February 8, 2010
i cannot tolerate your lactose, sir
2/8/10
Oh, vanilla. Why are you so maligned? As an ice cream flavor, you are the alpha and omega, and I'm happy to just have you by yourself. Who are these people who say you're boring? They've made you a synonym for "uninteresting", and that's not fair. I agree with the Barenaked Ladies; you're "the finest of the flavors."
Ah, pistachio, always the butt of jokes, because of the funny name. Funny like "vaudeville" funny, not actually funny... and not actually green, either, which was added in post-production. It's as if someone in a conference room decided you needed a color. Well, you don't need one with me.
Shit, there's butter pecan. When I worked scooping ice cream over those long, hot summers, the butter pecan would always empty first - meaning another trip to the freezer to load in the next case. You're the Garth Brooks of flavors, butter pecan: I just don't understand the appeal.
Oh, it's you, strawberry. The curious thing is this: you're not actually strawberry, you're what we think is strawberry (which means you've become, in essence, strawberry). I'd tell people not to put actual strawberries on strawberry ice cream, but it's just too sharp a differential.
Look if you dare at the black walnut. It brings nothing but bad luck. When we worked at High's Ice Cream in Norfolk, VA circa 1985, something terrible always happened around the Black Walnut. It slid off the top rack of the freezer cart and landed on a shift manager's head. A cylinder slipped out of a co-worker's hands and crushed his foot. When removing the metal top, the thin rim sliced open two different scoopers' hands, including Josie (who says she doesn't remember it, but that's the Black Walnut talkin'). After a while, word got out that the Black Walnut flavor was haunted. It's the only time I've ever experienced a haunted flavor, and pray it's the last.
Rocky Road, stop farting.
Oh, why HEL-LO there cookies & cream! I didn't see you! It's hard to go wrong with you (and your slutty cousin Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough) because every bite is different, and every bite is awesome. Unless, of course, you grow up with my sister Michelle, who would take the cookies & cream box out of the freezer and painstakingly eat every bit of oreo in the whole half-gallon, leaving her brothers with naught but a jagged lunar landscape to mourn over.
And while you're not my cup of tea, chocolate, my yin can't exist without your yang. I can deal with Neapolitan because you're in context, but by yourself? Well, let's just say that I'd defend you in a fight by the bike rack, but I won't sit next to you in Geometry.
Haagen Dazs coffee is the pinnacle of commercial ice-cream achievement.
Now, homemade ice cream... I worked 3 summers in a homemade ice cream parlor located in an old converted carriage house in Marion, MA. Helped the old man make the ice cream, the hot fudge, the butterscotch sauce... Too many favorites to mention. I gained 8 lbs the first summer.
Damn you, now I'm craving ice cream. COME ON, man! We just finished Super Bowl Weekend! I'm fitting into pants I thought were waaaaay too big last summer.
And, for the record, I believe I'm the only American this side of the Mississippi who does NOT like homemade ice cream. Too runny, too melty, never creamy enough. And the random summer fruit people add, well, just yuck. Sorry Nana.
Like our genetically engineered blue eyes, all of these Howells claim ice cream as '#1 foodstuff'. Don't know if it adds to the mystique, but butter pecan is among my personal faves. Maybe it's a southern thang.
Mmmm! I'd like to put in my vote for chocolate chip mint/mint chocolate chip. Especially with rainbow sprinkles (or jimmies, as you Southerners say.)
Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip
Haagen Daaz 5 Mint
Haagen Daaz 5 Ginger
Haagen Daaz 5 Brown SugarIn that order.
I don't drink coffee, but it is my favorite ice cream flavor... Ice cream for breakfast seems very appropriate with 3 feet of snow on the ground!
No, no, CM -- 'jimmies' is what we Yankees say.
Topical, still thinking about the vanilla and Cheerwine float I had last night...
I most always get the same flavor ice cream (and pizza too.)
Mint Chip.
Like pistachio, I have had it with and without the green coloring and somehow I prefer the post-production "mint" color.The new fave however---> Roselani brand Haupia (coconut) flavor. Just the right amount of coconut cream and I swear there are some tiny coconut flecks mixed in. Don't know if they sell it outside of Hawaii, but if you ever get the chance...Mmmmmm.
And I still don't remember!
I like my vanilla married with fruit compote.
Breyers ought to get a Nobel Prize for their lactose-free vanilla. In terms of services to humanity, I rank it alongside the invention of beer.
Oh remember coconut almond choc chip from B&J?? mmmm...
i can't believe nobody is talking about mint oreo from B&J. i can't eat the cookies but get mint chunk, and then my wheat free oreos that the sweet late mr. newman makes and crush em up in my mint choc chunk and i'm happy as well, a 41 year old woman eating ice cream.
My favorite ice cream flavor was something we had when we lived in Madison called "Blue Moon". It was blue (duh), but I can't really describe the flavor... I've heard people say it tastes like marshmallows or fruity pebbles or something, but it's not nearly that sweet. I just loved it. My dad took my sister and I for ice cream on Sunday afternoons.
An ice cream/candy shop opened in front of Granville Towers for a short time a few years ago. They had Blue Moon. I was so excited. Next thing I knew, the place closed.
See this article about the Venezuelan ice cream parlor with over 800 flavors.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8460094.stm
Baskin Robbins was a pussy.
Turkey Hill's Party Cake ice cream! I can eat a half gallon in two sittings. Good stuff. In the freezer section near you!
I'm not an ice cream freak, but I do enjoy chocolate chip cookie dough when I'm indulging. Oooh, or cake batter if they have it - yumm!
My favorite flavor as a kid was BR's bubble gum. I don't know if they still make it this way, but it had actual bubble gum chunks in it. I'd eat the ice cream (which was blue and tasted like vanilla) and save all the gum for the end. Now I think that combo is just plain weird.
I am totally craving a Cheerwine float right now, though...that sounds heavenly.
jje, we were JUST talking about BR's bubblegum ice cream last night. i never tried it but was wondering if you ate the gum or chewed it. that's messed up either way.
ooh ooh ooh eee eee eee aah aah aah (chunky monkey from Ben & Jerry
Kate, the place you're talking about is Kilwin's. I was really excited that they opened one in Chapel Hill, but disappointed when it closed. The closest one I know about is on Main Street in Blowing Rock. You can't miss it. They still have Blue Moon, but my favorite is Key Lime Pie.
Blue Moon! Back in the 1960s, when (to a 6 year old) Meijer's Thrifty Acres was the best store on the planet, they used to have an ice-cream shop in the store that had Blue Moon! Can't even remember what it tasted like, but yeah, it was the greatest flavor of all time!
That's pretty odd. Can anyone else think of a taste that they've *forgotten*? That shouldn't even be possible.
Gotta put in for Ben&Jerry's "Half Baked"; perfect for those who want to keep their options open.
adrienneg - That's it! Not knowing or remembering the name bugged me all afternoon.
Good to know they're in Blowing Rock. It's almost worth the drive with my Dad just to relive those Sunday afternoons when I was 7 years old.
I know there are a few people that comment from time to time that are from Statesville. Elliott's Ice Cream Parlor had the best ice cream ever -- Banana Pudding ice cream in a bowl with toasted, salted pecans on top. One of the top 10 memories of my childhood. Sadly, it's now been bulldozed so that a convenience store can hock pickled eggs, Nascar hats, and diesel.