More than pie comes in pumpkin: Try ice cream for the holidays

by Jamie Rhein on

Last week my son dropped a pint of ice-cream into the shopping cart when I wasn’t looking. I picked it up to return it to the freezer–until I saw it was pumpkin. I caved.

Pumpkin ice-cream is one of the reasons the thought of cold weather and less daylight filled days doesn’t totally send me over the edge. It’s one of those, “Ah, yes, there you are. I’d forgotten about you” seasonal foods.”

Although, I’m not an ice-cream snob, when it comes to pumpkin the best is the best. My favorite place to get some in Ohio is Graeters, a small company founded in Cincinnati in 1870. Today there are Graeters ice-cream shops in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.

Since there are 7 days until Thanksgiving. As a Turkey Day countdown, here are 6 other places that serve up pumkin ice-cream right about now. Count Graeters as #1.

1. Graeters–Here’s the link to getting Graeters on-line. They’ll ship anywhere in the United States.

2. Double Rainbow–This company was founded in San Francisco in 1976 if I did the math right. There used to be a Double Rainbow in Albuquerque when I lived there but there was a name change and now I can’t remember why. I think it was because the company franchised and the owners in Albuquerque weren’t part of it. The ice-cream was yummy. It’s won Best in America awards and can be found in Hong Kong. The web site has a link where you email to find the one closest to you.

3. Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen–This Louisville, Kentucky favorite started out as a lunch counter. The home page black and white photo reminds me of the one in “Back to the Future” where Marty McFly saved his dad from a thrashing by Biff. Today, there are several Louisville locations and two others. While your savoring the ice-cream, you can use their free Wi Fi.

4. Fosselman’s— This place has a long list of being named the best awards. This one has been gathering a following since 1919. You can buy their ice cream in several stores, but if you want to grab a taste where it’s made head to its retail shop in Alhambra, California, near L.A.

5. Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory— I couldn’t find a web site for this one, but I came across a many reviews. Here’s one that appeared in New York Magazine. This is a critic’s pick. The setting interests me, for one thing. The factory and shop is located in a 1920s fireboat house. Classic. From the description, it sounds like this is just across the bridge from Manhattan.

6. Bassetts Ice Cream–Any ice cream business that’s been run by the same family for five generations has to be pretty darned special. Established in Philadelphia in 1861, Bassetts Ice Cream can be found in ice cream parlors Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Here’s the link to tell you where to find it, but for an historic experience head to the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia where Bassetts Ice Cream store is run by members of the Bassett brood.

7. Bedford Farms Ice Cream–Another historic ice cream business, Bedford Farms has been dishing up scoops since 1880. Located in Concord and Bedford, Massachusetts, this parlor is a New England favorite.

And if you have any of your own favorites, let us know. With December’s holiday bounty, a few more ice cream spots could take us there nicely.

The most expensive bagel in the world

by Martha Edwards on

A while back, I asked you how much you would pay for a dessert. Now here’s another question: How much would you pay for a bagel? The asking price for this bagel is a steep $1000. But unlike the extravagant dessert, it doesn’t come with any fancy jewels that you get to keep. What gives?

Really, it’s just a plain old bagel, with a few fancy fixings — there’s some rare white truffle cream cheese on top and Riesling jelly made of goji berries. Yes, I realize truffles and goji berries are expensive, but $1000 for a bagel with cream cheese and jelly? If you’re the kind of person who can afford to spend $1000 on a bagel with cream cheese and jelly, I think I might hate you. Or at least be horrendously jealous of you.

At least some of the proceeds go to a good cause — they help pay for scholarships for culinary arts students. The bagel is available at the Westin Hotel in Times Square, but you’ll have to order it 24 hours in advanced. And it’s only available until December 14th.

(via Neatorama)

Drinking local stuff around the world

by Abha Malpani on


I get annoyed with people who travel miles across the world and then order Heineken at a bar in China, or a Coca Cola Light in Africa.

Also, as we all know, marketing can deceive authentic tourism: Australian’s do not drink Fosters, Mexican tequilas don’t normally have worms in them, and Spaniards do not eat Paella for dinner, nor do they drink sangria regularly.

So, knowing what locals really drink is culturally as important as knowing what locals really eat, and is one of the joys of learning about the place you are visiting.

I always ask for the local drink (and how to drink it local style!) when I go to a bar in a foreign country: be it the locally brewed beer (Toohey’s Old Beer that I drank with raspberry (!) all the time in Australia) or a nasty red wine-with-cola (Calimocho — drank here in Spain when you want to get drunk on the cheap), or an expensive Spanish Vermouth.On that note, our friends at Condé Nast Traveller have put together a list of what to drink in a variety of places around the world (other than the obvious); here’s what they say:

  • USA : Kentucky: Bourbon — a whiskey distilled from rye, barley malt, corn and yeast. California: Meritage Wine — an American version of Bordeaux.
  • Douro Valley, Portugal: Vintage Port
  • Islay, Scotland: Single Malt Scotch
  • Barbados: Dark-Aged Rum
  • Jalisco, Mexico: Tequila Reposado (means settled). They say this tequila is more mellow than the silver one we are familiar with.
  • Cognac, France: Cognac
  • Valtellina, Italy: Valtellina Superiore — it’s a dry red wine
  • Minas Gerais, Brazil: Cachaça — a clear alcohol distilled from sugarcane. It is also the national drink of Brazil.
  • Provence, France: Pastis — an aperitif made from Annis, and is a descendant of the lethal absinthe.
  • Flanders, Belgium: Trappist Ale — beer brewed by monks in monasteries across Flanders, over the last 1000 years.
  • Japan: Sake — rice wine brewed at cold temperatures, and drank cold. (I’ve had a lot of Sake in Dubai, but they always served it hot. Hmmm.)

You can check out details of all the above at Conde Nast Traveller.

One for the Road: A Tale of 12 Kitchens

by Kelly Amabile on

This cookbook gem came out last year but, I stumbled across some rave reviews recently, and thought it deserved a mention, especially as the holiday cooking season heats up! A Tale of 12 Kitchens: Family Cooking in Four Countries follows Jake Tilson on food adventures around the world, including stops in New York, Tuscany and Scotland.

Tilson used his artistic eye (he’s a photographer and painter) to create a one-of-a-kind “cookbook-cum-scrapbook” that doubles as a travel journal. Readers are invited into Tilson’s inner circle — his foodie family is a collection of colorful characters obsessed with cooking. In unique fashion, the book celebrates the possibilities of food, and the deeply personal aspects of communal meal preparation. The eighty recipes included in the book are gathered from all corners of the globe, but the real treasure of these kitchen tales is the original and refreshing way in which they are presented.

Tilson will appear in New York on December 5 as part of The James Beard Foundation’s Beard on Books series.

Is the beer too cheap in Britain?

by Justin Glow on

Apparently, some people in Britain are mad because stores are charging less for beer than they are for bottled water.

When I was in parts of Czech Republic and Poland last month, beer was always cheaper than water. And did it affect me? Well, yes, it did — but that’s because I had a hard time discerning which bottles of water were carbonated or not. There were times when I never did figure it out, and if I’m going to drink a bubbly beverage, it’s not going to be water. And you’d have to take out a small personal loan to pay for 7 ounces of Coke Light, so what am I supposed to do? Get the cheapest thing available: beer.

But some people in Britain feel differently. They’re afraid that lowering the cost will increase sales and therefor increase binge drinking. It’s hard, for the most part, to disagree with them — it makes economic sense. If you lower the cost of an item people are regularly buying, chances are they will purchase more of that product.

“Evidence from Finland also suggests a link between price and consumption. There, tax on alcohol was slashed by 40 per cent in 2003,” according to an article by This is London. “Since then, drink sales have soared 11 per cent.”

They are, however, failing to make a link between increased sales and binge drinking. Someone could be buying a bunch of the cheap beer and storing it in their basement for all the government knows. Can you assume that lower cost equals increased consumption? I, for one, welcome the cheap beer.

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