Best lead sentence of the year, so far

From the Bellingham Herald, a newspaper in Washington.  Oh boy.

"Despite temperatures below freezing Sunday night, Jan. 2, a hungry man stole an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen and scarfed it down, according to police."

 

I really love "...and scarfed it down, according to police."  I wonder if "scarfed" was the word used in the police report.

Adam S. Wilgus, 24, the culprit, later told officers "he didn't have enough money to pay for the cake and was hungry. He also told officers he had eaten the cake while he was driving and had thrown the box out the window..."

The story continues:

"The 10-inch, round cake, which was worth about $24, was chocolate and vanilla with fudge and cookie crumbles on the inside, said the Dairy Queen's area supervisor and former cake manager, Amanda Armstrong."

Wilgus, whose last known address was in Blaine, was booked into Whatcom County Jail for investigation of theft and an unrelated warrant for disorderly conduct."

He's behind bars.  You are safe.  For now.

Read more: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/01/03/1798514/man-steals-ice-cream-cake-from.html#ixzz1A6rJ27vS

Two of my favorite things, together: David Hasselhoff + ice cream

Photo by ICON/Fame pictures, courtesy of Celebrity Smack Blog (whatever that is)

Some things were destined to be together, and David Hasselhoff + ice cream promotion are certainly two phenomena that fit together so naturally that one wonders why this didn't happen, say, 20 years earlier when he was actually on TV. 

For me, he was more of a draw before he went gray and when he looked like he could truly save me if I was to start drowning.  Now he looks like one of those grandpas who's gearing up for a 5K but will probably not make it past 50 meters. 

Always and forever The Hoff.

That said, he clearly has not lost his touch with the ladies, or at least the Australian ladies.  Or at least the Australian ladies who dressed up in red swimsuits to impersonate Baywatch lifeguards for the sake of promoting a mass-produced  "tangy fruit product" (ask Unilever about that one) called "Splice."

Anorexic model tasted ice cream before she died

From her blog

Last night my mom told me about a news story from last week that I had missed, about the death of Isabelle Caro, a French fashion model who struggled with anorexia from her earliest days.  It was a very, very sad story to begin with, but what truly touched me, and not simply because I'm obsessed with ice cream, is that according to the New York Times obituary, she wrote on her blog:

“I still eat almost nothing, but I’ve stopped vomiting,” she said after her photo shoot for Nolita. “I have started to distinguish tastes of things. I have tried ice cream — it’s delicious.” 

This comment reminded me, in some strange way, of the two people who held hands before they jumped out of the burning World Trade Center building.  A small human gesture to which we can all relate, against a background of something much larger and much less comprehensible. 

I looked on her blog and couldn't find that entry, but it did make me think about the way certain foods serve different intellectual/physical roles.  Ice cream, to an anorexic, is absolutely forbidden.  It is decadent, full of sugar and fat, one of the world's most popular treats, never to be savored.  And in denying one's self that luxury, the anorexic can find a deeply satisfying sense of power.  Curious how I know these things?  I used to have my own issues.  I never had enough discipline to be anorexic but like a lot of young women growing up surrounded by fashion magazines etc I also associated my self-worth with my appearance.  It's still not easy to enjoy ice cream 100% without any guilt, but luckily I'm pretty active and try and ride my bike places and not eat too much other junk food.  Anyway, my condolences to Ms. Caro's family.

Update: It is winter. That means chestnut ice cream at Grom.

It is winter.  There was a blizzard.  Michael Bloomberg did not handle it well. 

That is the bad news.

The good news is that Grom's marron glacé flavor is back.  It is best paired with the regular chocolate ice cream (not the dark chocolate sorbet; that flavor is for masochists and sophisticates).  Also be sure to ask for the chestnut flavor first because whichever flavor you request first they will give you a bigger scoop of that one.

Iran penetrates the Green Zone...with ice cream

Credit: Liz Sly, Washington Post

Liz Sly, formerly of the Chicago Tribune and now with the Washington Post, did a fun little story last week about IcePack, an Iranian ice cream chain making headway in Iraq - in the Green Zone, no less.  I'm not sure that a few ice cream stores, albeit ones from a chain that claims to "exalt the name of Iran and reinforce Iranian Identity", truly represent a big Iranian challenge to America.  Wasn't there some kerfuffle about a nuclear program?  Or something?

My other issue with this story is that I don't see a single description of the ice cream's taste or quality.  I don't even know whether this is soft-serve or scooped!  Nor can this information be garnered with certainty from Icepack's throwback website, where the four specialties on offer are named the "Multi Fruit", "Multi Mix", "Ice Pack" and "Special Ice Pack".  They are largely distinguishable in the photos by the fact that they come in different styles of paper cup.

Still, it's good to know Iraq is gaining enough relative security that people can go out and enjoy ice cream.  This is a recurrent trope in the works of a few other contemporary writers on Iraq, such as the feminist scholar Nadje Al-Ali and the blogger Salam Pax, who often mention Iraqis going out for evening ice creams as a sign of normalcy and peace.

Professional Foray #14: DC does gelato, and how: Dolcezza, Dupont Circle

DC does a few things right.  Museums.  Air quality.  Indian food, namely at Rasika, where I had quite possibly the best Indian meal I've ever had.  Chinese food, humor and politics are not its strengths.

Gelato, it turns out, is.  Dolcezza, of which there are three locations in the DC area, is some of the finest gelato I've tasted in America, on a par with Grom or Cones.  The location near Dupont is clean, mostly white, intimate and rustic, like the sophisticated little cafes that dot the historical town centers of the wealthy cities in northern Italy.  It's owned by an Argentine woman, Violetta Edelman, and her husband Rob Duncan, who source everything from local farmers.  You can read their Michael Pollan-esque odes to their farmer friends on their website.  Almost everyone gets described as "some of the nicest folks we know."

Irrespective of how kind the farmers are, and how much Violetta and Rob adore them, this is some spanking good gelato.  My friend Liz and I had the ginger cardamom pistachio, the pumpkin spice (with nutmet, allspice, clove, cinnamon and ginger), and the chocolate with ancho, chipotle and cinnamon.  The pistachio flavor was particularly unique, reminiscent of mann w' salwa, a cardamom-pistachio flavor I'd heretofore only eaten in the Middle East, where that combination is used often in nougat candies.  As in most cases, the addition of ginger made it even more delicious.  The pumpkin flavor features locally-grown Crookneck pumpkins, a sweet variety of squash they bake with spices before folding it into cream sourced from a Pennsylvania dairy.

I'm nearing my wit's end with the preciousness of local this and small farmer that (even though I prefer to shop, eat and generally live that way, I'm tired of talking and reading about it all the time), so I won't dwell further on how great all of these efforts are.  The important thing is taste, and this gelato tastes wonderful.  It's creamy and light on the tongue, goes down easy, and you don't need to drink a lot of water while you eat it, which is how you know if it's too rich or heavy.  I was able to go to dinner a half-hour later, and eat another giant Indian meal.  And if Dolcezza wasn't closed by the time we finished, I would have had another cone.  Dolcezza, 1705 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC, 202 299 9116, www.dolcezzagelato.com

Professional Foray #13: Sorry Grom (and sorry readers), I'm back - with a new NYC favorite, Maialino

Photo by Kelly O'Connor from Maialino's Facebook page

Readers, if there are still any of you left, I'm sorry.  I've neglected you (but not ice cream) for a long time.

However, someone has brought me back into the fold.  And her name is Jennifer Shelbo, pastry chef at Maialino.

Friends, this is the best gelato in New York.  Not only is the texture perfect - and I mean spot-on, no margin of error, to the .0001% perfect - her flavors are wildly good.  It's creamy, but light on the tongue and melts instantly in the mouth, bum-rushing the palate.  After a very, very good meal (and a wonderful evening at the theater - run, don't walk to catch Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones in "Driving Miss Daisy") I had the bruschetta di canella (Italian for "cinnamon toast"), chocolate, and almond straciatella.  The cinnamon is a pale, delicately flavored cinnamon gelato with crunchy bits of cinnamon-y cracker-y stuff on top, like the topping on a great muffin, sprinkled on the gelato.  The almond was amaretto flavored, with wisps of great dark chocolate woven through.  The chocolate was complex and richly flavored without being heavy, dense or overwhelming.  Because of its effortless texture, it went down easy.

Contrast this with, for example, the chocolate at Grom, previously my contender for best New York gelato.  I don't know if I should admit this but the last time I had a taster of the dark chocolate, I puckered my mouth and said "I'm just not strong enough for that."  See, I don't want to move into a mindset where the gelato and I become adversaries.  No, I'd rather the gelato to be my intimate confidante.  And at Maialino, I think I've found my new best friend.

More medicated ice cream...this time with weed

You know what I always say - "Ice cream.  Good for what ails you."  Are you getting older?  Try anti-aging ice cream.  Recovering from chemotherapy?  Ice cream.  Perhaps you're afflicted with the ailment of not being stoned?  Let's review the options...there's...oh hey! Look at that! Ice cream.  Creme de Canna, which also makes a small selection of cookies in flavors like chewy molasses and chocolate chip, has a line of gourmet ice creams in Bananas Foster, TripLe Fudge Brownie and Straw Mari Cheesecake.  Each pint is $15 and "contains 2-4 doses."

Healthzone.ca reported:
"It's made with organic local strawberries and a Grand Marnier reduction,” says Jonathan Kolodinski, owner of the licensed dispensary.

Um, and drugs, buddy!

The article also notes that the ice cream is "available only to card-carrying medical-marijuana users."  Uh-huh.  They're not passing the spoon.

Ice cream treats cancer! Maybe!

I just came across this old article from a March issue of The Scientist.  The writer Katherine Bagley describes an effort by scientists to isolate milk proteins that can help patients recovering from chemotherapy and insert them directly into...strawberry ice cream.  Yes.

She writes:

"One protein in particular, lactoferrin, has been shown to inhibit tumor growth, promote intestinal cell growth, and regulate immune response in the intestine (Biochem Cell Biol, 89:95–102, 2002). The scientists reasoned it could therefore help patients receiving chemotherapy, which can damage normal cells that multiply quickly, such as infection-fighting white blood cells, known as neutrophils, and intestinal cells."

One of the doctors involved explains why ice cream was the most suitable delivery mechanism for lactoferrin:

"Palmano considered incorporating the bioactives into a liquid drink or yogurt, but in the end, ice cream won out. “Creating a frozen product meant we didn’t have to worry about the bioactives’ shelf life,” she says. “Plus, people going through chemotherapy typically lose their appetite. Why not give them a treat like ice cream?""

While it's not yet on the market, it is being tested by patients who are "required" to eat ice cream every day:

"The scientists worked with New Zealand’s top ice cream manufacturers to create six tons of strawberry-flavored ReCharge. They then made a placebo ice cream with the same taste, color, and calorie count. ReCharge started its Phase II clinical trial in October 2009, in which 200 prechemotherapy cancer patients will be required to eat 100 grams of either ReCharge or the placebo ice cream each day.
“It has been a wonderful ride creating this product,” says Geursen. “We don’t know if ReCharge will work—it is always a challenge going from mice to humans—but we are keeping our fingers crossed.”"

I just raised the question in a previous post about anti-aging ice cream, why not deliver vitamins via ice cream?  This is an entirely feasible and worthy undertaking.   Maybe I should petition Solgar and Grom to do a collaboration. 


Read more: Sweet relief - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences http://www.the-scientist.com/2010/3/1/24/1/#ixzz10RtLlYQn

Brainfreeze does not cause long-term brain damage

Getty Images

Did you really think it did?  I've never heard that before.  Luckily a writer at Popular Science has cleared all of this up for us with this helpful post, in which he first describes the two theories of how and why one gets brainfreeze (or an "ice-cream headache"):

"First, let’s get one thing straight. “This condition is referred to as an ‘ice-cream headache,’ ” says Stacey Gray, a sinus surgeon at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston. “It’s a very technical term.” Although there’s no published paper saying as much, a milkshake slurped too quickly probably does not actually lower brain temperature. Besides, Gray says, the temporary pain can’t do any harm because it has nothing to do with the brain.

There are two schools of thought on what causes the ice-cream headache. The drink may chill the air in your sinuses and cause the blood vessels in the nasal cavity near your forehead to constrict, creating pain similar to a migraine. Or perhaps it touches off a branch of the trigeminal nerve in your mouth, triggering a pain response in the nerve that’s responsible for facial sensation."

Later he quotes a doctor explaining why lowering brain temperature temporarily is not a big deal:

"“Even if the patient wasn’t anesthetized, at that temperature they would be in a noninteractive state, unable to sense stimuli or produce a response,” Tamargo says. “But once you warm the brain up, it picks right up from where it left off. It’s not harmful at all.” So whether your brain is frozen or not, if you can handle a little pain, slurp away."

Have you ever heard of this before?  Long-term brain damage?  Seriously?