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Paper Plate: Who says ice cream isn’t a meal? Pink Pony Soft Serve is our craveable food in ABQ

By Devin O’Leary, The Paper. — OK, nobody said our favorite dish had to be a full meal. So there’s nothing legally or morally wrong with us choosing soft-serve ice cream as one of our favorite, must-have food items in Albuquerque. Now, soft serve isn’t normally considered any sort of “gourmet” item. It’s the entry level product of countless Dairy Queens across America. But Pink Pony has turned this childhood comfort food into a transcendental experience. Chocolate, vanilla or twist are your only basic choices here (made with local Rasband Dairy milk/cream), but the elevated toppings are what sends these desserts into overdrive. From the basic (rainbow sprinkles) to the advanced (honeycomb brittle), Pink Pony does it up right. (Do not – I repeat – do not sleep on the homemade, small-batch marshmallows! They’re $1.50 each, but worth every sticky cent.) The eye-opening, mind-expanding treat here is the Italiano sundae cup ($7). Vanilla ice cream, roasted hazelnuts, olive oil, maldon sea salt: That’s it. If it sounds a little savory, it is. If it sounds a little sweet, it is. It’s the perfect balance, and the ideal treat for those who find sickly sweet, artificially fruitfied desserts too much to bear. The roasted hazelnuts are a terrific textural addition, and the maldon sea salt (a premium “finishing salt” hand-harvested in Essex, England since 1882) makes the simple sweetness of the vanilla ice cream explode in your mouth. Try one, and you’ll be hooked for life. (Also, keep an eye out for their newly added location at 1501 Mountain Rd. NW.)