Yeah, me too. I’ve been aware of it since childhood and it’s almost always offered on Mexican dessert menus. Never seen it at a sushi restaurant, though.
Perry’s brand ice cream is a delicacy for me because it’s not available where I live now. The company’s home base is in Western New York, but it’s fairly common throughout the northern Atlantic states (just not, apparently, where I live). I think it’s one of the tastiest supermarket type ice creams, and I personally like it better than most of the gourmet shop ice creams, although that could be because it’s the ice cream of my youth.
Sweet Cream ice cream is something I’ve only seen at Thomas Sweet ice cream in Prenceton (and, I understand in their branch store in New Brunswick). When you think about it, it’s rather weird that ice cream flavored by a bean should be considered our “base” flavor. “Sweet Cream” is really more essential than vanilla, and arguably as plain as it gets – more “vanilla” than Vanilla. I haven’t seen it elsewhere.
Boston Coolers come from Detroit Ice cream float - Wikipedia
Named for Fred Sanders’ shop on Boston Boulevard.
Sweet cream is a flavour at Coldstone Creamery and fairly ubiquitous. Creating a gourmet mix-in to blend with sweet cream was a recent challenge on Top Chef and the company representative was going on about how it’s the perfect “base” flavour for mix-ins.
At least one of the local (Missoula) Chinese restaurants has it, and I think at least one of the local (Olympia) Chinese places has it, too. But don’t quote me on the Olympia one- I usually go to that restaurant with my parents, and we never order dessert. That’s the kind in the eggroll wrappers, I mean. At least two of the Olympia-area Mexican chains have the rolled-in-corn-flakes style fried ice cream as well.
In the Puget Sound area, you can’t go wrong with Olympic Mountain Ice Cream. They’re based in Shelton, and make some of the best ice cream in the world. As a kid, I just thought of them as the ice cream at Bayview, Traditions Cafe, and the Olympia Farmer’s Market, but they also supply ice cream to all sorts of fancy restaurants. I can’t think of any particular flavor that’s special to them, but only because I haven’t been home for months and there’s no listing of their flavors online. I’m almost certain one of their berry flavors is Northwest-specific, though.
You need to make a road trip down I-96 to East Lansing and find : Melting Moments Cafe and while here, stop into the MSU dairy store as well for their ice cream and cheeses.
Mikawaya in Little Tokyo makes a little treat called mochi ice cream - it’s a small amount of ice cream wrapped in sweet rice flour dough of the same flavor as the ice cream. I particularly enjoy the chocolate and green tea flavors. I think they also sell it at Trader Joe’s, at least around here.
My sis went to a Korean market in Cerritos not long ago and came back with a gallon tub of mango sherbet. I wish I could remember the brand, 'cause that stuff was great.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot - has any of you been to Fosselman’s in Alhambra (or is it South Pasadena?) or Mashti Malone’s on the Westside? I haven’t had a chance to try their ice cream, but I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews for both places.
Oh Og, that stuff is divine! You can get it here, too. Whenever I’m at my Vietnamese friend’s place I try to steal some from the freezer. Next time I’m in Little Tokyo I should stop by Mikawaya–I’ve only ever been to Daikokuya (which was excellent, despite my Japanese then-roommate being a little miffed that the waitress only spoke English).
My husband introduced me to another Southern CA treat when I first got here: Date shakes. Highly caloric. It was his (only somewhat facetious) dream to buy the Date Shake Shack we went to on the beach at Malibu.
The original Steve’s was incredible. Not only did they have the mix-in’s, they made the ice cream fresh right there at the store.
Around here, you go to the Spa and order a Frappe. Or else get ice cream with jimmies. Which actually tastes just the same as going to the corner market and ordering a milkshake or ice cream with sprinkles anywhere else, of course.
Regarding the Häagen-Dazs pear sorbet I once had the extreme pleasure of devouring in San Diego in years past, fetus of San Diego writes:
Note that I most regrettably left my beloved San Diego in 1996, so if they stopped making it around that time, you would not have seen it in recent years.
Note also that I’ve checked the Häagen-Dazs web site, and they no longer list that flavor.
I’ve found references on the web to others who have enjoyed their pear sorbet, so I know I wasn’t imagining things.
I think I’ll go have a good cry now…
Around here, though, “fried ice cream” means “ice cream rolled in frosted flakes”. I’ve never seen real, actual fried ice cream.
Cold Stone has only been around suince 1988. Thomas Sweet was around well before that, and back then I don’t know of any other place that sold “swett cream” ice cream.
Swett cream would be pretty nasty and the OP doesn’t refer back to who had what ice cream flavour first but whether or not a flavour happens to be (currently) regionally concentrated. Considering that a major chain ice cream parlour has the flavour, it can hardly be said to be regionally concentrated.
In Malaysia they have Durian flavored ice cream. Durian is a fruit that some say is divine and others
Down here we have Dulce de Leche ice cream, which can best be described as sugar flavored sugar with extra sugar ice cream with a sugar coating. I am not sure if it has made it up north yet.
I ordered it once when I was younger out of curiosity and it was really fried.
I didn’t really care for it.
There’s an ice cream shop in Toronto (can’t remember the name, blast it) that serves toasted marshmallow ice cream. Just thinking about it makes me want to hop in the car and drive the six hours.
Is “Blue Moon” ice cream unique to the Midwest? It has sort of an almond flavor and is indeed a bright blue.
The University of Wisconsin in Madison has a dairy which produces famous ice cream.
Just the mention of Culver’s made my mouth start watering…almost makes me want to be back in Wisconsin again but then I think about the impending winter along with the fact that my ever expanding waistline needs no additional help.
While here, I’ve got to add a Texas regional - Blue Bell’s Cantaloupe & Cream - chunks of cantaloupe melon in their vanilla ice cream - to die for. Unfortunately, it only has a limited production run each summer.