ate our greens. The BLT Chopped Salad was not some wimpy salad where you hope they put more than three pieces of bacon in it. This thing was 98 percent bacon, pretty sure. And it was delicious. We asked for salmon to be added to the salad and it was a great compliment to the cherry tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, cheddar, Marcona almonds, candied bacon, and creamy green goddess dressing. Actually, nearly anything would be a compliment to the green goddess dressing. We eat A LOT of salad and that’s probably the best salad dressing ever. We would eat that dressing with anything (and, full disclosure, we took some home with us to eat later).
Next, of course, was what we wait for all month, the Show Stopper Shake.
What can you say about a beautiful malt chocolate shake besides NOTHING because you are too busy eating it? We couldn’t stop. We always say, oh we will have three sips and then, well, we don’t.
We couldn’t stop ourselves. Why is the whipped cream on the Show Stopper Shake always the best? It’s thick and creamy without being too sweet. And somehow, we don’t know how, but you can eat as much of the shake as you want without feeling deathly ill from the sugar. We are pretty sure this shake is magic? We are hoping this magic shake also contains zero calories. Fingers crossed.
Meanwhile, if you haven’t tried a chocolate covered potato chip in a milkshake, you have one more week to try it out. And after alllll of this, you get to finish everything off with a beautiful cupcake topped with a buttercream frosting. The Show Stopper Shake is available until March 31, and then Chef Audrey creates a new shake (but don’t worry, we are prettttty sure that one will be beautiful and just as easy on the ol’ taste buds).
This month’s show stopper shake really hit a …home run… sorry we had to. The malt was perfect and gave the shake a richness without the cloying sweetness many deserts tend to have. It was also a little too easy to pop the baseball truffles in our mouths. Easier still to eat them in just two bites. When in Rome. Or Hotel Valley Ho.
Every month we think, oh this is the best shake…but then every month we are surprised and delighted all over again. We can’t pick a favorite, but we do know we could eat about six of these. Or seven or eight. Or one every night until April 1st. No joke.
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6850 East Main Street
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
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