Guest Post: Wai Wai, Chinatown, Boston

Bethany's husband takes us to Chinatown in Boston for his favorite ice cream...

I was in Boston's Chinatown last night and realized that one of my all time favorite ice cream places EVER was one block over. The sign had changed since I last visited about a decade ago, but it's still there. Wai Wai on Oxford St:


It's below street level and the first thing you see is roasted duck, but don't let that fool you. To the left of the duck is a small ice cream case and the only flavor I've ever tried is Coconut. I never want to risk any other flavor just because the Coconut is so singularly awesome.

Bethany would use fancier words to describe this, but it super soft, very coconutty, and I noticed a few small ice chunks in it. Whatever is in this ice cream, they should keep doing it, and I'll keep stepping in whenever I can.

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Lyndonville, Vermont: Carmen's Ice Cream

I spent last weekend in Vermont. After a day of craft fairing with our Shadow Lake neighbors, we stopped for pizza and then ice cream at Carmen's Ice Cream at the Lyndon Freighthouse.

Carmen's was quite popular that afternoon, as the line ran off the porch into the parking lot. Unfortunately, because of the setup, one has to be almost at the window to even see the list of flavors. I didn't find this the most effective, because having never been there, I wasn't even able to begin imagining what flavors were available to choose from.

As Carmen's boasts over 60 flavors, the truth of the matter was I had a very hard time deciding on what I would have once I got within reading distance. The time finally came that I was standing at the window and I had to decide...I wanted something local and summery, so I decided on Maine Blueberry, which, though summery, was not quite local. Oh well. Local or not, it was creamy, sweet and a prefect summertime treat, and my mouth still waters to talk about it.

The preteen girls I was with were more daring. Segolene and Katia decided on cotton candy, which I still regret not getting, because I have always wanted to try it. Tess had a cone of peanut butter caramel cookie dough. Like me, Leslie (not a preteen) was a little more mellow and opted for a strawberry shortcake sundae, which she described as "unbelievably fabulous."

This seems like a new favorite Vermont destination to me -- I'd say Lyndonville has at least two claims to fame, if not more: Bag Balm (yep, they make it here) and Carmen's.

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

I Scream for Connecticut Ice Cream!

I was born and bred in Connecticut, so it is only due time that I give a shout out to some ice cream in the Nutmeg State. (No, didn't have any nutmeg ice cream while I was there...hmmmm...)

A couple of weeks ago I was in Connecticut. I had ice cream with my lovely sister Sarah of ReBooK and brother in-law Liam...then I told my favorite younger sister (she just turned 27 the other day -- Happy Birthday, Arianna!) of our ice cream escapades, and she wanted ice cream too, so on the way back from Connecticut to Massachusetts, we exited I-84 for some creamy goodness.

Sweet, Sweet Claude's...

Sarah, Liam and I ended up in Cheshire (as Tina and I are both graphic designers I am going to add a little designer fact here -- information graphics guru Edward Tufte lives in Cheshire. Who knew?!) because Liam was on a mad quest for Mahjong and after call after call, Sarah finally found it in Cheshire at Toyz Toy Store. Whew!

Liam and Sarah promised awesome ice cream if I took a ride with them, and who was I to resist toys and ice cream. We stopped at Sweet Claude's Ice Cream (though they seemed to have a website posted on their wall, I couldn't find it online, and when I called to confirm, they said they do not have one, so this is the best I could get...). There was a group of people getting ice cream in front of us and only one girl at the counter, so the wait was a bit long, but it allowed for me to drool over the menu of many flavors, toppings, and homemade sauces...and admire the beautiful antique ice cream paraphernalia all over the shop.

In the end I decided on my old favorite, Cookies 'n' Cream. Sarah was a bit disappointed (as was I) that her favorite, Sweet Cream, was no longer on the menu (the girl at the counter said it would come back occasionally as a special), so she ordered vanilla with strawberry sauce, whipped cream and a cherry, which though missing the Sweet Cream base, she said was "pretty amazing". This looked and tasted so good, that contrary to my rule of vanilla only with toppings (I am a purist -- flavored ice cream, no toppings; vanilla ice cream, toppings), I added this topping to my C'n'C. It was amazingly good! Liam ordered a strawberry milkshake, "which," my sister says, "he pretty much always enjoys." The ice cream didn't disappoint, and even though I ordered a small, it seemed to me what would be a large everywhere else. Being so good, I finished it, but I probably should have stopped a bit sooner than I did!


Go Huskies!

Later on in the day, as Arianna and I drove back to Massachusetts, we spoke of ice cream again, and Arianna having had missed out on the first trip asked if we could stop somewhere for ice cream. Me, turn down ice cream? Never! Talk ended up on the UConn Dairy Bar on the Storrs Campus, so we kind of spur of the moment pulled off the highway, and drove the few miles to the University of Connecticut (where, I might add, I had not stepped foot on the campus in over 10 years, when I went with my AP European History class -- thanks for taking us, Ms. Kowitch -- to see Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel speak at the Gampel Pavilion and then finished the day at the Dairy Bar).

Seeing as I hadn't been there in ten years, I took the wrong road to the Dairy Bar and drove Arianna on a tour of the Agricultural School. It was a beautiful day, and a nice drive, even though we managed to circumnavigate the Dairy Bar without even knowing it, so getting there took a little longer than expected. Finally, we found it and both Arianna and I ordered the cake batter ice cream. Good? "I've had better," Arianna said, and I wholeheartedly agreed. It was good, but wasn't what you expect when you think cake batter. It was creamy and sweet though, and clearly the UConn Dairy Bar was good enough for me to remember and want to visit again ten years later...). My apologies for the not-so-great phone photo -- I wasn't expecting the detour, so didn't have my camera!

Well, hats off to you Connecticut! You brought us the first newspaper, the first public art museum, the cotton gin, and some pretty darn good ice cream.

And guess what I just found out? You also gave us the first ice cream making machine! Thank you, thank you, Connecticut!

(Connecticut Firsts discovered at About Connecticut)

Tomorrow, April 8: Free Scoop at JP Licks (MASSACHUSETTS) to Celebrate Opening Day

That's right, you Bostonians! Celebrate Fenway's 2008 Opening Day with J.P. Licks!

Visit J.P. Licks for more information. Enjoy!!

15 Mile Weekend with Two Scoops of Ice Cream

This weekend was quite a crazy one. I went down to NYC on Friday with Kevin to visit Ashu. Saturday we walked up to the Guggenheim and then walked all the way down to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory (to see our estimated route, click here). Seeing as we had walked some on Friday and at least a couple of miles today, and our route (especially across Central Park) on gmap wasn't perfect, we estimate about a 15 mile walk total this weekend...so I am not going to feel too badly about the two different ice cream places I sampled this weekend.

Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory

The reward at the end of crossing the Brooklyn Bridge was a sweet and creamy one. As we walked into the quaint little shop that was once a Fulton Ferry fireboat house, we stood for about 5-10 minutes in line -- a line that was 1. Much shorter than the one we passed at Grimaldi's Pizza on the way to the Factory, and 2. much shorter than the line that was there when we walked out with our ice cream. The line gave us time to take in the atmosphere -- a simple shop that has probably changed little since it was first opened October 13, 2001 (Interestingly enough, the shop was slated to open September 12, 2001, but the events of September 11th inevitably changed that). The focus of this shop is it's smooth, eggless (one might say "Philadelphia Style") ice cream, not the atmosphere in which it sits. The shop though clean, is cluttered with freezers and there isn't too much room to sit down. It is fine this way, as the best way to savor your ice cream is to go outside and enjoy the view of the Manhattan Skyline, and as one most likely does, lament on the broken skyline's missing twin towers.

The eggless ice cream is this way because eggs, owner Mark Thompson believes, give ice cream a "greasy flavor." Instead he uses a Pennsylvania recipe -- a recipe he found sans eggs.With only eight flavors, one isn't overwhelmed with choices, which is a relief this day and age. When I got to the counter I asked for vanilla chocolate chunk, but the kid at the counter told me they were out. Kind of disappointed, but also knowing any of these flavors would be good, I changed my cone to the same as Ashu's -- chocolate chocolate chunk. The ice cream wasn't a disappointment: rich, creamy, and just the perfect amount to satiate my sweet tooth and refuel us for our walk back across the bridge. A taste of Kevin's vanilla was lighter, and just sweet enough. A taste of the vanilla made me wish that they hadn't run out of the vanilla chocolate chunk -- I can imagine that would have been ice cream perfection. But alas, I still can't complain. It was good either way.


Pinkberry

While my passion is ice cream, my husband Kevin enjoys a good hot dog, and Ashu indulged us by taking us to some hot dog hot spots. Friday we found Papaya Dog in Hell's Kitchen as we walked from the bus station to Ashu's apartment, Saturday we stopped at a few street vendors, and today she took us uptown to Brooklyn Diner at 57th Street (where they weren't yet serving hot dogs but we indulged in some yummy breakfast as well as a Christopher Meloni sighting) and then up to Gray's Papaya on Broadway at 72nd to try their world renowned hot dogs and see their big sign in the window that supports Obama (Ashu is a huge fan!).

Alas, I digress. While on our way back from Gray's, we saw a Pinkberry (warning: you might want to turn off the sound; this site is kind of annoying!) and after Ashu's negative raving, I had to try. Though not actually an ice cream, but a frozen yogurt, Ashu tells me this is all the rave in the city and the lines at the shop we passed on Saturday proved case in point.

We walked into the stark, clean, stylish shop. There was one other customer in the shop, but he was gone minutes after we arrived. What I found so strange is that this woman took my order (I was the only one that ordered) and she took my name -- as if she would lose my order in the empty restaurant (Later I saw they had printed a little label with my name and stuck it on my cup -- I guess it would be useful when the shop was busy.) I ordered a original with raspberries ($3.95 plus 95¢ for a topping) and the server actually put my order on a scale! Then she used tongs to carefully place about 10 raspberries on the yogurt. The yogurt was just that: frozen yogurt. It wasn't the sweet, ice cream-tasting soft serve you get when you usually order frozen yogurt. It tasted cultured like actual yogurt that had been frozen. It had a bit of a lemony taste. The best part was the amazingly fresh raspberries. I agreed with Ashu in the sense I couldn't understand the lines. It wasn't that good. But it wasn't terrible. Just not something I would choose again. But as Ashu says "If someone were holding a gun to my head, and telling me to eat it, I'd eat it, but..."

Well, enough of ice cream eating in NYC...

Additional information for this post found in the article "Fire and Ice Cream" from the New York Times, Novemeber 25, 2001.
Thanks to Kevin for such great photos and Ashu for being a great tour guide!

Cones NYC

There was no ice cream making for me this weekend due to the fact that I went to Manhattan to visit my oldest and dearest friend. The one stipulation of my visit though was that we visit at least one ice cream shop in the city. Ashu had done her research and offered me a variety of yummy sounding choices. Our final decision came down to the ice cream shop that fit best in with our plans of gallery hopping in Chelsea. After our art intake, we hopped a cab to Bleeker Street for ice cream at Cones. After some serious tasting (chocolate sorbet, blackberry sorbet, dulce de leche, and zabayone), I finally decided on mint chocolate chip ice cream. Ashu decided on chocolate ice cream. Ashu was so excited for me to try hers that I tried it before tasting mine -- it was fabulous. However, the sweet chocolate flavor left in my mouth caused my first bite of mint chocolate chip to be overwhelmingly minty, and I was a bit disappointed in my choice. However, a few bites later I was back on track, the mint had mellowed, and I was back to enjoying my own choice.

This Argentinian ice cream hot spot lived up to its great reviews. (Only a few of the many reviews -- Google search on "Cones NYC" produced numerous results.) Not familiar with this Argentinian's recipes, I was expecting something in the vein of American ice cream but it was denser -- it definitely reminded me of the Italian gelatos in Boston's North End. (For the difference between gelato and ice cream, you can find a good description here.) The ice cream was rich while light (in texture only. I am sure it was not light in the calorie sense of the word), creamy, and wonderfully sweet.

It was comforting and homey to find the friendly owner working the counter, and thanks to the cold weather outside, the scoop shop was empty except for one other couple, so it allowed Ashu and I to snag one of the two other empty tables. Word to the wise, warm weather visits to this shop probably won't promise seating, but the charming Bleeker Street is the perfect setting for strolling with a cup or cone of ice cream and some window shopping.

[I apologize for the not so great phone photo.]

On a side note, I just found an exciting website (World of Ice Cream) with both commerical and homemade ice cream recipes. Located on Long Island, World of Ice Cream also offers ice cream /gelato making classes.