postess with the mostest??

It's been a long long time since we betches have posted, so here's a quick recent recap:

More deliciousness at Carmela at the Hollywood Farmer's Market on Sundays (Aztec Chocolate gets 2 thumbs up!)

Some sundaes of our own, complete with hot fudge (though not as good as Herrell's, sigh)

Annnd, what I really would like to discuss, a milkshake from Johnnie's Pastrami, apparently a celeb hot-spot in Culver City. I've never BEEN (take-out deliciousness), but I did have a milkshake and it was fab. Very creamy, smooth, the kind you want at a diner/greasy spoon, which I assume Johnnie's is.

Also, I would like to note the celeb sighting of Minnie Driver at the Farmer's Market a few weeks ago - if you all would get your butts over there to try some Carmela ice cream, you might get to see a famous person TOO!!!!

Johnnie's Pastrami:
4017 Sepulveda Blvd
Culver City, CA 90230
(310) 397-6654

Scoops Reunion!

Scoops, as per usual, is our favorite ice cream meet-up place in the LA area. Yesterday afternoon we all descended - Miranda, Emily, Emily 2, Sarah, and Alice - to enjoy an afternoon of delicious gelato awesomeness.

It was great times for all - Chocolate IPA, Salty Caramel, Banana Oreo, Nutella, and numerous other flavors abounded! Such a great treat for the afternoon.

Go to Scoops, betches!

East Coast Ice Cream TRAILBLAZERS!

My friend Jenny found this article online, check it out east coasters! Connecticut sure has some things goin for it! courtesy of the associated press and Jenny's sweet internet research skills.

CONNECTICUT

A new travel guide to a rocky road. You've heard of winery trails and biking trails andbirding trails. But how about an ice cream trail? Eastern Connecticut has created an official ice creamtrail to guide visitors to the best spots for locallyproduced and often homemade ice cream. A brochure, "Follow the Ice Cream Trail: SundaeDrives," lists 35 places to get scoops, cones, shakes,rainbow sprinkles and hot fudge sauce. It is available online at http://www.mysticcountry.com/ from the Eastern Regional Tourism District of Connecticut.The list of ice cream shops and stands also offerstips on attractions and activities nearby.

For example, stop in for a treat at Canterbury Cones, onRoute 169, in Canterbury, and then head to nearby Burgess Brook Alpaca Farm. From the 99-year-old IceCream Shoppe, 34 Lyme St. in Old Lyme, take a sidetrip to the Florence Griswold Museum.Near the Mohegan Sun resort and casino, you'll find Ed's Kitchen & Creamery, 884 Norwich New London Road,Route 32, in Uncasville. Or if you're heading to Foxwoods Resort Casino or the Jonathan Edwards Winery,check out Olivia's farm-fresh ice cream, at 240-DNorwich-Westerly Road, Route 2, in North Stonington.- Associated Press

Fudge 2! And Angelato!!!

I must say, hands-down, Angelato in Santa Monica has the most flavors of any other place we've been thus far. Thumbs WAY UP for flavor variety. Gelato galore! Tons of fun to get to pick. So we split the Hedgehog and the Cappuccino ... cookie? I think? Anyway, both very creamy and the consistency, taste, and texture all get a thumbs up. The problem for me was the value; it was around $5 for half of what scoops'd give you for $3. And with the taste and unique combos at Scoops, and its proximity to my apartment, it still wins. But Angelato was great - perfect for those Santa Monica heat waves, and the variety of both normal and fruity flavors beats out any of the other places thus far. We'll have to discover if it has seasonal changes, to further compare it with Herrell's. Thus far, it's the closest contender - though Herrell's flavors and value still wins.


Speaking of Herrell's, we did our Herrell's fudge part 2 ice cream meet-up yesterday. Fudge + cookie dough. I think the Starbucks actually was a better match ice-cream wise, but the Ben & Jerry's sufficed for our needs. I'm hoping next time to go with a mint chocolate chip/cookie of some variety. Delish!

Angelato iz:

301 Arizona Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 656-9999

Impromptu Ice Cream Meet-up!

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday afternoon to receive a call from my friend Voik! I hadn't seen Voik since visiting LA in March, so was glad to hear from him. Apparently he'd just returned from a shoot in Hong Kong, and needed some ice cream. Of course, I was thrilled to accompany him to Scoops to, once again, enjoy the deliciousness of their flavor palette. I tried the Amaretto Cappuccino, and found it good but not exactly what I was looking for. So I went for the Guinness Tiramisu; Voik had, I believe, Strawberry Poppyseed. Deliciousness abounds at Scoops - and Voik recommended Pure, the vegetarian restaurant across the street, for dinner fun as well.

While eating, we noticed the LA Fire Department pull up across the street...and get out to go have some Scoops. "Now we know how the LA FD keeps their cool!" -direct Voik quote.

Punning aside, Scoops is once again highly recommended!

Eco Ice Cream Tip #1

From the Do Just One Thing Calendar by Eco-Expert Danny Seo

"If you're heading out for a cool, summertime ice cream treat tonight, THINK CONE, NOT DISH. An ice cream cone is a greener, tastier alternative to a plastic dish (although I know we've all had some waxy nasty ice cream cones in the past, my personal preference is to rock the sugar cone in order to prevent this dilemma-sez eMiLy) and spoon since you can consume the whole treat with very little waste. Eat carbs to save the planet." (yeah! that's what I'm talking about!)

Carmela-ela-ela

My weekly jaunt to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market proved to be especially fruitful today. Not only did I get my weekly fill of chicken satay sticks, persian cukes, nectarines and blueberries, I discovered Carmela Ice Cream, a booth stowed away past the thai place and the Flan King in the alley. Joanna and I met up by the thai place to get chicken and enjoy it on the sidewalk. AND THEN WE SAW THE ICE CREAM BOOTH.

Brown Sugar Vanilla Bean
Mint Cacao Nib
Mexican Chocolate
Aztec Chocolate
Lemon Basil Sorbet
Spiced Strawberry Sorbet
Watermelon Sorbet
Rose Petal (pint only)

I could feel the excitement and anticipation build up inside of my tummy. I needed to eat that chicken fast! A pigeon threatened to poo on us at that point so we got up, I scrambled over the trash can to scarf down my last chicken stick and then the joyous ice cream tasting began.

We couldn’t help but question the difference between Mexican and Aztec Chocolate ice cream first and foremost. The ice cream guy (Zach, the cofounder I believe) said he gets asked that question often and they both have a basic mexican hot chocolate flavor but the aztec is “A spicier version of Mexican Chocolate. 70% bittersweet cacao with Ceylon cinnamon, whole Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans, chipotle pepper and ancho pepper.” (see website for more flavor details)

Then we got our sample on! First, I had a sample of the brown sugar vanilla bean which was the ultimate creamy goodness! Without being overtly sweet. I couldn’t help but say WOW out loud, multiple times, and Zach was glad to hear that reaction. I also sampled the lemon basil sorbet which had a nice clean taste. Joanna and I both purchased the Mint Cacao Nib cups (small cups were $3 and pints were $9 we think) which were also amazing, straight up mint ice cream, with little crunchy chocolate bits. Unfortunately there was a little meltage which spilled a bit on my shoes, wasted ice cream I say!
Check out www.carmelaicecream.com for more info and for locations (restaurants/farmers markets) to get your scoop of deliciousness today!

Pinkberry - Coffee Flavor

I tried it. It basically tasted like someone put a cup of plain yogurt in the freezer, then let it thaw out. Gross. Sour. Disgusting aftertaste. Never again. Next!!

There are Pinkberrys everywhere. The one I visited is at:

236 N Larchmont Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90004

Great American Ice Cream Betch

This past Saturday June 28th, the peeps from No Cookie Left Behind (www.Myspace.com/NoCookieLeftBehind), Spork Foods, and other fellow Angelenos held their own GREAT AMERICAN BAKE SALE outside of SCOOPS ice cream shop on Heliotrope in LA to support SHARE OUR STRENGTH, an organization working to end childhood hunger in America (See STRENGTH.ORG for more info).
I was excited all week about this event after seeing a post about it on yelp.com and geared myself up for goodies and helping the kiddies! I went ahead and added NoCookieLeftBehind to my Myspace and made sure to eat a light breakfast that morning.
Two tables and a big umbrella were set up in the corner right outside of the shop and they were completely covered with deliciousness! Cakes, cookies, cupcakes, banana bread, zucchini bread, lemon cake, tarts, etc. There were vegan goodies too!

For $8 I got a hefty slice of zucchini bread, lemon cake, a chocolate chip cookie with a gooey marshmallow center and a small square piece of baklava.


Since we were at Scoops anyways Joanna and I of course got some ice cream. There were a lot of alcohol related flavors, chocolate guinness, watermelon triple sec, etc. I opted for the pear champagne and a scoop of the vegan soy based maple oreo while Joanna went for a butterscotch flavor (mixed with almond I believe). All of the flavors were quite tasty. The pear champagne was more of a sorbet, so it was a little melty and icier but still had a strong clean pear flavor. The maple oreo is a maple ice cream, not too rich, with oreo chunks and bits in it. The awesome thing about Scoops is that not only is the ice cream delicious and different all the time, there's friendly service (one of the guys at the counter remembered us and asked us how it was going, a really chipper dude) and plenty of people watching! Especially on a busy bake sale Saturday. Joanna noted too that there's always attractive, hip, interesting looking folks hanging out at Scoops and I agree. Where they hang out when they're not at Scoops I have no idea but I'm glad that they find a common stomping ground at Scoops.

Post bake sale randomness:
I also told my sanfran friend and partner in mischief,Jenny about it we were just about ready to quit our day jobs and purchase many a colorful Kitchen Aid Mixer and join in with the baking! Which is still entirely possible so if next time you hear from us and we're in Austin or Boise or San Fran and we're dishing up red velvet cupcakes, you can bet your britches some of our proceeds will be going to this organization, amongst many others (perhaps another charity birthday indie designer birthday bash to support vday?). Onward ho righteous cupcake lovers!

Apologies!

We are falling way behind on the updates on this here ice cream betches blog of awesomeness. So here's a mini-update re: the last week of ice cream joy.

Mid-week we had some fun with Starbucks store-bought Java Chip ice cream and Herrell's fudge (so far, the fudge won out over any and every other ice cream experience...as expected). The Java Chip was a good consistency, and held up against the fudge unexpectedly well. Delicious, all around.

Yesterday, I went to a diner called Dolores on Santa Monica Blvd for a milkshake: vanilla - pretending to be Uma in Pulp Fiction, of course. Exactly as expected - the flavor, the consistency, the large styrofoam cup (take-out milkshake). It hit the spot at the time, but for $5 I think there's better ice cream out there. Yeesh, expensive diners in these here parts.

Stay tuned for better updates, and more exciting ice cream adventures!

Dolores Restaurant
11407 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025-3009

Fred 62 (it counts!)

Last night before a screening of The Lady Eve at the Silent Movie Theatre, Savannah and I had a cathartic waffle at Fred 62 - well, more accurately, I had the waffle, she had the catharsis. I mean tuna melt.

The food was awesome as usual - I mixed it up a bit and had a waffle SUNDAE, hence the post on Ice Cream Betches. The sundae was a vanilla ice cream/dulce de leche conglomeration of deliciousness. I'd say, so far, the ice cream was the best I've had in LA. I'm not a huge fan of vanilla on its own (with hot fudge? yes. in a milk shake? a five dollar shake? so I can pretend I'm Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction? Absolutely. On its own, not so much). But this vanilla was pretty good. The consistency was perfect for a sundae - melty enough to complement the waffle - you didn't feel as though the textures were competing. And the taste was premium quality - none of that ice-chip nonsense or too bland to have a flavor.

Savannah pointed out the little black vanilla bean dots in the ice cream, mentioning that that is a good sign of quality. I speculated that some companies probably put those in now at this point, just to imply quality where there is none; but, not the case with Fred 62. I forgot to ask if they make their own ice cream - the only flavor available on the menu was vanilla - but it's worth it. Plus, the rest of the food is awesome, so go check it out!

Fred 62
1850 N Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027

Zanzabelle!

This past Saturday, Emily and I took our ice cream testing selves to Zanzabelle. Our adventure definitely started out on an awkward foot; we parked, left the car...and remembered I'd forgotten my crackberry. So we trudged two blocks back to get it, and left to find an ATM...only to realize on arriving there that we'd forgotten to put money in the meter. So we basically did a circuitous route (very complicated, LA is not made for walkers) three times before finally managing to get across the street to Zanzabelle, where our ice cream waited for us.

When we entered the gift shop, we saw many delightful objects: red skulls, miniature soap shaped like baby hands, coloring books, a Rosa Parks pez dispenser - hell, it had everything you could want and more! We decided to purchase some lunch while waiting for the arrival of Savannah and crew. Our sandwiches were delicious, though very chipotle-y; we worried for a bit that we'd look like we'd been crying when our other friends arrived! Fortunately, we managed to clear our heads before the folks rolled up.

Lunch and ice cream commenced. The flavors were okay - chocolate, mint chip, strawberry chocolate chip, salty caramel and cappucino [again, sic] crunch being the two most interesting. I opted for the cappucino crunch and the mint chip. Savannah had chocolate. Emily was daring and put a cone on top of her dish.

I have to say, thus far this was the most typical ice cream we've tried. Very local ice-cream stand - I'd even compare it to a Breyer's or Dreyer's store-bought - generic texture, generic flavor. I believe the ice cream sold at Zanzabelle is Fosselman's, which is supposedly one of the best ice creams in LA. I'd give it one thumb up - good enough to do the job, fine if you're looking for ice cream out with friends, a great shopping experience/adventure, but monetarily I'd recommend saving your money and buying a pint at the supermarket.

All of us later attended a screening of Sex & the City, which I enjoyed quite a bit, followed by some traffic incidents including a fat man in socks waddling across the street in front of an ambulance; getting stuck for an hour in crazy post-Cure concert traffic; and an Asian doctor in hairnet jogging in the middle of the road. So it was an eventful day.

For me, thus far, Scoops is still in the lead for taste, variety, and price. Stay tuned for Emily to weigh in after her excursion back east (insert jealous statements here) to visit good ol' Noho and have some Herrell's!!!

Zanzabelle
2912 Rowena Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90039

IcePan

Well, I went on an intrepid adventure to ice cream joint #2 today: Icepan. Sadly, Emily did not accompany me, as she was bringin' in the big bucks - but I was joined by the lovely and talented Savannah and Julia, who inaugurated me into the coolness of Icepan (and their ice cream).

The method is certainly a unique one, and to be praised - they literally make the ice cream in front of you, by combining flavored milk (soy, non-fat, low fat, or whole) with your topping(s) of choice. It seems pretty simple - they pour the milk onto the cooled surface - pan, if you will - and then use metal spatulas to fold it over and over until it's solidified into ice cream. Kind of awesome as far as creativity; the mix-in candy option is obviously a Herrell's invention, so I'm not sure it gets credit as far as that goes - but literally watching the server make your ice cream is pretty cool. So it scores 2 thumbs up for that.

As far as the ice cream itself - it stayed surprisingly solid for a long time. Minimal soupage at the bottom of the dish. The texture was good, if a little too icy - as was the flavor, which was also slightly off, somehow (I got the non-fat coffee, but there was a bit of an aftertaste). I'm not sure if the ice cream flavor issues come from using the same pan to make multiple flavors throughout the day, or if their mixes aren't that pure; the chocolate chips I had mixed in were pretty good, but flavor-wise I think I'd give it a sideways thumb.

While we were eating our ice cream, an older woman came up to ask what we thought of Icepan - she planned to try coffee as well. Apparently the opinion of this critic is already in high demand!

Next up: Zanzabelle. Look for a review this weekend!

S(a)EX & ICE CREAM 2

Miranda has pretty much summed up our SCOOPS experience quite well and hence I have copied and pasted the facebook note she wrote about it below- S(a)EX & ICE CREAM (Take that sex and the city!!! suckas!!!)

I actually went back today with my friend Joanna. We both got the maple coffee ice cream with some chocolate jimmies. We also had a taste of the chocolate & Guinness. Immediately upon entering my mouth it tasted like chocolate but seconds later the Guinness flavor became quite strong, just like having a gulp o' Guinness, what an after taste! If I kept eating I would've had an ice cream hangover for sure.

Unfortunately they only had one case full of ice cream instead of two, probably because it was late afternoon on a Sunday and they were looking to clean and close up shop but people were still coming in and out until closing. Also odd was that one of the hula hoops from the art on the wall was missing, at least this time around Miranda won't end up knocking it over so much (this will make more sense once you read Miranda's review). Overall, the experience at Scoops is a good one and it definitely gets a thumbs up! Be a grown up and have some ice cream for dinner!

Miranda sez:
The title of this note pretty much says it all, but just in case someone missed it: today ruled. Got up, did some chore-type things, and then went out for some Scoops of deliciousness with Emily.

The mathematics of Scoops are a bit confusing for the first-timer; "one" scoop is actually two...but at an ice cream place who would complain about that kind of math?

We started by tasting the Brown Bread flavor, which was less overpoweringly sweet than we'd feared - and also less delicious than we'd hoped. So we moved on to other flavors - mint chocolate, banana oreo (vegan), capucino (I'm spelling it the way they did, sigh), and walnut honey. The latter was my least fave, chosen by the quiet and intensely staring counter boy, but the others were decent.

The ambience was a plus - local art on the wall, which I managed to knock down at least 5 times during the course of our ice cream fest (they were hula hoops. On a nail. So no breakage). And there was a bucket with an acorn sticker somewhere near the ceiling. Also, I appreciated the "recommend a flavor" whiteboard - we tried for dark chocolate + pomegranate, and hopefully our suggestion will come to, er, fruition.

We also managed to take in some local color - the green-haired woman and her morose boyfriend came with their son, and met up with some friends and their child - carrying a penguin stuffed animal. You just can't go wrong with penguins. There was also a boy with an enormous Obama poster adhered to his backpack. But politics aside, the ice cream was good - not too sweet, not too heavy, but not too icy, either; on rereading that sentence, I feel like Goldilocks! Haha.

It's not a Herrell's contender, but it'll definitely pass as good ice cream - 4 scoops for $3.75; and at only a mile away - which I walked - I'll take it. Yes, please!