Confessions of a Novelty Ice Cream Fiend

[jhlurie]

Okay...we did candy elsewhere... so how about Frozen treats? Rules as before... let us know what neat Frozen dessert treats you know and love... gourmet or junk off the back of a truck. Pictures, if possible.

Upper left corner of this page--"Popsicle Shots".

I'm eating one of these right now... not bad, but it would be better if Good Humor had made it a bit more sour.

Amazingly it's only 10 Calories and 2g of carbs. I could hardly believe it.

[Rachel Perlow]

Dippin' Dots

The Ice Cream of the Future!

It's ice cream flash frozen into these little BBs. It is stored & served so cold that it sticks to your tongue for a second before it begins to melt. They aren't available in too many places so I don't have them often, but I just can't resist getting some when I see those cool vending machines.

[jhlurie]

Been a lot of years since I've had a Chipwich (especially with the number of clones which have popped up) but I like the looks of this...

This history of Chipwich would be a bit less objectionable if it wasn't an obvious teaser for a book. But I do like the bit about how a Englewood, NJ student came up with the name in trade for college tuition...

[LaNiña]

I love Good Humor chocolate eclaires and toasted almonds. I'm not even sure if there's real dairy in them - I mean they *say* there is, but...

[ronnie_suburban]

I believe they (dippin dots) are served "full-time" at a few kiosks at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI--and I whole-heartedly agree with your choice!

I first had them at Custer's Last Stand, a neighborhood street fair held annually in Evanston, IL where they were billed as "Ice Cream of the Future."

Of course, the snickers ice cream bars (snack size) that we buy "for" my son often disappear before he gets home from school, so I have to put those on the list too

=R=

[galley girl]

I just bought a package of Lichee Bang in Chinatown and love them. They're like lichee freeze pops (the label says -- inexplicably -- Yogurt Ice Bar -- though it does have skim milk in it) and while they're deliciously refreshing, I'm not at all sure I'm eating them correctly. I get step 1 on the label -- where I"m supposed to put them in the freezer. Step 2, Okay you break them apart and open...but step 3 has them in a bowl, then being sliced with a knife (can't tell whether that's supposed to be through the rather thick plastic or not). Step 4 shows a glass with a straw and bubbles in it and step 5 shows a pop being snipped with scissors (But why would you need to snip them if you've already broken them open?) My method is to roll them in my palms till they're slushy enough to slip through the opening made when I broke them apart.

However you're supposed to eat them, I'm fast becoming addicted in this sultry summer weather. They're so refreshing! And only 52 calories ( I add that humorously...there's the most complete nutritional panel I've ever SEEN on the back...it's by far the most English on the label)

Also on the Chinatown circuit, I'm partial to the purple taro popsicles you can find in Thai and Indonesian shops.

[B Edulis]

At the Pakistani Tea House on Church Street, near Chambers (NYC) in the freezer right inside the door they have two flavors of home made popsicles - pistachio and coconut. They're both made with evaporated milk, I think (there's no ingredient list, natch). They're terrific, a favorite of my fairy god daughter, Jemma.

[stagis]

2 things - 1 gettable, 1 not.

Gettable: 'Mini Gel Snacks' in Asian markets. They're (roughly) one ounce plastic cups (little things) sealed with foil. It's like a jello thing which I suspect was jelled with some sort of seaweed extract - when thawed (the way they were intended to be eaten) they've got a non-jello consistency, with a chunk of coconut heart or something in the middle. Freeze and enjoy! They're better, to my taste, frozen...

Non-gettable except on the Asian rim: MELONA BARS!!! These things have become my personal quest. We had them on a Hawaiian vacation l- a little pricey but worth every penny...sort of like a perfectly ripe melon frozen on a stick. I'm currently working on Costco (where we got them out there) to stock them - if I can get 'em at one Costco, I should be able to get 'em at any Costco. There's a language barrier at my local (and wonderful) Asian market, A Dong in W. Hartford, CT, and we're just not connecting.

[nyfirepatrolchef]

YES! Thats the one I couldnt remember the name of in the I scream you scream thread!!!

GOOD HUMOR CHOCOLATE ECLAIR!

drool oh god.

And the cup or pop put out by Popsicle...vanilla creamy mystery stuff inside orange icy stuff.

Creamsicle?

[Kim WB]

2 things - 1 gettable, 1 not.

Gettable:  'Mini Gel Snacks' in Asian markets.  They're (roughly) one ounce plastic cups (little things) sealed with foil.  It's like a jello thing which I suspect was jelled with some sort of seaweed extract - when thawed (the way they were intended to be eaten) they've got a non-jello consistency, with a chunk of coconut heart or something in the middle.  Freeze and enjoy!  They're better, to my taste, frozen...

Actually, these will be moving to the "non-gettable" list soon...multiple children have choked on the nugget of candy or fruit in the gel...seems that hte coconut is the same size as a two year olds esophogus. The most recent victim was a 18 month old from Newark,NJ, and there is already lawsuits initiated and restrictions placesd on this product.

[kpurvis]

The Choco Taco is still high on my list of good/bad frozen indulgences. It's ice cream in a waffle cone shaped like a taco, with chocolate. I haven't indulged in years, but I saw two teenagers eating something that looked suspiciously like one recently, so it must still be out there in junk food land.

[bushey]

Choco tacos are very much out there. At the beach they're on all of the ice cream trucks and at our local community pool the lifeguards sell them out of the freezer during "rest breaks". I've seen them in the supermarket, too.

[jhlurie]

Philly Swirl, surprisingly good (although thus far I've only had the "Philly Swirl Stix", not the main product in cups.

[Varmint]

I remember eating Scooter Crunch bars in college. They came in strawberry, chocolate and vanilla and were absolutely dreadful. We ate them nonetheless, primarily because they had perhaps 2 naturally occurring ingredients in them. I can't find any information about them on the web, so if someone could find a link, I'd be grateful!

[Malawry]

I used to love Scooter Crunches! The Good Humor chocolate eclairs are strikingly similar, so check them out if you haven't already. I wonder why they call them eclairs, they bear no resemblance to any of the components of a real eclair. Speaking of which, I used to adore the chocolate eclair ice cream at the Greensboro, NC branch of Swensen's (back when they made the ice cream in the store and birthday parties often involved tours).

I admit to liking orange sherbet Push-ups as a child. I got one a few years ago while on a nostalgia kick and they are truly vile to my adult sensibilities.

[jhlurie]

Can't say I've ever had a scooter crunch (am I too old, too young or just from the wrong part of the country?) but it seems via Google to be associated with plenty of school lunches throughout the midwest.

An FDA report (apparently linked to a bad batch of Scooter Crunch back in 1995) associates it with Frecker's Ice Cream Company, in Columbus, Ohio. Although it's not clear if its still a going concern, the school lunch references should make you hopeful, if you are an enthusiast.

[CathyL]

What happened to Eskimo Pies? They're my husband's favorite. It's been years since I've seen the original ones in Manhattan - all that's available are the sugar-free variety and they suck.

I can still find him Nutty Buddies (aka Drumsticks, at least in the West) - sugar cone, vanilla ice cream, chocolate-like topping, chopped peanuts.

My childhood fix was a frozen banana on a stick, coated in chocolate and nuts. And Cool Pops, the liquid-filled plastic rectangles frozen at home and squeezed out of the package. I liked the blue ones - no identifiable flavor, just...blue.

No one's mentioned sno-cones.

Ferrara in Little Italy used to make a kick-ass coffee granita - intense espresso punch, not too sweet.

[Rachel Perlow]

My childhood fix was a frozen banana on a stick, coated in chocolate and nuts.

You just made me remember losing my first tooth after knocking it loose on a frozen banana at Disneyworld.

[Jason Perlow]

Riffing off Jonathan Lurie's excellent thread on novelty candy, I thought this topic was timely considering the onset of summer weather.

My favorite is the IT'S-IT, a chocolate-dipped oatmeal cookie and ice cream sandwich, but its only in the San Francisco Bay area (and I always make a point of having several whenever I go out there for a Linux trade show or something) and its made by a small, family-owned company.

My favorite, easy to find novelty ice cream has got to be the Klondike. Why? Its relatively cheap, It has a good chocolate coating, and the Ice Cream is good -- its Bryers, which as commercial ice cream goes is quite decent. Klondike Crunch is probably my favorite variant but their Chocolate and their Mint varieties are also excellent.

Dove Bars and Haagen Dasz bars are kickass as well, but they are steep. I always feel like a Rockefeller when buying them for some reason.

Good Humors are okay, I dont thnk they are as good as they used to be when I was a kid.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Frozen novelty icecream ratings ...

  (ice cream sandwiches): These are fun, even though the chocolate material clings to your fingers with a ferocity rarely seen outside of the orange crap on Chee-Tos.

Still my choice remains Carvel Flying Saucers .. in chocolate, if you please ...

Love any kind of an ice cream sandwich actually ..

[bloviatrix]

Last week I indulged in my first King Cone of the season. Now, I know that the ice cream is crap and the sugar cones taste like sweetened cardboard but there's just something about them that I love. It might be the fact that the bottom of the cone is lined with chocolate or the chocolate-peanut drizzle that tops the cone, Or it could be that I only eat them on hot summer days, usually in the park. But whatever it is, they're heavenly.

[Jason Perlow]

Frozen novelty icecream ratings ...

  (ice cream sandwiches): These are fun, even though the chocolate material clings to your fingers with a ferocity rarely seen outside of the orange crap on Chee-Tos.

Still my choice remains Carvel Flying Saucers .. in chocolate, if you please ...

Love any kind of an ice cream sandwich actually ..

Oh yeah, the flying saucer, definitely.

[bloviatrix]

I should also point out that I have a thing for ice cream sandwiches, preferably the cheapest ones you can find (usually a store brand). There's something about the fake vanilla ice cream - wilted chococlate cookie combo that's very enticing.

[hjshorter]

I used to love the Good Humor Toasted almond, and was horrifed to find that they have changed the recipe. The new one is GROSS, with a hard candy like shell over the ice cream, and super strong almond extract flavor. Gag.

Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia Peace Pops are great, but getting hard to find.

Coconut Frozen Fruit bars. Just don't look at the fat/cholesterol content.

[hillvalley]

I love strawberry shortcake bars. Good Humor hasn't ruined them too badly, but I prefer the generic version.

I'm also a big fan of rocket pops, which are all over the place this time of year