I'm not sure if this belongs in my ice cream.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Enjoying a well-deserved and hard-earned day off from work this afternoon, and deciding to spend my morning writing, reading the Dope, and generally relaxing, I decide that perhaps I will enjoy a nice little bowl of ice cream.

Last week as we were grocery shopping, I decided to pick up some ice cream, but something different - something I’d never tried before. The colourful label on one of the name brand ice creams caught my attention: Spumoni. I asked my husband if he knew what that was, uncultured clod that I am. He pointed out the little Italian flag on the packaging, and explained to me that there was an Italian dessert called Spumoni, and that it was quite good. I thought about picking it up, but decided I didn’t want to spend $5.99 on a bucket of ice cream I wasn’t sure I would even like. Granted, I’ve never met an ice cream I didn’t like (as evidenced by my ballooning hips), but I decided to peruse the other varieties. Quickly, however, I spotted the generic Safeway brand ice cream in the same “Spumoni” flavour. Since it was less than half of the brand name price, I decided to give it a shot.

And so here I sit today, tentatively trying out this new, unusual flavour. Mmm. Chocolate, that’s nice. Oh, little bits of cherry! Very nice. Ah, yum, a pistachio. Mmm, a bit of rum flavour there. I can see if this were a name brand how this might be a great flav…

Er… what the hell was that flavour? Soft… mushy… not a cherry… not a fig of any sort… not citrus… ugh. *Awful * aftertaste. What the hell was that?

Thoroughly stumped, I head into the kitchen to check the ingredients on the package of ice cream.

I know it’s not a very good picture, but can you read this? It says: “TURNIPS”! TURNIPS!

There are turnips in my ice cream!

As I sit here next to a half melted bowl of ice cream, can anyone tell me this is a common ingredient in spumoni? I’ve been looking up spumoni recipes ever since, and I can’t find turnips listed in any of them!
**
TURNIPS?!**

2

Apparently this spumoni is meant to be eaten after enjoying a plate of ravioli, a word whose origin is

3

Sorry, no. The image is all fuzzy.

4

I can’t either, but strangely Anastasaeon can.

Q: Could those icecream-turnips have given her Mutant Eyesight Powers…?

(Hey, it beats the pants off a radioactive spider-bite. :smiley: )

5

We depended on the kindness of our father in providing ice cream and weren’t welcome to offer suggestions. Therefore we lived or died by the opening of the freezer to reveal that week’s supply. Spumoni was right at the bottom of the list, followed by Neapolitan. But I never knew anything about no turnips!

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It’s not so strange - I can see it in front of my eyes, while the picture I took is very fuzzy. I can’t make it focused, but the words are not actually blurry on the package.

7

I just got some Safeway cherry vanilla the other day. (I miss the days when you got entire cherry halves rather than mushed up cherry bits.) I’m so going to have to check out the spumoni ingredients next time. Won’t get any because my taste buds have decided they hate chocolate, even though my mind still says, “Yes, yes, YES!”

I wonder if it’s possible to get taste bud transplants?

8

Vegetables do not belong in ice cream. Neither does meat. Fruits, sure. Nuts? Great. Chocolate and other confections? Awesome. Roots? Get thee hence, demon spawn!

Maybe it’s an uncomfortable new health-consciousness trend. Maybe there’s a whole range out there. Berry Beetroot Blast. Brocco Choco Cherry Cheesecake. Lime 'n Lentil. Sweet Potato Passionfruit! Good God, man, Rhubarbabaga! They must be stopped.

9

I can read it, but only because I know what it’s supposed to say! :wink:

Turnip is NOT a traditional part of Spumoni, but it’s a good bet that what you’re eating isn’t actually Spumoni. Spumoni is a layered desert, made with ice cream and fruits and nuts, not a flavor of ice cream. Spumoni “inspired” ice cream often has, as you’ve noted, chocolate, pistachios, maraschino cherries, etc.

My guess is that turnip bits are a cheap and relatively tasteless way to get extra texture into the ice cream. Most likely to be found in, as you say, cheap ice cream. We likey our chunky ice cream these days.

10

When Papa T. lived in Japan, he got a shave ice one day (snowcone is the most common American name), and was enjoying it till he bit down on something so hard he nearly broke a tooth.

There was a frozen lima bean in his shave ice!. Those wacky Japanese!

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Don’t you mean those wacky Japanese.

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Anastasaeon has gained the proportional strength and agility of a turnip!

13

flexes

Well, it’s better than super radish-strength. That sucked, let me tell you.

14

Now I’m afraid to try the Chunky Monkey flavor.

15

Turnips? In ice cream? This is why I always take a look at the ingredients first. Mostly it’s to check the dairy content though.

You got a problem with ginger? :dubious:

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In cookies, stir fry and ale? Not at all. Ginger ice cream? It’s odd, but it ain’t turnips.

“Contains 10% real monkey from concentrate.”

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Do you have any idea how much monkeys cost? They stopped using real monkeys as soon as Ben and Jerry sold the company. Nowadays you don’t want to know what those chunks are made out of.

18

But to answer the OP, spumoni traditionally contains a mixture of chocolate, pistachios, cherries, rum, almonds, maybe some candied fruit or walnuts, or even strawberries - but turnips are right out.

19

Funny ginger should come up. We went grocery shopping tonight, and I dumped the spumoni for gingerbread cookie flavoured ice cream. Also from Safeway. Come to think of it, I should go check that label for turnips…

Nope. Lots of other scary things in there, but I’m safe from turnips. Although it does say “gingerbread mini cookies”. I wonder if they started off as gingerbread men…

20

It’s fine, but for your sanity avoid that B & J crap with the pretzels in it. That was some truly crappy ice cream.