Redartz: Hello friends; here we are at another weekend. Here in the Northern hemisphere, Spring has arrived! And with it, warmer weather, lawnmowing (grumble, mutter, grumble), baseball, and ice cream! Yes, I know ice cream in all its' wonderful forms is available year long. But when I was a wee tad, there was a small Dairy Queen stand in our town. This stand only sold ice cream (okay, "soft serve", no hot food. It was walk-up-to-the-window only. And, it was only open Spring through Fall. So, the advent of Spring each year brings me mental images of cones, sundaes, and shakes (my favorite choice was a hot fudge sundae; all that gooey fudge melting down the famous DQ 'curl'). 
Now we have ice cream parlors aplenty within easy driving distance. When I'm craving a milkshake, I like to patronize Steak'n'Shake. Nobody makes a chocolate malt better (except for when my wife fires up her blender). And they have so many flavor combinations, I have yet to sample them all...
So what do you order when you're craving a cool treat? Any favorite parlors? Favorite flavors? Perhaps we have some who make homemade ice cream. Grab a spoon and dish out your thoughts!
7 comments:
Before I was born, my grandmother used to work at a local ice cream factory called Taggy's and, every time we went past the factory, she'd point at it and say, "I used to work there." I was massively impressed that I knew someone who knew the secret of making ice cream, bearing in mind that making ice cream seemed like something that should be impossible. Sadly, she never used to make it at home and just bought it like everyone else did.
As for favourites, as long as it's ice cream, I'm happy. Over here, we have a thing called a 99, which is a traditional ice cream cone with a Flake stuck out of it. A Flake is a weird, crumbly Cadburys chocolate bar that makes no sense as a foodstuff on its own but suddenly fully justifies its existence when rammed into a lump of ice cream. For me, a 99 will always be the iconic totem of a summer holiday on the beach.
When I was about 9 or 10 I used to travel into the nearby town with my sister, mother and grandmother. My sister and I were always treated to an ice cream sundae called a "Knickerbocker Glory" which came in a tall glass and consisted of layers of ice cream and fruit topped off with a dollop of cream and a cherry. It was delicious and I always looked forward to it. There was an ice cream van that regularly came to my village - the driver was black and that was the first time I'd ever seen a black person in real life. I'd usually buy a 99, mentioned by Steve, or a Screwball which was a plastic cone full of ice cream with a round bubble gum at the bottom - once the ice cream was finished there was still the bubble gum to enjoy ! Nowadays I rarely eat ice cream - if I do it's just a tub of vanilla flavour from the supermarket.
Why, just last evening my wife and I each enjoyed a bowl of Edy's Slow-Churned Drumstick. For those not in the know, that is sold in a carton and has Drumsticks ground into the vanilla ice cream -- chocolate, peanuts, and the sugar cone.
When I was a child, the sugar cone was always a treat. Loved those over the regular cones.
When my wife and I were dating, there were two flavors we were partial to: Baskin-Robbins "peanut butter and chocolate" (which I'm sure at my advanced age would kill me now; so rich!) and any brand of butter pecan.
For soft serve, we enjoy both Dairy Queen and Culver's. I am partial to chocolate malts. When we get a Blizzard (DQ) or Concrete Mixer (Culver's), I enjoy the vanilla soft serve with either Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Heath Bar, or Kit Kat mixed in.
I am gaining weight just thinking about all this!
Doug
Steve and Colin- those "99"s sound good. Trying to picture a "Flake". I've had Cadbury chocolate with caramel, but this is something new. Oh, Colin- your "Knickerbocker Glory" also sounds delicious. Reminds me of a local restaurant in Lafayette, Indiana that has a dessert called a "Black and Gold" (colors of local Purdue University). Just like your Knickerbocker, except the fruit is replaced with chocolate (black) and butterscotch (gold). Quite rich...
Doug- Those Blizzards are terrific, but filling! Even ordering a small, I can rarely finish one. And good call on the Chocolate Malt. Frothy perfection. Incidentally, my father introduced me to marshmallow malts. Great treat also...
I don't think there's a type of ice cream (regular carton, soft-serve, frozen custard, frozen yogurt, confections from a truck, etc) that I don't love to the core of my soul! Well, I suppose the one common denominator is that I'm a fiend for chocolate-- I'm not a fruit-flavors or butter pecan or plain-vanilla guy (Colin. . . dude. . . yer killin' me-!) at all. Oh, I love vanilla with a heavy dose o' chocolate syrup, make no mistake. But I carry an oppressive cocoa monkey around on my back-- always have.
In the tiny town of Davis, West Virginia-- near the entrance to Blackwater Falls State Park-- there's a little ice cream parlor that offers a soft-serve that is somehow a better concoction than soft-serve's already-high standard. Their chocolate-dipped chocolate ice cream cone kind of makes you cry when you take that first bite. . . ! Last time (3 years ago?) that we visited that park, HBGirl and I fabricated some reason to drive down into town just so's we could hit the place after lunch w/out getting disapprovingly raised eyebrows from other family members. Heh.
There's just something about soft-serve that equates itself with contentment, y'know?
Same with the two cheapest of ice cream truck/corner store freezer items: ice cream sandwiches and fudgecicles. SOOO flippin' low-end and cheap! And SOOOOOO delicious! As a kid spending hard-earned change on them, you still felt like you were almost stealing them, given their level of satisfaction!
HB
I used to love ice cream, but I haven't had any in years. I'm not sure, why, I just don't bother with it anymore. My favourite was Maple Walnut.
Charlie's view of ice cream parlors:
Jack Spratt's, Gary, IN, 1960s - my dad would take me and the siblings in the summer. Fond memories. Disappeared due to urban blight.
Tastee Freeze, Gary, IN, 1960s - Landmark for turning right after passing it, to drive into the "projects" (think mini-ghetto), where the baseball fields were located. Disappeared due to urban blight.
Hastee Freeze, Crown Point, IN, 1970s - where I was arrested for loitering. (We didn't feel like going to high school that day, well the police decided o/wise.) Disappeared and now a parking lot.
Tasty Treat - Westmont, IL 2010s - love it! Ice Cream is hand made, top-tier (truly!). A "single" is $2 and literally will fill a whole bowl. It's so cheap I feel guilty and always leave a fin for a tip. This place is in a old house that used to be a tavern, among other things. The bathroom smells like it's been in use for 100 years and under the stairs so you have to cock you head. I take my kids here, instead of the stainless-steel, shiny-glass "Every Day's a Sundae" one town over for the "old and smelly" atmosphere and the ice cream. (Doug, Martin - you can google it. I think they get the ice cream from a place called "The Creamery" in Homer Glen.)
I'm boring: I just get pistachio, pistachio, pistachio, pistachio...
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