Sara Rosso of Ms. Adventures in Italy posted this photo of a gelato-stuffed brioche from Sicily to remind us to contribute to her Tour del Gelato project. The Tour del Gelato blogroll links to reviews of gelaterias in Italy and around the world. Make sure to contribute if you know of a good gelateria!
Related
Guide to Gelato in Bologna
Grom Gelato: The New Drug
Photo of the Day: Smurf Gelato
An array of gelato flavors at Gail Silverton's Gelato Bar. Photo courtesy of Ryan Forbes
We're over the Fro-Yo Wars. The real soldiers in the battle for frozen dessert affections make ice cream with real butterfat, not some mamby pamby imitation with ingredients you need a chemistry degree to pronounce.
With so many ice cream eating days here in sunny SoCal, it's no surprise that Los Angeles has some of the country's best ice cream shops—mixing unique, often unusual flavors. Start drooling after the jump.
Not that a fear of dense, exquisite Italian ice cream could ever exist, but just to set the record straight, "gelotophobia" is not the fear of gelato. It's actually the fear of being laughed at. What about the fear of not having enough gelato in those tiny plastic cups? Now that deserves some coinage.
Oh, the crazy, tasty things kids do these days. Albany, New Zealand-based gelato maker James Oliver of Zest Gelato is only 22 years old, but his unconventional flavors are already making a mark. His bacon-and-egg-flavored ice cream won a silver medal at this year's New Zealand Ice Cream Awards, while his manuka honey gelato and his toasted coconut, lime, and mascarpone ice cream both grabbed golds. He also won a silver medal for his poached pear and blue cheese ice cream, which contains pears Oliver poaches himself and chunks of blue cheese. This is not your father's French vanilla. [via Coldmud]
Photo blogger Rion Nakaya stumbled upon a unique gelato flavor while visiting Sainte-Maxime in France: Smurf, or Schtroumpf in French. I'm not sure I'd want to know what Smurf tastes like, but it's nice to know that the option exists in the form of neon blue gelato. Kind of.
Photo of the Day: Ice Cream in Nice
Fine Dining with Bacon-Flavored Gelato
The Best Gelato in New York Is Being Served in a Tanning Salon
Thanks to The Futures Channel, a website of educational videos for young students that illustrate how science and math are applied to real life careers, you can go behind the scenes of the Ciao Bella Gelato factory. By watching Ice Cream the Italian Way you can witness the pouring of large buckets of gelato batter into giant freezing vats and learn about the science and management behind running a major gelato company.
Make sure to check out the Futures Channel's other food-related videos:
[via Slashfood]
This past June when my friend Morten brought up the idea of joining him on a two-and-a-half week vacation in Bologna the first thought that popped in my head (aside from, "Hell yeah, I'm going") was, "What's the greatest amount of gelato that I can consume without tearing a hole in my stomach?"
Don't worry—I stayed well below this level or else I'd be typing this from a hospital bed.
My gelato consumption averaged out to one gelateria a day during my vacation. Some days I ate no gelato (gasp!) while other days I ate it more than once. Here's a round up of the best Bolognan gelaterias I went to, culled from Slow Travel's recommendations.
A few months ago I wrote about my delicious dinner at Vetri, a stunningly good Italian restaurant on the ground floor of a townhouse on an unassuming street in Philadelphia. Last Friday I was supposed to meet Philadelphia Inquirer restaurant critic Craig Laban at Mark Vetri's new pizzeria-trattoria Osteria. I had to cancel (too much work to do at Serious Eats, and I feared Serious Eaters Adam and Alaina would yell at their overlord).
Now, Mr. Bruni has beaten me and Serious Eats to the punch with a long piece on Vetri in today's New York Times. After reading his account of his meals at Osteria, which sounded like works in progress, I decided that postponing my trip to Philly was providential. By the time Mr. Laban and I reschedule, Osteria will, one hopes, be in full flight, and it will definitely be on my one-day Philly eating adventure. Currently these places are on my dancecard:
On Wednesday Serious Eater Lia posted about Grom, an Italian gelateria concern opening its first U.S. store on Saturday the 5th of May. What Lia didn't tell all of you is that Grom is a mere 50 yards from my house.
When I left my house at 10:30 on Saturday morning there was already a short line to get into Grom, which was opening at 11. When I returned five hours later, the line was longer—much longer, a full city block long in fact. I noticed a friend, Mindy, standing with her significant other midway through the line. I asked her how long she had been waiting in line: 45 minutes, she said. "The gelato is free," Mindy said. Ah, yes, combine a little New York Times hype and the promise of free, artisanally made ice cream, and you have the makings of a long line in Gotham.
Every once in a while you get an email so passionate that all you can really do is share it, because paraphrasing would never do it justice. Here's something I received today from my pal Finn:
From: Finn
To: Lia
Subject: GromFYI
excuse my friend's, um, exuberant writing style. his gf is in italy right now and he visits fairly frequently, hence his experience with this gelato joint. he's probably serious about the dream too -- he really likes ice cream.
----- Forwarded message -----
From: Jeb
To: Finn
Subject: yotell your foodblogger friends that they should go to grom and write about it for the food-blobs RIGHT AWAY! GROM is SO FRAKING GOOD. I had a dream about it last Sundae (you catch what I did there with the 'ae'?)
The Grom causing all this excitement is an Italian gelato chain opening its very first outpost in the US this Saturday at Broadway and 76th Street in New York. We'll do what we can, Jeb! We'll do what we can.
N.B. If you'd like to send tips in, my email is lia@seriouseats.com. Exuberance, abuse of the caps lock button and even multiple exclamation points are almost always welcome.
Amy Scattergood of the LA Times, on the city's new wave of deliciousness: "It's not the first time gelato has been in the spotlight in Los Angeles — in the late '80s there was a gelateria craze. But this generation of artisans, joined by an ice cream maker or two, is taking the craft to something that seems more like an art. They're perfecting techniques to get the purest flavor and creamiest texture, seeking out the ripest peak-season fruit, the best chocolate, the most flavorful, freshest nuts."
Gail Silverton and her partner Joel Gutman invent new flavors, like "cinnamon basil or black sesame gelato, or a vanilla gelato with ribbons of dark chocolate and candied orange peel." Milk's Joel Thompson makes fancy ice cream as well, but also macaron-encased ice cream sandwiches—Scattergood includes a recipe for his coffee toffee ice cream macaron sandwiches, for those of us who aren't in LA and can't just go get one. Area eaters should make sure to check out the list of fourteen "favorite places in Los Angeles and Orange counties for the best artisanal gelato and the finest house-made European- or American-style ice cream" she put together with Susan LaTempa; Tai Kim of Scoops on Heliotrope is known to hate publicity and hype but local food bloggers like Jeni of Oishii Eats will tell you it's the place to go!
By Robyn Lee | After a failed early afternoon trip to Gelati d’Alberto which didn't open until 3 PM, my friend Jessie and I went to Damman's Glacier for dessert after scarfing down some sadly sub-par gyros at Saint Michel. Although my soul usually writhes in horror at the idea of not getting a creamy, dairy-based flavor, my body screamed for something with fruit or at least a slight presence of beneficial nutritional value. Of course, strawberry basil sorbet isn't exactly recommended by doctors; it just seemed less doom-full than Jessie's orange chocolate ice cream. A hint of basil mixed with strawberry made for a refreshing dessert, but it would've been better if the "small" wasn't the size of a baby's fist.
Then again, if the portion hadn't been so small then sampling the goods at Delizefollie would've been more difficult for my bloated stomach. We tried a generously filled small cup of pistachio, which I use as the standard "IS THIS PLACE AWESOME?" flavor to judge a place on, and caramel, which the gelateria named "MOO". I could smell the roasted nutty flavor of the muted yellow-green pistachio before it even hit my mouth—it definitely passed the "awesome" test. The caramel flavor was subtle, but enhanced by small chunks of creamy caramel. I also sampled the mint which, as the odd sea-green color forewarned me, wasn't made with real mint. (I think a good rule to follow is "skip colors that are not naturally occurring".) I'd still pick Pozzetto over Deliziefoliie, but Deliziefollie is better if you want more flavor choices, larger portions, a view of the magically fluffy mountains of gelato, and a place to sit right outside the shop.
Damman's Glacier
1 rue des Grands Degrés, 5ème
Deliziefollie
7 rue Montorgueil, 1ème
Robyn Lee is interning at Serious Eats for the semester. Like what you've read here? See more at The Girl Who Ate Everything.
All right. Listen Up. From here on out we're changing the name of the upcoming holidays in order to focus exclusively on chocolate gifts. From now on Christmas will be known as Chocomas. Hanukkah becomes Chocokah. Kwanzaa, Chockwanzaa. I'm not trying to be blasphemous here. I'm just trying to help all of you give your loved ones what they probably want—namely chocolate in all its forms.
Here are twelve places to order truly extraordinary chocolate items online. Those of you celebrating Hanukkah or Kwanzaa will have to pare down these choices to eight or seven, respectively, unless you want to double up on four or five of the days.
Day 1: John & Kira's | johnandkiras.com
John and Kira are two politically correct chocolate makers who craft fabulous molded chocolates out of extraordinarily high-quality ingredients—local whenever possible. (Unfortunately, they can't grow cocoa beans in the Philadelphia area.) I'm partial to their chocolates filled with raspberry, mint, pistachio, ginger, honey-lavender, and coffee-whiskey.
15 single-flavor pieces, $27 (excludes shipping)
Day 2: L. A. Burdick | burdickchocolate.com
When I first met Larry Burdick, he was probably making his chocolates illegally in an Upper East Side tenement building in New York City. Then he and his wife packed up everything and moved to Walpole, New Hampshire, many years ago, and now they've become chocolate moguls of the best kind. They still obsess about every piece of chocolate they sell. Try the chocolate mice in three flavors: orange, mocha, and cinnamon. Each mouse has almond ears and a silk tail. Don't try to eat the tail. (Larry also makes a killer chocolate lemon cake, a sponge cake filled with lemon butter and glazed with dark chocolate.)
9 chocolate mice, $29 (excludes shipping)
Lately, I've been trying to expand my ice cream horizons, and there's no better place to do that than the freezer case at Whole Foods. It has the biggest selection of designer ice creams I've ever seen.
Haagen Dazs is my gold standard, so that should give you an idea of my frame of reference. But there are two brands I've found at Whole Foods that you should definitely check out:
Made in LA, Palapa Azul is a mexican-style ice cream that tastes more like gelato (less air, lower in fat) than premium American ice cream. i've had three killer flavors: flan (with pecans), caramel (with bits of brown sugar cookie) and the most intriguing one of all, sweet corn ice cream. The sweet corn is not quite as smooth and creamy as the other two, but it has a lovely, strong, sweet corn flavor.
is a high-end gelati and sorbetti purveyor in Philly. I've been to their little shop and the gelati and sorbetti are just about as intensely flavored as any I've had in Italy. At Whole Foods you can buy pints in a variety of flavors, including Thai Coconut Milk (a bit too sweet for my taste) and Bitter Chocolate (blessedly bitter) gelati, and a tangy Lime Cilantro sorbet.
Which brand do I like better? If money were no object I would go with Capogiro. Its ingredients are probably superior and its texture is ultra-smooth. But I'm not rich, so money does matter, and for that reason I'm going with Palapa Azul. Capogiro costs an astounding $9.99 a pint, while Palapa Azul costs $4.29, or less than half.
As to whether either of them is better then Haagen Dazs, I couldn't find any identical flavors to directly compare. I thought every ice cream maker makes basic vanilla and chocolate. Guess not.
Although I am neither a Whole Foods advocate or a Whole Foods basher (After all, Whole Foods is a very complicated enterprise) there are certain things I love about Whole Foods. One is their selection of ice creams. They carry Capogiro Gelato and Sorbetto from Philadelphia, which is obscenely expensive ($10 a pint) but often very, very good, in addition to the standard premium brands like Haagen Dazs and Ben and Jerry's.
Last Saturday I was perusing the ice cream case at my local Whole Foods when I spotted a label that read Tosca. When I picked up a pint I discovered that it was actually Toscanini's , from Cambridge, Mass. Gus Toscanini is one of this country's seminal artisanal ice cream makers. I bought a pint of Toscanini Burnt Caramel and miraculously resisted buying a pint of Gus' Cocoa Pudding. The Burnt Caramel Ice Cream has been in my freezer for almost 48 hours now, and I have managed to eat less than a fourth of it. What discipline, what self-restraint. What little I have eaten has been delicious, intensely flavored, creamy, and blessedly unsweet. I am going to see if I can make this pint of ice cream last a week. This is going to be a true test of my willpower and my longterm prospects for maintaining and continuing my weight loss. I'll keep you posted.
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