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Food Thread: Ice Cream! It's What's For Breakfast!

There is a mom-and-pop ice cream joint in my little town that has been around for 50 years, making the same excellent ice cream for generations of kids and adults fresh from little league games and family barbecues and the movies on a scorching hot day. There is absolutely nothing special about the place...in fact, it's a bit of a dump. I doubt they have repaved their parking lot since they opened, there are no spaces marked, so people just stop there cars wherever there is room. But the floors and counters are immaculate, the teenagers behind the counter are polite and efficient, and the ice cream is delicious. Is it homemade in the shop? Yeah...I have no idea, and I don't much care, because all of the flavors are great, so if it's made in some big commissary kitchen in Newark and trucked in under cover of night? Well, that's okay, because I will go there for their Cheesecake ice cream until I die! And the coffee chip is pretty fabulous too!

As for the graphic up top? Nope, I am a purist, but that sundae looks better than a boring old photograph of a scoop of ice cream in a paper cup!

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Those do look tasty, but I did something I have never done in my life! I overdid chicken thighs. It was a combination of a good baseball game and perhaps an overlarge Manhattan, but I lost track of time and brought these in from the grill to discover that they were a bit...chewy on the edges.

Did we eat them all? Why yes...we did! The meat tasted great, it was just a bit of a jaw-muscle workout to eat them. I think they were on the grill for more than 90 minutes, so it is a testament to thigh resiliency that they weren't inedible!

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I was in...shudder...Philadelphia last week and stopped for lunch at a newish falafel place in Center City called "Goldies." It's part of a small restaurant chain that has impressed me with the quality of their food, so it was an easy decision. I had been several times before so I knew what I was getting, but I was unprepared for how delicious their French Fries were! Yes, falafel is fried, so somebody in the kitchen knows her way around the fryer, but these fries were perfect. blazing hot, impossibly crispy, golden brown, and tender in the middle!

The restaurant group is owned by an Israeli, so of course, soon after 10/7/2023, the leftist Nazis in Philadelphia protested and tried to shut Goldies down. That's why I went the first time...to show some support. But the damned falafel and hummus and pita are excellent, so I don't need an excuse to go.

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Pretty much identical ingredients, except for the source of the mustard seed. The French jar's came from...duh...France, and the American jar's came from Canada. That right there is a tip off that something's not right in the state of Denmark.

The French mustard is simply better tasting. A bit spicier, and the texture was marginally better. But mostly there was an faint, odd flavor to the Canadian made stuff that the spousal unit described as "plasticy."

So everyone I know who is going to France now has a standing order of as many jars as they can bring back!

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Do adults eat that crap? We have two little jars of it in our cupboard, for reasons that elude my rapidly failing memory. The jars are small enough that they seem to be some sort of throwaway, or in a snack box from an airline or hotel. But they will probably expire before they are opened.

In fact, do any of you like hazelnuts? I don't. I don't think they have any place in the chocolate world, in particular in an otherwise delicious combination of caramel and dark chocolate, but I seem to be in the minority.

I guess I will eat them if they are in a nut mix, but I will do so under protest.

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I used to drink Cognac at every opportunity, but for some reason I simply stopped. And I have no idea why! But I was given a bottle of some very nice Cognac recently and I have been enjoying it. Is it as interesting and varied as Bourbon? No. But it is undeniably delicious and a lovely change on occasion.

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I am not particularly squeamish when it comes to food safety, but salad bars and other self-service schemes make me pause. In fact, one of the things I avoid is strangers handling my food, so I am much happier cooking in my own kitchen than eating at a restaurant. Obviously there are many exceptions, because I love good restaurant cooking and will continue to eat out. But the risk is -- to me -- more significant in restaurants where you are at the mercy of the least common denominator...the low-level employee who has the job because he is simply too stupid to do much else besides simple food prep.

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The garlic is busily growing, with pretty impressive green shoots that are pushing a foot tall! I even fertilized them! And if they survive the deer and squirrel apocalypse, and actually grow into something edible, I will be in garlic heaven! In case it doesn't, send all of your excellent home-grown garlic to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

Rumor has it that the Bourbon Bubble is bursting. I have seen no evidence of decreasing prices, but maybe the bursting started somewhere else! I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.

The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!