# Neapolitan ice cream: what do you eat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 27, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096 "2012-04-27T02:34:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/1 "2012-04-27T02:34:17Z")
We were discussing ice cream at work today, and I brought up Neapolitan ice cream (the stuff that’s blocks of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla stuck together). I noticed that most people scarf up the chocolate and strawberry, leaving a big block of uneaten vanilla in the middle. Some coworkers said they only ate the chocolate and vanilla, leaving the strawberry on the side. So when you buy Neapolitan ice cream, which flavors do you eat and which do you leave alone? ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/2 "2012-04-27T02:37:31Z")
My parents used to buy it when I was little, and we kids would carefully eat the chocolate. And vanilla, leaving a ribbon of strawberry in the carton. Now that I’m old, I like all three flavors. I haven’t had any in years, but this thread is making me crave it, so it’s off to Wally World tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/3 "2012-04-27T02:37:49Z")
I never buy Neopolitan, but if I were at a party or something, as you describe above, I’d take a reasonable share of each, let them melt slightly, and then swirl them all together. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/4 "2012-04-27T02:37:50Z")
Wow! Winning again. Everybody does it like me! ETA: Hey! Wait your turn. And eat your ice cream the right way. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/5 "2012-04-27T02:51:30Z")
First strawberry, then chocolate, then vanilla. ---
**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/6 "2012-04-27T02:53:02Z")
Why would you buy ice cream you don’t want to eat? ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/7 "2012-04-27T02:56:42Z")
What is this ice cream you “leave alone”? Never met ice cream I didn’t like! ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/8 "2012-04-27T03:13:36Z")
Hm… That sounds like a challenge! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/9 "2012-04-27T03:17:48Z")
All of them. Chocolate first, always. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/10 "2012-04-27T03:43:07Z")
> [@Strinka](#): > > Why would you buy ice cream you don’t want to eat? I’ve never bought Neopolitan ice cream. It always comes as the desert at low end banquets. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/11 "2012-04-27T04:44:12Z")
All of them at the same time. Scoop right across the carton, then, when it in the bowl, stir it until it’s a uniform grey-brown color and eat it. I have done it this way since I was a child. ---
**Author:** ![Spectralist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Spectralist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectralist)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/12 "2012-04-27T05:11:29Z")
All of them. But not at the same time. I’ll mix the chocolate and vanilla or the strawberry and vanilla but not the chocolate and the strawberry. ---
**Author:** ![kmshrader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b782af/32.png) [@kmshrader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kmshrader)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/13 "2012-04-27T07:53:30Z")
Chocolate. Then vanilla. Then, and only if I’m starving or trying not to offend someone or it’s the only ice cream in the freezer and my car’s broken, the strawberry. Not that I dislike strawberry ice cream, but something about the sickly sweetness of the strawberry ice cream that ends up in Neopolitan ice cream is just unpalatable. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/14 "2012-04-27T08:45:25Z")
The Neopolitan icecream we used to get as kids was pretty low quality, and we would typically only eat the chocolate because that was the only flavour that actually had flavour! However, as an adult, I have been known to buy three seperate tubs of good quality icecream and make my own Neopolitan. Every colour gets eaten in equal measure! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/15 "2012-04-27T12:10:58Z")
Not a big fan of strawberry. But I won’t leave it by itself. Which is why I don’t buy Neapolitan. If its there I’ll take some of each. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/16 "2012-04-27T12:16:00Z")
I don’t like vanilla or strawberry ice cream. It reminds me of the classic _Simpsons_ moment where Homer opens a carton of Neapolitan ice cream. “Choc-o-late…D’oh!” as he notices the chocolate part is all gone, even though the other two flavors are untouched. The same thing is true of the other carton in the freezer. “Marge, we need more of that chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream!” ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/17 "2012-04-27T14:53:52Z")
Vanilla and strawberry, definitely! They used to have ‘pink and white checkerboard’ ice cream in the stores here, which was like Neapolitan without the chocolate. Looking at the answers here gives me an idea why it was discontinued. (They still have the chocolate and vanilla checkerboard in some stores.) This makes me sound picky, but I like the strawberry ice cream in Neapolitan/Checkerboard better than ordinary strawberry ice cream because it doesn’t have bits of strawberries stuck in it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/18 "2012-04-27T14:56:55Z")
When my dad’s family bought some neapolitan, I’d eat only the vanilla which is what I responded to. Nowadays, I’d still try to stick to mostly the vanilla, but if a _tiny_ bit of some chocolate or strawberry went in, that would be good too, for variety’s sake. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/19 "2012-04-27T15:16:37Z")
It isn’t a flavor that we buy for the rare occasions we need ice cream, but if served it elsewhere I either politely refuse to take ice cream at all [diabetic] or I will eat all 3 flavors equally to be polite [probably a bite or two of each flavor.] ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096/20 "2012-04-27T15:59:57Z")
I never liked it as a kid and was confused as to why my parents kept buying it. I ate the chocolate part, and, if pressed, the vanilla. Never the strawberry, because strawberry is the grossest of all ice creams, save pistachio. Now that I’m adult, I can go out and buy the \*good \*stuff and eat \*all \*of it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neapolitan-ice-cream-what-do-you-eat/620096.md?page=2)