The way this year is going, a good percentage of us are going to be experiencing quarantine/social distanced birthdays. In fact, if we don’t get a vaccine any time soon, it may even be two birthdays for some of us. Morbid, I know. But I’m writing this blog as a retrospective about how fun these solo birthdays can be! My birthday was almost a month ago, and I’m still thinking about it. Granted, I may still be thinking about it because nothing else has happened in my life since then and I have no plans for the future. But it could be because it was AWESOME.
First, I want to remind you that birthdays are kind of a big deal for me. I have been throwing themed shebangs ever since I can remember. There was my Tutu 22, my 23rd Revenge of the Nerd, 2-4 Ready to Score, 29 Neon Sign. I could go on. Anyway, the point is, I was pretty dang bummed when I realized I’d be spending my birthday without costumes, without friends, and in the house. My mom asked me about a month before my birthday what I was planning on doing and I said “well I’ll tell you one thing I am NOT doing – a Zoom birthday party.” I have been SO zoomed out! I am on zoom meetings morning ‘til night for work, and the last thing I wanted to do was feign happiness in front of the computer while physically drinking alone. Sounded like a recipe for disaster. So, I started to plan ahead to make sure my birthday would be something to look forward to.
Let me tell you a story – when I was 22 years old, living alone in Florida with my first big-girl job, my office chipped in to get me a big birthday cake. Not just any birthday cake, a CUSTOM ICE CREAM CAKE. Homemade ice cream, unique flavors. Let me tell you as a 32-about-to-be-33-year-old, I NEVER stopped thinking about that cake. I literally thought about that cake for a decade. About a month before my birthday, an idea came to me – maybe I could find a place in Texas to make one for me! I started feverishly researching places that were open, had curbside pickup and unique flavors, and I called around. I finally found one! Henry’s Homemade Ice Cream. It was 30 minutes away, which I figured was nothing for a good cake. They promised 2 layers of ice cream in any of the 110+ flavors they had, and cookies crumbled in the middle, plus hand-decorated. I ordered a heart-shaped blackberry and vanilla fudge swirl cake and started to salivate.
Food is an integral part of any quarantine birthday, but even better? The GIFTS. After around my 17th birthday, I had sort of given up on receiving birthday gifts. Yes, I usually get something from my boyfriend, maybe my parents, maybe a check from my grandma or something small and thoughtful from a super close best friend, but usually the real present is their presence! I throw a shindig, people come, buy me drinks, maybe bring homemade cupcakes, a bottle of liquor, something like that. But a quarantine birthday?? Since no one can actually spend it with you they send PREZZIES!!! And with the mail being sort of messed up and slow delivery times, people send them early. This year, I got my first delivery about 10 days early, a whole BOX of insomnia cookies! Then I got a box with my FAV (only) sneakers I run in from my Mom. Then another box with Golden Girls socks from a friend living in Scotland at the moment. Then another from a friend in Seattle. Then another from a friend living in Miami at the moment. Then an egift that arrived in my inbox on my birthday. It was like feeling the love from around the world in my own house! (Or in Chris’s family’s house.)
My favorite part was the thoughtfulness. My BFF in Miami knows me so well that she bought me the exact same inflatable pool that I had ordered for myself! Thankfully I found out early enough that I could cancel my order. My other BFF sent a Nipyata, which, if you haven’t heard of it, is AWESOME. Basically it’s all the fun of a pinata but with the addition of booze. It came with a stick, a blindfold, and twine to tie it up. It was family fun for everyone! The kids got the candy, I got the Fireball.
Then there was the actual day of my birthday. It started with breakfast in bed, which was set up while I was braiding my hair (natch). Then there was a bouquet of flowers waiting for me downstairs and balloons from my fiance’s family. And I got gifts from my fiancé including new running headphones (they didn’t work well and we had to return them, but it’s the thought that counts!). And he also gave me a little bell he said I could ring for him to be at my beck and call whenever I wanted for a whole day. After digesting my amazing homemade breakfast, I did my favorite kind of workout (step class DUH), and then showered and blew up my pool so it would be ready for my bday weekend. Then I decided to REALLY treat myself and go see my one friend I have in Dallas.
My friend from college, Nathan, who I see every time I come to Texas for Christmas, actually has a birthday one day before me. After 2.5 months living 20 minutes away from him, I finally MASKED UP and went to go see him. We stayed outside and brought his dog to the dog park, then we bought some coffee and it was SO NICE to see a friendly face, even if only from the mid-nose up. We didn’t actually drink the coffee because masks.
Then I took the car to pick up my amazing birthday cake. Unfortunately, or hilariously, they got the words messed up. Instead of “Happy Quarantine Birthday Emily” they said “Happy Birthday Quarantine Emily.” Who’s “Quarantine Emily?” She sounds lame. All was forgiven because it was delicious. And I got myself a scoop of cinnamon ice cream for the drive home, too, because there’s no such thing as too much ice cream on one’s birthday.
I got back from my ice cream errand just in time to do my hair and makeup. My mom had planned me a “surprise” that she named “It’s a Philly Thing.” Honestly, I had no clue what it was. I don’t have any friends in Philly. The only people I know are my parents. Also, she sent me a zoom link and I had specifically said I didn’t want a zoom party. But one thing I’ve learned in my 33 years is that when your mom tells you where to be and to look cute (hair and makeup encouraged), you do it. I had my drink ready, and I logged in. Surprise!!! It was a zoom party! But not exactly. It was 26 consecutive 5-minute zoom chats! That’s right, my mom (with the help of two of my friends) organized 26 separate groups to wish me a happy birthday. Creativity was encouraged and OMG people were SO CREATIVE. I had slide shows made for me, poster board signs, videos with my friends/relatives kids, acrostic poems, birthday hats, musical numbers, people dressed up like Carol Baskin and Joe Exotic, friends making me guess dirty jokes as a drinking game, and one of my coworker’s videos ended with a photo of a cake she made me… AND FEDEX-ed ME! Chris presented it to me at the end of the call. WHAT!? It was absolutely AMAZING. I felt so incredibly loved and appreciated. But WOW was it exhausting! 2+ hours on Zoom with new people every five minutes is hard! Good thing I had ice cream cake afterward to perk me up again!
The next day I had a zoom brunch with my friends (all of whom I saw the night before, but I didn’t know that was happening of course). And the e-gift I mentioned before? It was for a liquor delivery from Drizly that arrived the next day with my favorite drinks, Angry Orchard, Aperol Spritz supplies and Moscow Mule gummies! I made an Aperol Spritz and took my Zoom call to the pool with me! It was the PERFECT weekend.
If you have a quarantine bday coming up, maybe these ideas helped you so you can make the most of it. I hope you have friends and family that are as awesome as mine!
PHEW what a year! People always comment about how much I travel, but I honestly didn’t realize until I saw it written out in black and white. If you weren’t one of the lucky 73 people to get a holiday card from me and my emoji bf, I recapped the travel we did this year, and spoiler alert… it’s a LOT. I would simply post a PDF of the card, but that would require a lot of emoji-placement on my sweet boyfriend’s face, so instead I’ll just recap my travel here. There is still going to be some emoji-placement.
Maybe after you see how I spent half of 2018 in airports,
you’ll forgive me for posting infrequently here. I left the state every single
month of the year with the exception of July, when my best Australian buddy was
here in the USA so I had to stay and eat Tim Tams with her.
I wrote a blog post about this trip, which you can back-reference
here, but the main highlights were a lot of amazing food, gorgeous views of
Granville Market and Deception Pass, having an all-night dance party, finding
$100 on the floor of a pub, Segway-ing up the crazy hills of Seattle, and of
course spending QT with my bestie! Lowlight (is that the opposite of
highlight?) was leaving my phone, which was on airplane mode, in a cab. Somehow
it was miraculously recovered! Not a lowlight after all.
February
– Los Angeles, California
I didn’t blog about this trip per se, but I did go to a
lot of ice cream places and blogged
about that! I had to continue my #30Years30IceCreams with a travel edition.
Also, I’m 31 now, but ice cream is still just as good. This trip was mostly for
work, but every time I am in LA I try to tack on a few extra days to hang out
with my college roommate! I also got to see another friend from college and
watch the Olympics with him. Side note: LA is SO FAR! I always hate that long
transcontinental flight, only to land in the SAME COUNTRY! I’d rather go to
Europe.
March/April
– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
I went to the first Passover Seder at my sister’s house in
NYC, then the 2nd at my parents in Philly! I dragged my emoji bf
with me as well. He is a Seder pro now. It also happened to be my mom’s
birthday that weekend. My family surprised my mom by chipping in for a YMCA
membership for her birthday, the one thing she wanted. She was so happy, she
cried, and the video warms my heart! Thankfully, Philly does not require an
airplane ride, and for this trip, I took my sister’s car. Much more convenient!
I wrote a post about this trip!
(Maybe I wasn’t as bad at blogging this year as I thought!?) My work’s annual
conference changes place every year, and this year I was super excited to go to
Chicago because I’d never been! Technically the conference was in Skokie, but I
extended my trip with my work bestie to explore the city! Highlights included: A
Segway Ride, gorgeous weather, deep dish pizza, a GORGEOUS view from out
penthouse Air Bnb, which had the electricity turned off for non-payment while
we were staying there. Oops.
Vancouver Exploring
Gorgeous Walk to Granville Market
FOUND: $100!!
Road trip with purple bear back through the Canadian border to Seattle.
Quick stop at the GORGEOUS Deception Pass.
Deception Pass Pics
Hike in the mountains outside Seattle with her adorable pup, Charlie.
Segway with the Space Needle!
California Nitrogen Ice Cream
Quick Stop to pose with famous art at the Getty
Why so prickly? (#cactusgarden)
My happy place.
Road trip up to Malibu to a secret beach.
Can you tell she’d been crying?
CHICAGO!! Beautiful view from our penthouse AirBNB before the electricity was turned off.
Always gotta pose with Long Legs where I find them.
CHI-TOWN & SEGWAYS!
How gorgeous is this??
Also gorgeous: deep dish pizza.
Chicago Bronze Cow.
THE BEAN.
May –
Cordoba, Seville, Granada, Madrid, Spain
Yeahhhh… this must have been when my blogging fell off
because HOW DID I NOT TELL YOU GUYS ABOUT THIS TRIP!? It’s also when my Braid in ManhattanInstagram began, and
I’m pretty sure there’s a correlation/causation there. Anyway, SPAIN. GO THERE.
I fell in love with all the places we went, but my favorite was Granada. They
have free food! Literally! Buy a drink, get amazing
food for free. How can any place like that be bad? Also, we planned this
trip during the famous Patio Festival in Cordoba, which was breathtaking.
Cordoba now has the most
UNESCO heritage sites as of this year! Jump on it before everyone else
does. Trust me.
I loved traveling abroad with a group of girls. We all
packed in backpacks and took trains around the country. I can’t wait for the next
excursion.
June –
Charleston, South Carolina
My best friend and I went to visit another friend in
Charleston, SC and it was my first time there. It was fun to travel with a
friend, especially since I usually fly solo (plus purple bear). We had lots of
girly time, and I discovered the amazingness of Truly, a sparking water that
is alcoholic. What? Amazing. We hung out at the pool, and the beach, and we
rode around her neighborhood in her new golf cart. The next time we see each
other will be at her wedding in ITALY! I’ll definitely have to tell you guys
about that.
July –
Beacon, New York
I said I didn’t travel in July but that is sort of a lie, I
went upstate to Beacon, NY for my friend’s bachelorette! There was no airport
involved (thank goodness) but it was still fun to get out of town for a bit. If
you missed my blog about it, you can find it here!
Backpacking for the first time ever!
First train of MANY.
Our adorable Air bnb in Cordoba, actually one of the famous patios!
1st day Cordoba exploring.
First of a LOT of ham and sangria.
Free walking tour! We did one of these in every city.
The famous Calleja de las Flores (Street of Flowers)
GORGEOUS patios.
Inside the Mezquita ( The Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba, aka the Great Mosque of Córdoba)
City #2: Sevilla!
Spanish Square (Plaza de Espana)
Alcazar
Blogger Photo at the Alcazar
Secret Flamenco show in Seville
More Trains Busses and Automobiles!
On the way to Granada
ALHAMBRA!
SO. MUCH. HAM.
posing on a hike up into the gypsy cave territory.
Mojitos on the top floor od a department store with an amazing outdoor patio
Charleston with my ladies!
Golf Cart Chillin.
Truly Sparkling and a FAB pool.
Bachelorette Party to Beacon!
Wine Tour commence!
How many vineyards can we hit in one day?
Hiking off the wine from the previous day!
More Vineyards
Out of Order Charleston Cycling
Any Airport with an insta-frame in a friend of mine.
August
– WEDDING SZN! New Jersey, Philadelphia, Brooklyn
Within 5 weeks’ time, my emoji bf and I went to 3 weddings
in 3 states. Gratefully, they were all accessible by train, and we even hitched
a ride home from the New Jersey one in my cousin’s car.
September
– Dublin, Ireland
What. A. Whirlwind. Thanks to my job and the many many
Jewish holidays in the Fall, I was able to take a trip with my mom without
taking any vacation days. We based ourselves in Dublin and took a few day trips
out of the city to Cliffs of Moher, Cork, Galway, Blarney Castle, Rock of
Cashel, and many other sites. We went to the Guinness Storehouse, Kilmainham Gaol
(a historic jail), The Whiskey Museum, and a National
Camogie Championship game. Then, as if sightseeing all day wasn’t enough,
it happened that my friend from Florida was in Dublin at the same time with
friends, so I went out and partied with them every night! I think I slept a
maximum of 4 hours/night. It was SO fun, and I can’t wait to travel again with
my mom.
October
– Cancun, Mexico
This trip was for one sole purpose: relaxation. I definitely
needed it after Ireland. Also, this trip came at the perfect time because it
was in the middle of The Great
Bed Bug Scare of 2018! It was Emoji-bf’s birthday, and all we wanted to do
was sleep in and lay by the pool and read. Sure enough, that’s what we did! We
also drank a lot, went to a glow party, and made new friends. But mostly, we
relaxed.
November
– Los Angeles, California
I went to LA again for work and hit up my favorite spots: Santa Monica beach path for a few runs, Philz for coffee, and Sidecar Doughnuts because DUH. Also, I got to have dinner with my college friend, and extended my visit to stay with my college roommate! We saw the BEST burlesque show EVER, Cherry Boom Boom, and now I follow them on Instagram and fall in love with every post. Also, we took a day trip to Joshua Tree National Park which was AWESOME. When we got back to Santa Monica, the smoke in the air from the wildfires was very intense. It’s been a rough year for the LA region.
Wedding #1! I was a bridesmaid in this one.
Wedding #2. How snazzy is my date?
Wedding #3! Same emoji, different dress.
Sister-Sister!
IRELAND! Whiskey barrels.
And lots of kegs.
Visiting one of the oldest jails.
GUINNESS!
Inside the Four Courts.
Up early… out late!
Cahir Castle and a few cannons
Inside the Cahir Castle.
Blarney Stone!
Climbing in and around the Blarney castle (my mom skipped this one).
Rock of Cashel!
Croke Park and CAMOGIE.
Outside the stadium
Cliffs of Moher
Selfie at the Cliffs
More Cliffs of Moher.
Largest glass of whiskey out there.
Galway City.
Trinity College
Selfies in Dublin.
RELAXIN in Mexico!
Beach and Bf = happy Emily
Glow par-tay.
I must be back in LA… SIDECAR!
My happy place.
First time at Joshua Tree. So gorgeous!
Explorin.
Joshua Tree Handstand.
How gorgeous is this??
KING OF THE WORLD!
November
– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
After we spent real Thanksgiving in NYC because I was in
the Macy’s
Parade (did you guys really think I wouldn’t bring that up again??), we
went to Philly for the weekend to see my parents and celebrate a belated
Thanksgiving. This meant two feasts, which I will never say no to. My brother
came, too! We ran a 5K together as a family and I did surprisingly well,
considering how I swore off running for 6 months to heal my ankle. Most of our
time in Philly was spent relaxing, but we capped off the weekend with a
DELCIOUS third feast at a dim sum restaurant
in Chinatown called Ocean
Harbor.
December
– Delray Beach/Boca Raton, Florida
At the beginning of the year, I was determined to travel
more internationally, which meant forsaking a trip to Florida for the first year
since I moved to New York! But by September, I really missed all my friends and
I found a $207 roundtrip ticket on JetBlue and packed my bags. It’s so fun to visit
my friends and soak in the warm temperatures.
December
– Dallas, Texas
Every year we visit my emoji-bf’s non-emoji family in
Texas for Christmas. It’s fun to get together and hang out, watch movies, wrap
presents and eat way too much! I even snuck in a workout class and a run with
his sisters. Even my brother drove from San Antonio to spend a few days with
us. We went out for dinner and yummy cocktails with a college friend in Deep
Ellum one night but other than that, we stayed pretty close to home. Also, Santa
got me a new phone! Better resolution braiding pics coming soon!
Are
you guys exhausted reading this? Because I am!! I love traveling, and I hope to
do more of it in 2019. What are your plans for the new year? Any exciting
destinations?
This may sound unbelievable to you, but over the weekend, I went to my FIRST EVER bachelorette party! I know, I know, you’re all calling me a hypocrite since I always talk about weddings but it’s true! I am a PROFESSIONAL wedding guest but a total novice bachelorette attendee. I think this is because most of my weddings are out of state, so it is either impossible to attend both the wedding and the bachelorette, or I’m just not invited to the pre-festivities because my friends know I can’t come. In the case of last weekend, it was the opposite! The wedding is out of state, and I can’t go because I’m DOUBLE booked with weddings, and they are on the same day in different states! Since I can’t go to the actual simcha (HEBREW WORD ALERT!), I knew I needed to go to the bachelorette to shower the bride.
Even though this was my first time attending a bachelorette, and it was the least bachelorette-y bachelorette ever. Thanks to the bride-to-be, of course. She is a very low-key gal, and she insisted on no sashes, tiaras, penis necklaces, etc. When asked if we were a bachelorette party, she insisted we were just a “group of girls.” (Cue “Huge Group of Girls” below.) One of them just happened to be about to be married.
Our festivities started at Grand Central Terminal, where all great festivities begin. Clearly being facetious there, but to be honest, it’s nicer than any airport, and it’s less of a hassle because I can carry any liquids I want. Our fearless leader, aka bachelorette-organizer-extraordinaire, aka Arielle, got to Grand Central early and purchased our tickets. We were all miraculously on time, and boarded our chariot to Beacon, NY. Chariot = Metro-North Train.
Train Selfie!
Beautiful stroll to our hotel room
So pretty!
There were 6 girls total, which is a great number. Not too many girls, but not too few that someone feels left out. Also, it turned out none of us knew each other too well, which was fun! I feel like I got to meet awesome new people, and since we weren’t close to begin with, there were no cliques. Arielle told me she was not a big photo-taker, so I nominated myself to be the picture-taker. I have plenty of practice thanks to this blog. (Do you know how many ice cream photos I took during #30Years30IceCreams?? More than 400.)
Anyway, after taking the obligatory train selfie, we arrived in Beacon, and grabbed a cab to our hotel. We stayed at the Roundhouse in Beacon, which was a very bougie hotel. Unfortunately I did kill a bug on our bathroom, and the sheets had questionable stains on them. But hey, we got money knocked off our bill, so #WorthIt!
We dropped our bags down, and boarded our second chariot of the day, a large black SUV! Arielle had liaised with a concierge-type service for wine-tasting, called Hudson Valley Bucket List. We had our own private driver who doubled as our Instagram-bf for the day (Shoutout Jonathan! Awesome pics!), and they took care of everything. They dropped us off first at Nostrand Vineyards, where we tasted 6 wines, and decided on two to buy to accompany our lunch. Our concierge wine tour set up an adorable pop-up picnic on the lawn behind the tasting. We had private cheese plates, bread, and sandwiches. We even had a green salad. Everything was perfect, besides the heat. But I am basically in a constant state of sweating from May-September, so I cannot blame the wine tour for that. After lunch, I didn’t think I was too drunk but… I guess I was. Because I forgot my phone. I was too busy taking pics, I guess! Double shoutout to Jonathan for turning around and getting my phone. Also triple shoutout to Jonathan, driver-extraordinaire, for having warm chocolate chip cookies for us in the car! Once we picked up my phone, we headed to the second stop: Glorie Farm Winery. This one had a much more rustic feel to it, but it was fun because it had actual grape vines we could pose with. Jonathan came in clutch with yet-another photo opp. We shared another bottle of wine and then packed back in our SUV to return to the hotel.
Winery #1!
Group Photo with our first bottle!
Winery #2!
Gotta get that photo opp with the grapes.
Table set for our lunch.
Beautiful Pop-up Picnic.
Wine and cheeseee!
Cheeseee! Different kind)
The original plan was to take a nap or freshen up for 2 hours before dinner. Most of us realized that if we went to sleep, we’d never wake up again, so we went to explore the town of Beacon. We left our one California girl to take a nap, since she had been awake for about 30 hours at that point. We took a (sweaty) walk down main street, looking in the shops, and had a stop at the end for ice cream at Beacon Creamery, much needed by that point. You know I love me some ice cream, especially in new places, and this one did not disappoint! They had a lot of obscure flavors, which is my favorite. I opted for Ginger-flavored ice cream, which was yummy and even had pieces of ginger in it!
We went back to the hotel, SHOWERED, and changed for dinner. Then we walked to dinner, and thankfully it had cooled down a bit. We didn’t know at the time, but that was because it was about to torrential rain. We got to dinner just in the nick of time. We ate at The Kitchen Sink, an amazing farm-to-table restaurant where everything was fresh and yummy! Props to Arielle, our organizer, for making a reservation, because multiple people were turned away! We hung out at the table, trying to wait out the rain, but eventually made a mad dash next door to a wine bar for dessert. The wine bar was… interesting. It had live music so we thought it might be raucous. But no. It was veryyy romantic. And date-y. We stuck out. We didn’t even order wine. We decided to walk back to the hotel in a light drizzle of rain. Another girl in our party had the foresight to call the hotel and ask if they could set aside dessert/coffee/tea for us, and they said they would.
When we arrived at the hotel, there was some miscommunication about the desserts, but the GM had our backs. The main bar area was closed for a wedding afterparty, but he brought us coffee and tea to a side lounge area. He apologized for the miscommunication about the desserts, but luckily we had Jonathan-warm-chocolate cookies leftover that we brought down from our room. 5 minutes later… SURPRISE, the GM found our desserts! The pastry chef had set aside macarons for us before he left for the night. They were delicious! Not as good as the chocolate cookies, but still.
FREE MACARONS!
We called it an early night (I told you it was a non-traditional bachelorette!), and woke up early-ish for breakfast in the hotel. After some frittata, I started braiding. Are you surprised? You shouldn’t be. Remember, it’s my new obsession! Our activity for the day was hiking, so we had to have our hair up and away from our face!
The hike itself was great, but HOT! The humidity was stifling, but the views were worth it. We hiked Mt. Beacon, specifically we hiked the Casino Trail. It’s named after an actual casino that burned down. The cool part is, many of the old ruins are still there and you can climb on and around them! There are also ruins from the Mount Beacon Incline Railway, which was shut down in the 1970’s. Pretty cool. As opposed to the temperature. Unfortunately, since we had already check out of the hotel, we had to settle for a bathroom-sink-shower. You all should be lucky you were not sitting next to us on the train home. We stopped for a quick lunch at Royal Crepes, which was SO GOOD, and then took an uber back to the train station.
Hiking Braidz!
More Braidz.
Do we look hot?? WE WERE.
Our V sporty non-bachelorette.
Double tasking: Hiking Ruins being a lawyer #AlwaysAnsweringEmails
The ex-lawyer. Riding the Railway Ruins like a horse.
Hike So Hard
Group Photo
Ruins Selfie
Was this before or after the mountainous 90-degree climb? You guess.
The night before the weekend, emoji boyfriend had asked me if I was excited, and I told him I was, but I was also nervous because I didn’t know anyone. Luckily, none of us really knew each other, and we all ended up as friends! One of the girls friended me on Facebook, and it turned out we had 56 friends in common! Small world. I’m totally down for another Bachelorette. Who’s next??
Hey guys! I know I’ve been sparse on the blog. It’s been hard to keep up between moving apartments, crazy work season, and starting a bullet journal (more on that later). Also, I’ve been trying to keep up with all of my resolutions, which includes planning free nights for myself! I’ve been watching a lot of Olympics.
Anyway, fear not, I have still left myself plenty of time to stuff my face with ice cream. Even while traveling! I have had three new kinds of ice cream in my travels in the past 6 weeks. Thankfully, I’ve also stuck to my new year’s resolution of swimming to even it out. Does anyone have suggestions for a waterproof, affordable, fitbit-like device?
As with my many weeks of recaps last May/June, I will review each mission on a scale of 1-10 in 4 categories: (1) Aesthetic (2) Flavor (3) Texture (4) Overall.
Kurt Farm Shop, Seattle, Washington, Local, CHEESE Ice Cream!
Aesthetic (4) Flavor (9) Texture (4) Overall(5)
I didn’t PLAN to go get ice cream, per se, but after a car ride back to Washington from Vancouver, and 3 hours of car ride snacks, we weren’t in the mood for a full-size dinner, and we were in the mood for a walk. I found this place on Foursquare and figured, DUH, ice cream is the answer. This is a little shop that sells ice cream, but also sells cheese from local farms and creameries. The custard base is made with organic cane sugar and it’s flavored at the store.
According to Foursquare it’s the #3 ranked ice cream place in Seattle, but I was drawn by the promise of unique flavors. I saw reviews about Szechuan Peppercorn, and Rose flavors, and most importantly, FLORA’S CHEESE. What’s better than cheese? Ice cream. What’s better than Ice Cream? CHEESE FLAVORED ICE CREAM. Obvi. They were very generous with their samples, so of course I tried every single weird flavor on the menu. I opted for half cheese, half pumpkin. It was delicious, plus it was served with a real spoon, always preferred. Only drawback: there was a strange coating left on the top of my mouth from the cheese flavor, probably due to the way they pasteurize the milk. Still worth it.
Creams & Dreams, Santa Monica, CA, Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
Aesthetic (if you count the nitrogen show) (9) Flavor (6) Texture (10) Overall(8)
Love the name of this place. Love even more that I found this place on a business trip and insisted on bringing my boss here. This place makes liquid nitrogen ice cream, and if you have never had any, go out right now and find a place for it. The fact that this ice cream begins as a liquid, and is then frozen in small batches, just for you, makes it the creamiest ice cream I have ever tasted. I tried a similar place, NiceCream in Arlington, VA a few years ago, and I never forgot about it. The only bad part about having a hand-made batch of your own ice cream is, it’s impossible to get samples.
Going here is like dinner and a show. If you consider ice cream as dinner. (It is.) They hand-pour your flavor (I love the Nutella and Cookies and Cream), and then they pour liquid nitrogen on it to create a smoke show. Last time I was there, the guy even threw some toward us to make us laugh. It feels like cold water, but it doesn’t get you wet. So bizarre.
They have some strange flavors as well, like Maiz Con Queso, and Fresh Avocado, but I stuck with the classics here. Cannot recommend enough. It is a staple for all of my SoCal trips now.
Dinner & a Show!
YUM.
Smiling because duh.
Salt & Straw, Venice, CA, Weird, Delicious Flavors and Samples
Aesthetic (4) Flavor (10) Texture (8) Overall(7)
After a 4-day whirlwind work trip, I had a day to myself to spend on the beach. I threw an apple and a beach towel in my backpack, picked up an iced coffee, then hit the sand.
(Side note about the coffee: GO TO PHILZ!! They even have two shops on the East Coast in DC. I got the famed mint mojito iced coffee and it was TO-DIE-FOR. Not only is the coffee amazing, but they buy only the highest quality green beans AND they have a generous donation program to Food4Farmers and World Coffee Research, to incorporate conscientious care for everyone in the supply chain from farm to cup. Caffeine + fair trade = win-win. Read all about their values for their workers and farmers, and environmental protections here.)
Mint Mojito Iced Coffee
Aesthetic = Everything
Anyway, as great as my coffee and apple were, by 3 pm I was starving. I walked along the beach from Santa Monica to Venice, and I was doing some window shopping when I realized a line of people across the street. Like any good New Yorker, I gravitated to the line. If people want it, it MUST be good, right?? Well my New York instincts did not steer me wrong – it was ice cream!! And boy was it amazing.
I read the tips online as I waited in line, and saw that I could ask for as many samples as I wanted, and that I could order a “split scoop” so I could have multiple flavors, but without overloading on ice cream. Samples are super necessary because the flavors here are exotic and ever-changing. I tried everything from 24 Blackbirds’ Lavender Truffle, to Roasted Strawberry Coconut, and about 4 others. I basically told the guy I love weird flavors, and he let me try every single one. I was already full by the time I got my cup! I decided on a split scoop of Avocado & Oaxacan Chocolate Fudge (SO creamy and refreshing), and Black Olive Brittle & Goat Cheese (best flavor ever, with bits of crunch). This was the perfect afternoon post-beach snack.
Guys, this place is a must-go-to. Also, if you really love ice cream, join their Pints Club and get five brand new flavors delivered to your door every month!
Flavors Galore!
That flavor on top is the olive brittle goat cheese. DELISH.
That’s it guys. #30Years30IceCreams lives on for the whole year! I’ll keep you posted as I hit up some new places. I have 3 months left of my 30th year! How many flavors can I fit in that time?
#30Years30IceCreams has finally come to a close. 35 ice creams, 30 days. I feel like we have gone on a journey together. A really long journey. A photographic journey, an expensive journey, and least importantly, a caloric journey. Perhaps it seems long because it started in spring, and it is now blazing summer. Perhaps it seems long because I am now carrying an extra 10 pounds of weight on myself.
What will I do better next time? I will NEVER do this again.
What have I learned?
Sugar causes migraines in large doses.
Rolled Ice Cream is the hibachi of the ice cream world.
Chinatown has the coolest ice cream.
It IS possible to have 5 ice creams in one day if you use your phone-a-friend lifeline.
Ice cream photographs really, really well. I have lost 25 Instagram followers since I stopped posting it daily.
I wish I could tell you this is like the MasterCard slogan and that #30Years30IceCreams was priceless, but that would be a lie. I told you I was tracking my ice cream by using mint.com, my new obsession. I tagged all of my ice cream purchases, and I ended up with 19 separate transactions, and a grand total of $142.78 spent. Again, this is where sharing came in handy. Instead of paying for each one, I traded off. Also, it helps that it was my birthday month. A few people bought ice cream for me as a present (shoutouts to Mary and my sister). This low amount of transactions is also thanks to The Scooper Bowl, where I paid $20 (plus 1.99 service fee) and got to have 7 ice cream brands, unlimited, for 5 hours. That’s just over $3/brand. Not too shabby.
I know what you really want to know is, which were my favorites!? My point system was eerily accurate *pats self on back*. I judged my ice cream in four categories: aesthetic, flavor, texture, and overall. You can find my full ratings here on this google sheet. If you order the 35 places by total points, my top five, in order, were: Brooklyn Farmacy, Taiyaki, Blossom, Carvel, and Wu Kong.
#1 Brooklyn Farmacy: 99 Problems Sundae
#2 Taiyaki: Creamy Soft Serve with delicious Instagrammable Waffle Cone
#3 Blossom: Lavender-Infused Rolled Ice Cream
#4 Carvel Cake: Because look at that #hashtag.
#5 Wu Kong: Cotton Candy Cloud Ice Cream, the thing of dreams.
Brooklyn Farmacy sundaes were out of this world. I highly highly recommend going there if you ever find yourself on the other side of the East River. Also, make sure to bring a sharing buddy. They are HUGE. Taiyaki tasted amazing, included a waffle cone, AND it makes for the BEST photos. Pro tip: Always get your nails done first to match the sprinkles. Blossom had the creamy taste you can only get from freshly rolled ice cream, PLUS it had unlimited toppings and lavender-infused flavor. Carvel had to get a high ranking; it had my hashtag #30Years30IceCreams written on it and it was the biggest! Wu Kong… I mean… Look at it. It’s a work of art.
Honorable Mentions go to #6 Sam’s Fried Ice Cream, and #8, Softswerve. In fact, if you are looking for a good-old, no-frills, DELICIOUS soft serve, my #1 choice would be SoftSwerve. It was so creamy. I’d actually go back there soon. That’s saying a lot considering the amount of ice cream I have consumed.
Overall, this has been a great experience, but I do not recommend it to anyone. I still have 8 places left on my map to visit: Amorino, Ice & Vice, Kith Treats, Mikey Likes It, Milk Bar, Milk & Cream Bar, Minus Celsius and Neuhaus. If anyone wants to accompany me, you’ll probably have to wait until next summer. Or my next life. JK I’ll probably be there the next time temperatures hit 100 degrees. Which is likely to be soon, because, New York. I hope you’ve enjoyed my journey more than I have! I still have some homemade ice cream and Carvel Cake in my freezer, so come on over. And if you have any questions about ice creams, I’m your girl.
It’s over! It’s really over!! 4 weeks down. 30 days of ice cream. Sometimes visiting 2 or 3 places/day. I have something new to add to my resume: NYC Ice Cream Connoisseur. Although I do consider myself to be a great success, and well on my way to Pre-Revenge-Body-Mama-June, I am sad to admit that there are still 8 places left on my map that I did not visit. Maybe I will give it a second go next year. But for now, no sweets, #SirachaAllDay. My ice cream posts are not finished here though, do not fret. I will be posting my final summary of my favorites and all-time winners in the 4 categories next week. I’ll also wait for that post to reveal how much money my mint.com is showing I spent on this endeavor. This post is reserved specifically for my Week 4 Ice Creams, all 13 of them.
TL;DR
This week was epic because I was behind. I knew I had to get to at least 10 ice creams within 7 days. Luckily, I had 2 days off work thanks to the cheesecake holiday (have you read about how I’m Jew-ISH and work for rabbis), so I started strong, visiting 3 places on the first day off, and 2 on the next. Then, I finally caved and bought a ticket to the Scooper Bowl (read about my experience here!), where I consumed unlimited ice cream for over 5 hours, and stuffed my face with 8 different brands of ice cream, 7 of which I had not tried yet during #30Years30IceCreams. I tried Häagen-Dazsduring Week 1, because of Free Cone Day, so I can’t count that one. As far as price goes, $20 for 5 hours of unlimited 8 brands comes pretty close to FREE, which is my favorite price, so I’d say this week was a great success. Also, it was for charity!
Week 4 included two of the prettiest, coolest-looking ice creams ever: super creamy soft serve in a waffle, fish-shaped cone at Taiyaki, AND cotton candy ice cream sitting on a literal cotton candy cloud at Wu Kong. I also got to watch some more rolled ice cream being made at I CE NY. Also, I had fried ice cream for the very first time at Sam’s Fried Ice Cream, AND I had alcohol-infused ice cream, in a flight of 4 different flavors, at the infamous, just-open, Tipsy Scoop. Then came unlimited ice cream. It was definitely a week for the books. Without further ado, Week 4 of #30Years30IceCreams!
Talk about an Instagrammable treat… this fish cone is ADORABLE and it is blowing up the internet! I love soft serve, and the cone is made of a super-secret recipe waffle-like batter, so it is soft, chewy, and amazing. Also, it is stuffed! You can choose either red bean paste or custard filling. We incorrectly chose red bean, but the rest of our choices were top notch. We got a swirl of flavors, matcha and black sesame, and topped it off with condensed milk, a stick of rainbow colored mochi, and sprinkles! My photo was so pretty, some random Instagrammer asked me if she could regram it! The best part: they add special features for different holidays: stars like Christmas Trees in December, Bunny Ears for Easter, and of course, Unicorns for this summer, the ultimate animal of the year. Unfortunately, I was 2 days early for a unicorn accessory (they were hand-painting them while I was there, see below), so I’ll have to go back!
gorgeous!
There’s a new fish in town.
#2 Taiyaki: Creamy Soft Serve with delicious Instagrammable Waffle Cone
Hand-painting the Unicorn Accessories. I have to go back!!
This was a hole in the wall that I found out about from a guy on an Art Run. People who work out always know the best, most fattening foods. Always ask them for recommendations. This was the cheapest ice cream of the week, at only $5.50. First you choose your flavor, then you choose your crust (bread crumbs, Oreos, or cornflakes), then you drizzle it with whatever drizzles and toppings you want. They pre-make the ice cream balls and make them EXTRA cold, so they don’t melt in the fryer. We chose pistachio, Oreo crumbs, whipped cream, Nutella, and more cookie crumbs. This is DECADENT. The whole place reeks of fried food, and it tastes like ice cream and funnel cake all in one. The Oreos crumbs were barely tasteable, it mostly just tasted fried, which is fine in my book. Highly recommend if you like a sweet and savory taste combo, as well as a cold/hot palette combo. Only problem: It’s hard to get a photo before the whipped cream starts melting on the fried goodness! Ice cream was a bit hard, since it must be extra frozen, but combined with the fried part, it’s amazing! As a self-proclaimed french fry enthusiast and professional fried food taster, this was a great food moment in my life.
The menu laid out the steps.
Roll that thanggg in Oreos, baby!!
FRY IT UP!
Take photos quickly before it melts.
So cute! The cups have stickers that match the walls.
This painting looked incredibly similar to what it looked like IRL.
Third stop of the day, I was hoping to get drunk and forget about all of the calories I consumed. JK. Sorta. This place had been ALL OVER THE INTERNET and I knew it was opening for a few months prior. It used to be sold only in pints (made locally in Harlem!), but a full-on “Barlour” was opening during #30Years30IceCreams so I knew I had to go. They let you taste up to 2 flavors, but no more. I assumed this was so that drunk people would not fall on the Barlour floor. There is a choice to purchase either one flavor, or a flight of 4 flavors. This was an easy choice. Plus, the flight was much better for photos, which is what matters the most. They had little cups with sprinkles around them, and they even had hashtag flags with things like #IceCreamWasted and #FoodPorn. Love it. Unfortunately, I did not end up drunk (or fortunately, since I had to teach a spin class that night), but I definitely did taste the alcohol once the ice cream started melting! We chose Tequila Mexican Hot Chocolate (cinnamon-y and YUMMY), Maple Bacon Bourbon (flavor was EH, but bacon was DEEEELISH; also the bourbon flavor definitely came out once it started melting), Red Velvet Martini (yummy, but not very red-velvet-y), and Mango Margarita (very refreshing, but not very tequila-y). Definitely recommend this as an experience!
Barlour, get it? #ISeeWhatYouDidThere
Cute (and serious) signage.
How cute are these tiny sprinkle cups??
They had “hashtag flags” which only added to my “aesthetic” rating.
They even sell adorable merch like this tank top I seriously considered getting.
We got ice cream wasted. But not really.
I CE NY – Rolled Ice Cream, Take II (@i_ce_ny) June 1, 2017
Aesthetic (9) Flavor (7) Texture (8) Overall (8)
I had rolled ice cream before in week 2, but I decided to give it another go because it was so creamy the time before! Sure enough, it did not disappoint. Incredibly creamy. Also, you get a show because you can watch them make it! I had coffee ice cream, with brownies mixed in, Nutella, strawberries and rainbow jimmies. YUM. Dinner and a show for 7 bucks! JK I had more ice cream for dinner (see below).
The presentation and show part of dinner.
How cute is this? Lady Liberty and Ice Cream: goes together like peas and carrots.
Gorgeous.
Almost too pretty to eat. ALMOST.
Wu Kong – Cotton Candy Cloud with Cotton Candy Ice Cream and Blow-Torched Marshmallows (@wukongus) June 1, 2017
Aesthetic (10) Flavor (8) Texture (7) Overall (9)
I saw this cotton candy cloud amazingness all over Instagram and it was immediately on my list of MUST-DO. I went here with emoji-bf’s sister (see below, they look so alike!), which meant we could get more because there were two of us. We got a double scoop, one of cotton candy flavored ice cream (go big or go home) and one of vanilla, to neutralize all of the sugar (with more ice cream LOL). Then we picked our flavor/color of cotton candy. Then we picked out our UNLIMITED toppings. We asked for the prettiest things, and I added two pink marshmallows, as one does when they are available. I was pleasantly surprised when they pulled out a blowtorch and roasted them, like sleepaway camp. The memories! This was the prettiest ice cream ever. It sat on the table for a full 10 minutes while we stared at it before we realized we should probably eat it before it melted more. As far as texture goes, it wasn’t the best or creamiest, but you can’t win everything. Also, the cotton candy turned my fingers and mouth blue. #WorthIt.
First Step: Bright Blue Cotton Candy.
Second Step: Literally blow-torching my marshmallows.
Third Step: Sprinkle with fairy dust sprinkles.
#5 Wu Kong: Cotton Candy Cloud Ice Cream, the thing of dreams.
Fifth Step: Zoom in, take more photos.
Sixth Step: Realize the Cotton Candy is larger than your head; take more photos.
Seventh Step: Realize Tongue is completely blue, take more photos.
I wrote about the ice cream brands from the Scooper Bowl in alphabetical order, so as not to prioritize or favor any of them. However, the very first brand alphabetically also happened to have my favorite flavors of the day. Baskin-Robbins had three flavors available and I tried them all. More than once. And with unlimited ice cream for 5 hours and so much to try, you KNOW I liked them if I went back for more! The three flavors were Golden OREO ‘n Churro, Love Potion #31 and Rainbow Sherbet. My favorite flavor ever was Love Potion #31, which is a classic flavor from 1995, white chocolate-flavored and raspberry ice creams, a raspberry ribbon, chocolate chips and raspberry-filled chocolate-flavored hearts. How can that be bad??? It wasn’t. It was amazing. Also amazing, Golden Oreo flavor… and I don’t even like Golden Oreos! I’m more of a classic Oreo girl, myself. But: cinnamon caramel-flavored ice cream with crispy churro pieces and Golden Oreo cookie pieces all wrapped together with a fried dough-flavored ribbon… come on. I can’t even say more about it, you have to try it yourself.
I have been to the B&J Factory in Vermont before, so I was familiar with their ice cream, plus, I am familiar with their current-events-style-flavors. At the Scooper Bowl, they had 4 flavors, and I tried Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream (vanilla ice cream with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and a caramel swirl), and Bob Marley’s One Love (banana ice cream with caramel & graham cracker swirls& fudge peace signs). Personally, I love when my ice cream has stuff in it. So B&J knows the way to my heart. I loved the waffle cone pieces in Colbert’s, and I LOVED the Marley banana ice cream. I would have eaten more of it if I had more capacity in my belly. Highly recommend both if you only have access to a grocery store and not to a cotton candy machine like Wu Kong.
Breyers – Good Cookies & Cream (@breyers) June 3, 2017
Aesthetic (4) Flavor (8) Texture (8) Overall (6)
To be honest, by the time I hit Breyer’s, I was Ice Cream-ed out. I tried it because I knew I had to. You know I was #overit because I didn’t even take any photos! I had seen Breyers in the grocery store before, but there’s something to be said about ice cream that is scooped for you. Less Work = More Delicious. I tried the Cookies and Cream, and I was not disappointed. The cookies weren’t crispy like a fresh Oreo, but the ice cream was incredibly creamy for a store-bought variety! Not bad, Breyers, not bad. (Probably better without the 4 hours of ice cream prior.)
BK Ice Cream Factory didn’t have the most unique flavors (vanilla, chocolate), but what they didn’t have in flavors, they made up for in presentation! The strawberry flavor was REALLY good and I’m not usually a strawberry girl. Their most unique flavor was blueberry, which was not my favorite because the blueberry pieces stuck in my teeth! Ain’t nobody got time for that with 8 ice cream places to try! However, this place wins the Scooper Bowl for presentation. They had little mini cones, and they had chocolate cookie thingies for open-faced ice cream sandwiches. Winner Winner Ice Cream Dinner. Made for some great photos.
As I talked about in my Scooper Bowl post, I was intrigued by DF Mavens, which is vegan and completely dairy free (hence, DF). They used to have a shop in the East Village, but they closed last year! I actually loved it! I liked the nutty flavor (like the vegan flavor I had at Van Leeuwen’s in Week 2), but even more than the creamy ones, I was excited that they had a raspberry sorbet. Not my usual flavor choice, but a welcome palette-cleanser. I really disliked the red bean flavor, but I don’t like red bean in general. My favorite flavor by far was key lime with chunks of pie crust in it. YUM! You can still purchase DF Mavens in stores and online, so if you have a dairy allergy, get on it!
DF Mavens with dairy free, palette-cleansing sorbet.
Graeter’s was at the Scooper Bowl exclusively on Saturday. I love exclusive, so even though I was ice-creamed out, I knew I had to try it, and boy was I glad I did. They had three flavors available, Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate Chip, and Madagascar Vanilla Bean. OBVI I had to try the black raspberry chocolate chip. I cannot stress how good this was. If you’ve never had black raspberry ice cream, bookmark this page for later, and go get some right now. It was DELICIOUS.
I told the story of Vice Cream in my Scooper Bowl post, but basically, their flavors are based on decadence and indulgence, since their founder, Dan Schorr, started the company after being diagnosed with lymphoma. He decided to start really living his life. Their slogan is “Live Life, Dig In,” and I definitely did that. They had 6 (SIX!!) flavors available, and tried almost all of them. Bourbon Mash, Higher Grounds, Choc of Shame, Minted, Afternoon Delight and L’Orange a Trois. My favorites were L’orange a Trois (vanilla ice cream with orange ripple and three types of chocolate chunks), Afternoon Delight (vanilla ice cream with chocolate chip cookie dough, salted caramel truffles fudge and caramel), Higher Grounds (dark roast coffee with mocha fudge and chocolate cookie crumbles and espresso), AND Bourbon Mash (vanilla ice cream with chocolate and bourbon-caramel sauce). Ok, TBH I loved them ALL. Plus, they were scooped with love and everyone was so friendly!
Follow them on insta!
This cannot be bad. It wasn’t.
Dan Schorr, founder of Vice Cream! Don’t be such a vanilla!
Hand-Made and Hand-Created-Flavor – Peanut Butter with Chocolate Ripple (@noinstagrambutitwasdelicious) June 4, 2017
When my sister heard I was doing a #30Years30IceCreams challenge, she casually mentioned that they had an ice cream maker. What?? In an NYC apartment? I knew I had to take advantage. On my birthday, I went to her house and her husband named off a litany of ingredients that could possibly go in ice cream. I was overwhelmed, but as a newly certified ice cream connoisseur, I was up for the challenge. I decided on a peanut butter ice cream base with a chocolate ripple. To make the base, we combined peanut butter and corn syrup, warmed it to soften it, added it to the base, and let the machine do its thing. Then, when it was almost completely frozen, we added the hand-made mixture of chocolate chips, cocoa powder and sugar, to make a chocolate ripple. Then, we let it freeze more for a few days. The days of freezing are unnecessary, but my schedule was so crazy with other ice cream endeavors, I didn’t have time to enjoy it before then. When I finally tasted it, I was PLEASANTLY surprised. The flavor was GREAT, but the texture was the star of the show. Sooo creamy, and the chocolate ripple added a great bonus. It was incredibly rich, though. I have shared it with 4 people so far, and I still have a lot in my freezer! I’ll be eating it all month. Turning my birthday into a lifestyle.
Mixing the Peanut Flavor for the ice cream base.
Pouting the PB mixture into the magic machine.
And then we wait.
While we wait, we make a chocolate ripple.
DIY chocolate ripple. By Do It Yourself, I mean, have your brother-in-law do it.
Frozen and ready to be devoured!
Looks delicious!!
TASTES AMAZING!!
That’s it for individual reviews. I will post my overall #30Years30IceCreams summary next week, so stay tuned! Now, off to the gym. For the rest of the summer. And forever.
Yesterday I went to the Scooper Bowl for unlimited ice cream. I’ve never fancied myself to be a competitive eater, but yesterday was both a race against the clock, and a race against the physical capacity of a human stomach. I lasted more than 5 hours, and I’m pretty dang proud of myself. Also, I feel like did a great thing for the world because it was a fundraiser. Win-Win!
The Scooper Bowl is the nation’s largest all-you-can-eat ice cream festival, co-benefiting The Jimmy Fund and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. It began in 1983 in Boston, and according to their website, thanks to generous contributions from the largest ice cream companies in the nation, the Scooper Bowl has raised more than $5 million in the past 33 years for cancer research and patient care at the world-renowned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The most amazing part, ice cream companies donate all the ice cream, labor, scoopers, and products needed to make the event happen each year.
I heard about this amazing event because, as you probably already know, I have been on an epic ice cream journey, #30Years30IceCreams. I officially have 2 days left out of 30. If you haven’t read about Week 1, Week 2, or Week 3 yet, get to reading! I will be posting more about the actual ice cream and flavors in my Week 4 update, but for now, more about how I managed to eat ice cream for 5 hours straight, because there WAS a method to the madness. I was a woMAN WITH A PLAN.
The Scooper Bowl is a 3-day event, Thursday through Saturday, and tickets were only 20 dollars per day in advance (plus a processing fee), or 25 dollars at the door. I honestly was not planning to go. The LAST thing I needed after 27 days of nonstop ice cream, was UNLIMITED ICE CREAM. I heard about it through creepy internet cookies; since I have been posting ice cream-related posts for weeks now, I was the prime advertising target. It was showing up in my Instagram feed, Facebook advertisements, dreams, etc. And when other people started to hear about it, they were forwarding me the link via Instagram direct messages, Facebook messages, and multiple people posted it to my Facebook wall! The writing was literally on the wall: I HAD TO GO.
The ultimate deciding factor: my cousin texted me from Washington D.C. and said that her friend who just moved to NYC was looking for a friend to go with. I can’t say no to a blind friend date. I mean hello, perfect blog material! Here’s how you should prepare for an AYCE ice cream festival: go to the gym and don’t eat anything else. Here’s how I prepared: laid in bed eating and watching Sex and the City. Oops. Mistake #1.
My blind friend date couldn’t make it to the festival until 5:45, but the festival started at 1 pm, and I wasn’t about to miss out on all of those hours of ice cream, so I met some other friends there at 3 pm. I hadn’t seen those friends in years, so we had plenty to chat about while stuffing our faces with sweets. I arrived and scoped the scene: 8 vendors, 3-4 flavors per vendor, total of about 30 flavors to try. The flavor list had been released a few days prior, so I had an idea what I was in for, but I did a quick survey to double check. Vendors: Baskin-Robbins, Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, DF Mavens, Graeter’s, Häagen-Dazs, and Vice Cream.
I went to Haagen-Dazs first, because they had adorable mini little single-serve cups. They even had little spoons inside the tops! I was drawn to this in the same way I can spend hours in CVS looking at the mini toiletries. However, this was MISTAKE #2: there was a lot of ice cream in those thingies! I was almost full and I had ONE flavor at ONE vendor! I never went back to that stand, but I did get some great photos.
I was intrigued by DF Mavens, which is vegan and completely dairy free (hence, DF). They used to have a shop in the East Village, and they were on my original list for #30Years30IceCreams, but they closed last year! I was excited to get to try it. I actually loved it! I liked the nutty flavor, but even more than the creamy ones, I was excited that they had a raspberry sorbet and mango creamicle flavor. After approximately 15 mini cup servings of dairy, it was a welcome palette-cleanser. They also had a great key lime flavor with chunks of pie crust in it, but more on the particular flavors in my Week 4 update.
By 4 pm, my friends and I tried and/or grabbed one flavor at each of the vendors, then we decided we needed a break. There was no reentry allowed if you left, so we found a little corner to sit on the ground and digest/eat the cups we had in our hands. We made friends who had the same idea as we did, but they were better prepared with a sheet to sit on. We chatted with our new friends, and a guy who was volunteering at the event who happened to go to UF! The Gator Nation really is everywhere. Every 30 minutes or so, we got up and did another lap to try more flavors and get in some FitBit steps. Our new friends loved free swag and somehow managed to snag us Volunteer shirts from the event, Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors shirts AND awesome Yankees hats! We did a bit of volunteering, since our picnic area was by the staff exit, and we had to keep telling people it was not an exit. “Not an exit.” “Not an exit.” “This isn’t an exit.” “Where do you exit? Um, do you remember where you came in? Try there.” Totally worth the shirt. It’s a 2XL, but it was super comfy to sleep in last night. And the best part of the shirt? Even though there was technically no reentry, if you were a volunteer, you could come and go as you pleased! SCORE.
However, I didn’t leave at all. 4 hours in, it neared time for my blind friend date. I was nervous! What if the girl wasn’t cool and I was stuck with her in icecreamland? Good news, we could always not talk and just eat. Plus, by this point I was a certified ice cream connoisseur (and half-event-staff) so I knew where to show her to the best flavors. My date showed up at 6, and we spent another 2+ hours sampling and taking photos. Good news, she was awesome! Bad news, I was incredibly full. Also bad news, Brooklyn Ice Cream ran out of Blueberry ice cream and ran out of mini cones and open-faced ice cream sandwiches by the time my new friend arrived. Good thing I had taken photos before! The two rookie mistakes I saw (and was able to warn my new friend against): Do NOT take the cup with the largest scoop and do NOT waste stomach room on flavors like vanilla and chocolate! Lamezilla! Why would you do that when you could get L’Orange A Trois, vanilla ice cream with orange ripple, milk, white AND dark chocolate chunks?!
Speaking of, that flavor was from my favorite brand of the day by far: Vice Cream. I hadn’t heard of them before, since they are new to New York (sold in Key Foods!), but the best part, besides the amazing, decadent flavors, was their story! Dan Schorr, founder of Vice Cream (who I also got a photo with, score!), had a goal to reintroduce true INDULGENCE into ice cream. No vegan, gluten-free crap. Schorr didn’t always believe in indulging, but in April 2014, he was diagnosed with lymphoma and given three months to live if untreated. “I ate really well, I ran every day, and I got cancer,” he said. “We think we can bring new consumers back to indulgent super-premium ice cream and give them permission to live life,” Schorr said. Oh, and did I mention that he is now #CANCERFREE?! And hilarious! Check out his blog, Humor with a Tumor! He was wearing a shirt that said “Don’t Be Such a Vanilla.” AMEN to that. Plus, their slogan is “Live Life, Dig In.” I can’t disagree with that.
Overall, 5+ hours of ice cream eating later, one blind friend date, 2 free t-shirts and a free hat later, I would say it was a great success. Also, as I was leaving, I happened to be in the most perfect position to see Manhattanhenge! That never happens. Watch out for the Week 4 recap of #30Years30IceCreams coming at you this week!! There’s no such thing as a cheat day, it’s just calling living. But I did run 6 miles this morning to try and make up for yesterday. #Balance #Blessed 😉
23 days down, 7 to go. 20 ice creams down, 10 to go, maybe 11, if you don’t count Sip Sak, below. But now it is crunch time. All bets are off. Also, all non-stretch pants are off. I’m officially 3 ice creams behind, but I am picking up speed. I have the next 2 days off of work thanks to the Jews and their cheesecake holiday (more on that later), and I plan on filling them with ice cream, ice cream, and more ice cream. Here’s what I have discovered, I like a complicated ice cream, a mix of flavors, some salt and sweet, some crunch and creamy. After 20 ice creams, you have to do more to impress me than simply sticky a dairy (or non-dairy) product in a cone. I am becoming quite the ice cream connoisseur. I am also counting down the days until my life no longer revolves around frozen treats.
TL;DR
This week was my actual birthday! I am officially 30 years old. Luckily, I started this quest on May 7th, so I have 7 more days to pick up some slack. I also have 7 more days to find my long-lost metabolism, which I am pretty sure I left in my 20’s, somewhere around 22. I have been really sick for the past week, and that has gotten in the way of my taste buds, my energy, and my drive to stuff my stomach with frozen goodies.
This week I went to an old-time soda fountain for AMAZING sundaes. It was the best place I have been so far, and I gave it a 9.5, in case somewhere in the next week lives up to the elusive perfect 10. The next day, I went to Turkish restaurant and had an off-menu lava-cake-like halva-stuffed ice cream dome. It was unique, to say the least. The next day I had a two-a-day (not the gym, god forbid), where I went to Wowfulls for aesthetically pleasing, but gustatorily sub-par waffle ice cream, and Snow Days, for shaved ice cream, something I had never experienced. It was like tasting actual snow, that sort of tasted like ice cream. Low in flavor, high in mental confusion. Think: Dippin’ Dots.
Friday I had a date night with my favorite emoji boyfriend at Cool Mess, where we picked our flavor and toppings, and made the ice cream on the table in front of us! VERY cute date idea, if you don’t mind the kids running around everywhere. Who doesn’t like a date that involves and activity, sweets, and a server who offers to take boomerangs of you!? Saturday, I went to Pier 6 in Brooklyn for Ample Hills ice cream. The view was fantastic, but unfortunately I was too sick to taste the ice cream. Rating of flavor was done by my trusty BFF. The next day was birthday celebration, where I topped off the week with a personalized Carvel Cake, reading, what else but #30Years30IceCreams. Without further ado: Week 3.
Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain is housed in a 1920s apothecary store in Brooklyn. It has only been open since 2010 as a soda fountain, but you wouldn’t guess that by walking in. It feels like going back in time. Even the waitresses, or “soda jerks,” seem old-timey. The sundaes though… to DIE for. They were MASSIVE. Three of us went after spin class, and we had a case of “eyes bigger than bellies” when we ordered 2 sundaes to split. First, we got the Mr. Potato Head, featured on Food Network, which has vanilla ice cream, peanut butter, and warm caramel sauce, topped with whipped cream and surrounded by salty potato chips. WOAH WOAH WOAH. I am a chip girl myself, so this was pure heaven. The salt, the sweet, the caramel, the crunch, the melty peanut butter. AMAZING. Best flavor combo so far on this journey. Then came the big kahuna: the 99 Problems sundae. It was a warm brownie, topped with chocolate ice cream, “doused” in vanilla milkshake, topped with a dark chocolate coconut shell, whipped cream, shaved chocolate and a cherry. This thing was literally larger than my head. See below. Unreal. Between the brownie, and the coconut hints of the chocolate shell (they use coconut oil to harden it), and the vanilla milkshake… I have never had anything like it before. HIGHLY recommend. Also, if you buy a Jerk shirt, you can get free egg creams forever! Or buy Fox’s U-Bet syrup in store, and make them yourself at home.
Photo Opp outside
Clearly post-gym, sitting at the soda fountain.
Mr. Potato Head in all of its potato chip glory
#1 Brooklyn Farmacy: 99 Problems Sundae
This thing was as big as my head.
Bad idea: having a scale at an ice cream sundae spot.
Bargain alert! Jerk Shirt = free egg creams.
Old-Timey things for sale, including Fox’s U-Bet chocolate syrup for egg creams!
Sip Sak – Ice Cream with a Halva Crust (no official Instagram but you can find geotagged photos here) May 23, 2017
Aesthetic (9) Flavor (6) Texture (6) Overall (7)
This place may not count toward my 30 places, since it is not technically known for its ice cream. However, the restaurant is amazing. So I recommend it with or without the ice cream. It’s a Turkish restaurant with a famous chef known for his off-menu items and Michelin stars. Luckily I went here with a friend who spoke Turkish and she took care of all of the expert ordering. She got Semolina Halva for dessert, which was a pine nut-enriched semolina crust over a dome of creamy ice cream (also off-menu). It was like a Turkish version of chocolate lava cake. The texture of the halva was not my favorite but the ice cream was creamy and a great “cherry on top” of a delicious meal. Also, I always like a hot crust/cold ice cream juxtaposition.
You’d never guess what was inside…
Break it open for gooey goodness.
YUM.
Wowfulls – Hong Kong Egg Waffle Colorful Instagrammable Ice Cream (@wowfulls) May 24, 2017
Aesthetic (10) Flavor (7) Texture (6) Overall (7)
I love me a good waffle ice cream. Last week when I went to New Territories, a patron there told me that Wowfulls had better ice cream, but worse waffles; he was right. The waffle was almost too well-done, so it was crunchy, not fluffy. However, this was a beautiful ice cream. We got the crazy vanilla, which was three colors, but tasted like vanilla. The ice cream was great, the toppings were great (condensed milk, whipped cream, fruity pebbles, mini gummy bears and strawberries), but the waffle was sub-par. Service was fantastic; I was waiting there for 30 minutes for my friend and the workers chatted with me and let me taste as many flavors as I wanted. Overall, I’d say Eggloo or New Territories tasted better, but Wowfulls has a custom painted wall from @jgoldcrown just for photos. You can’t compete with that. Oh, and color-changing spoons! Made my night.
Custom mural stole my heart.
I mean come on, it doesn’t get any prettier than this.
Second stop of the night. This was something different and interesting in a weird way. It was like shaved ice, but creamy like ice cream. It’s a combo of Taiwanese and Korean shaved ice, with a fluffy texture of snow, but creaminess of ice cream. They produce these small batches of ice cream blocks every day, then shave it into cups to order. We got the smallest size possible (which was HUGE), in a YETITRACKS(TM) flavor, which is basically like cookies and cream. The whole place has a Yetti theme, which makes for great photos and adorable cup creations. Extra points for them because we picked the three allotted toppings, and they added Pocky sticks for free for effect (again, always tell them you will blog about it!). Overall, it was a different-tasting experience, not my favorite type of texture, but it was a great value for the money and super cute in photos!
Shaving Ice Action Shot.
This is the cutest looking ice cream around.
It looks just like the wall! Even yettis like taking photos for instagram.
Excitement over MORE color-changing spoons.
You can see the inside here, snow-like texture.
Even the choking poster featured yettis.
Cool Mess – DIY Ice Cream on the table (@coolmessnyc) May 26, 2017
Aesthetic (7) Flavor (7) Texture (8) Overall (9)
This place has been on my list of date ideas for over a year, and I finally got my emoji-bf to accompany me. In theory, I guess it’s a place for kids and kids’ parties, and I think we were the only people there over the age of 15 without kids that were under the age of 5. Oh well. The kids clearly know where it’s at. We picked a vanilla base, and added Oreos, bananas, cookie dough and OF COURSE plenty of rainbow jimmies. It only took 8 minutes of waiting for our ice cream to finish freezing. Probably a long time for kids, but just enough time to instagram/boomerang/snapchat for a girl newly in her thirties. As far as price goes, it’s a bit steep for ice cream ($29.95 for two people), but we had a really fun time and it was a great cheap date, relative to other things! You can’t go to a movie for that, and we got to eat our creation. The flavor wasn’t anything outrageous, but the fun experience (and great company 😉 ) knocked this place up to an overall 9. Plus they had their own Snapchat filter. (Also, expert tip, they sell DŌ cookie dough there, if you don’t want to wait in line for an hour.)
Steps to the mess.
Ice Cream in process…
Mash up the cookie dough, add to the base.
TADA!! Beautiful, DIY ice cream!
Cool Mess: Ice Cream You Make! Emoji BF cameo
The way to my heart is through a customized snapchat filter.
I ran into a problem here: Ample Hills has many locations, but I really wanted to go to this one on the water for the photos. Main problem: they are only open during the day, and mostly only on the weekend! By the time I finally got around to going, I was sick and I couldn’t taste anything. We got Munchies flavor (pretzel-infused ice cream with clusters of Ritz crackers, potato chips, pretzels and M&Ms) and Oh Fudge (Vegan, non-dairy chocolate with coconut milk and a splash of rum). Luckily, I had my best friend with me as a tasting buddy (the flavor is ranked by her). You know what they say about how your other senses are heightened when you lose one? Well that is true. I really enjoyed the texture, and the photos came out great! Aesthetic of the ice cream itself wasn’t anything special, but with the Freedom Tower and Brooklyn Bridge behind it, it was really something. After enjoying some nothing-flavored creaminess, I went home and went back to bed with some Dayquil.
The pièce de résistance of the week: the Carvel Cake my big sis got me for my birthday! And of course she had it iced in the only best way possible: #30Years30IceCreams. I had people over to my rooftop for my big 3-0 celebration, and we could not have had a birthday celebration without ice cream. It was a typical half vanilla-half chocolate with chocolate crunchies in the middle (the best part!). It was a beautiful sunny day, and it was a great break from the sangria-drinking. I also have a LOT left in my freezer. I can have a piece every week until my 31st. Do like Drake and turn my birthday into a lifestyle.
My best friend also hand-baked mini cupcakes and iced them, and stuck them in sugar cones to look like mini ice creams. She knows the way to my heart. Technically that doesn’t count as ice cream, but they were so precious (and DELICIOUS) so I included a few photos below.
Cake Close-up.
#4 Carvel Cake: Because look at that #hashtag.
Happy Birthday to me!
Yum!
Vanilla cupcake ice cream close-up.
Chocolate cupcake ice cream close-up.
It is the home stretch. This Mucinex DM better start working ASAP because I’ve got some catching up to do! Wish me luck and send Kleenex my way.
WHEW! Here we are again, 1 week later, 20 pounds heavier. Ok, perhaps that is a MINOR exaggeration. I have been doing a lot of “salad for lunch, ice cream for dinner.” Maybe I will become one of those Instagram health influencers soon. I think I’m on to something here. Keep following along on my Google Map, updated in real time. As people have found out about my quest, they have been giving me suggestions, and my list continues to grow. My poor, pre-diabetic body.
TL;DR
This week in NYC brought incredibly high temperatures. Wednesday through Friday we hit 90 degrees and above. Perfect ice cream weather. I ate one less ice cream than last week, and I managed to eat only one per day, with the exception of Tuesday. Tuesday I had 2 people to share with so I felt like I was basically on a diet. One per day is definitely easier on the stomach, but keep sending the pepto my way. This week I tried my first rolled ice cream of the journey, my first gelato, my first vegan ice cream, AND my first milkshake. I also visited two places with unicorns in them. 2017 is officially the year of the unicorn, so I feel like I’m doing all of the right things. I tried the unicorn frappuccino, mostly for the Instagram photo, and I am happy to report that both unicorns I encountered this week were better than that horrific liquid pixie stick.
On Monday, I went to Blossom Ice cream in Brooklyn for lavender-infused rolled ice cream, on Tuesday I went to City Cakes for a half pound red velvet stuffed cookie gelato sandwich. Also on Tuesday, I went to Big Gay Ice Cream for the infamous Salty Pimp cone and a few photos with unicorns and Golden Girls. I skipped Wednesday (GASP), and on Thursday, I was back in Brooklyn for Van Leeuwen’s handmade ice cream, one scoop regular, one scoop vegan. On Friday, I went to New Territories for some incredibly Instagrammable treats, and on Sunday, I went to Brooklyn Bell with my new favorite fitness/fun/culture/food combo activity, Runstreet.
I learned a very valuable lesson this week: If you tell the employees that you will tag the place and you plan on blogging about it, they make your ice cream extra pretty! (Feel free to use this tip in the future, even if you’re not blogging.) Make sure to scroll all the way through to see all of the Instagrammable moments! One thing is for sure, I need to get a manicure, STAT. So many photos of my hands! Without further ado, week 2 of #30Years30IceCreams!!
Rolled ice cream is to dessert, what hibachi is to dinner. It always tastes better because you get to watch them make it! This started as liquid, but after pouring it on the cold stone, flattening and mixing and rolling, it was a super fun treat. We went after spin class, so I felt like I earned it. Also, one of the girls from class (my ice cream buddy of the night) bought it for me for my birthday! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, #IfItsFreeItsForMe. Tastes so much better that way. We got the wild berry lavender flavor, and since it was free unlimited toppings we got blueberries on top (in addition to the blueberries that are mashed up in it), coconut shavings, and condensed milk. YUM. It had a super creamy texture since it started as a liquid, and so pretty! Check out my Instagram for some boomerangs of the rolling in action.
Pouring the lavender goodness.
Always looking for the most instagrammable photo opp.
#3 Blossom: Lavender-Infused Rolled Ice Cream
Post-Spin Sweaty Ice Cream!
City Cakes – MASSIVE Red Velvet Cookie Gelato-wich (@citycakes) May 16, 2017
Aesthetic (7) Flavor (7) Texture (7) Overall (7)
This thing was BIG. The cookie itself boasts a half pound of red velvet, cream cheese stuffed goodness. I was definitely glad I brought two people along to share. Emoji bf and big sis in tow, we ALMOST managed to finish it. The gelato was sub-par. It was from Amorino, which was around the corner and is still on my list, but I haven’t been there yet! The gelato flavor was fiordilatte, which the website says is “authentic and pure,” and “gives proper justice to fresh whole milk.” Honestly, it just tasted bland to me. Also, the cold gelato sort of ruined the cookie, because it would have been softer and gooey-er without the cold gelato on it. Cookie was an 8, gelato was a 5, average of a 6.5. I’d recommend it if you want something huge, but if you are a cookie purist, get it without the gelato.
These were the largest cookies I had ever seen.
Red Velvet Cream Cheese Stuffing in action.
WOAH.
It was LITERALLY half the size of my head.
Picturesque outside, I felt like I was in a movie!
Somehow, after the half pound red velvet cookie, we were still up for another adventure. We walked 15 minutes (thank goodness), and went to Big Gay for the first time ever. We had to get the salty pimp, since that’s what this place is known for. It’s vanilla soft serve dipped in chocolate hard shell, with swirls of dulce de leche. As far as aesthetic goes, it was ugly. It’s tough to make dipped soft serve pretty. But the soft serve was SO CREAMY. I have begun to realize that I have a soft spot for soft serve. Pun intended. The best part of this place was the decor. Unicorns and rainbows as far as the eye can see. They really committed. And I had no idea before going that there would be Golden Girls everywhere. The second most popular cone is called the Bea Arthur, and there was a Pop Art Warhol of Sophia on the wall. Even the choking poster had Dorothy from the Golden Girls, giving the Heimlich to a unicorn. If I was rating the decor, this place would be an easy 10.
Menu lookin’ good.
Still toting my Big Sis and Emoji bf to share the calories.
This place was another recommendation from one of my Spinning participants. It’s all about balance, right? There was a line out the door so I knew it was going to be good. All of the ice cream is made from scratch in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (extra points for local). The menu was half regular flavors and half vegan. The regular scoops are made of only fresh milk and cream, cane sugar, and egg yolks, and the vegan scoops are made with house-made cashew milk, organic coconut milk, organic extra virgin coconut oil, organic cane sugar, pure cocoa butter, and organic carob bean. Unfortunately, the Vegan Blackberry with Salted Palm Sugar Cake was sold out for the day (it looked especially Instagrammable from my research), so if you plan to go here, go early in the day! We settled for two scoops: Black Sesame, Ash, Chocolate Cake (regular) and Cookie Crumble Strawberry Jam (vegan). Again, I mentioned that I’d be blogging about it, so they made it extra pretty (pro tip!). The black sesame was surprisingly tasty and had huge chunks of chocolate cake that tasted like brownies, but the real surprise here: I liked the vegan one better! It didn’t taste much like strawberry, but it had coconut pieces, and the cashew milk gave it this delicious nutty flavor. Texture was pretty creamy as far as non-soft serve goes. The only reason the aesthetic rating is low is because it’s no frills, unlike my next place.
Streamlined menu with regular and vegan flavors.
The most “Brooklyn” photo ever. He took so much care to make the scoops instagrammable!
Looking fab. Cookie Crumble Strawberry Jam Vegan on top, Black Sesame Ash Chocolate Cake Regular on bottom.
Splurged for 2 scoops.
Another post-spin sweaty selfie. The best way to eat ice cream!
All frills, basic flavor. This place has a very small menu, but everything on that menu deserves its own Instagram following. I went with a friend here, luckily, so I was able to try the infamous Unicorn Parade Milkshake as well as one of their famous bubble-waffle-ice-cream-creations, U-be Trippin, extra points on the name pun. The Waffle had ube syrup in it, and was handmade, then topped with earl grey ice cream, condensed milk, animal crackers, whipped cream and fruity pebble sprinkles, and a butterfly, all edible. Every single part of it was great, especially the handmade waffle. But beware that it does melt quickly because of the hot waffle, so have your phones out and ready! The Unicorn milkshake was nothing more than a vanilla milkshake, but the photo was worth everything. The mug was dipped in chocolate and covered in rainbow jimmies, and the inside was half coated in purple ube syrup. It was topped with 3 different marshmallows on top of Pocky sticks, whipped cream, fruity pebbles dust, a rainbow-shaped marshmallow, and an edible butterfly. It didn’t taste any better than a normal vanilla milkshake, but the photo made it absolutely worth all $12. Definitely substituted this for dinner.
Ube Waffle in process.
Unicorn Parade Milkshake close-up.
U-Be Trippin! This waffle was amazingly delicious.
Always bring a friend to share, you can order twice as much!
They even had a mini unicorn floatie for photo opps. I wonder if I could bring that in the pool with me.
I went here as part of one of my new favorite fitness/fun/culture activities, Runstreet! After more than 4 miles running and looking at art, this ice cream tasted fantastic. We started and ended our run here, which gave us something awesome to look forward to. Their website boasts the “freshest old school ice cream made in Brooklyn,” and it’s hand-crafted in small batches that are made daily in the store! It really is a local gem, and a total mom and pop shop (he is a computer programmer and she is a lawyer, with an ice cream hobby)! I got brown sugar whiskey vanilla with chocolate sauce (because I earned it). The flavor was really unique and intriguing. It wasn’t as creamy as I was hoping, considering it’s homemade each day, but as far as no-frills ice cream goes, it was pretty darn good. Go and support local businesses! Special thanks to Marnie from runstreet because I wouldn’t have found this place without her.
All very unique flavors, made fresh daily.
Chocolate sauce totally made the photo.
Beautiful day for ice cream! Then again, what day isn’t?
Me in all my sweaty glory. Are you seeing a selfie trend yet?
Follow them on Instagram!
13 ice creams down, 17 to go, I’m only 1 day behind schedule! Does anyone want to work out with me? Or roll me to the next 17 places?
Week 1 of #30Years30IceCreams has officially come to a close and all I can say is WOAH. According to everything my mom said growing up, with the amount of sugar I have consumed I should be hyper for weeks, but I am exhausted. It’s a lot of work eating that much ice cream! I think I have picked up about 20 new Instagram followers, and zero blog subscribers (looking at YOU Pop Bar employees who said you’d subscribe! WTF!). Meanwhile, my 30th birthday looms closer every day, and I am trying to take advantage of whatever is left of my waning metabolism rate.
TL;DR
7 days down, 7 ice creams consumed, so I am right on track. I taught spinning on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and attended a class on Saturday. Overall, I probably still gained 5 pounds, so I’m right on track with that, too. My mom is V proud, in case you were wondering.
I went to Holey Cream on Sunday, Häagen-Dazs on Tuesday, Emack and Bolio’s on Wednesday, and then Morgenstern’s, Soft Swerve, Dominique Ansel, AND Pop Bar on Saturday. Best photo award goes to Holey Cream with honorable mention to DA, and best flavor goes to Soft Swerve, but each one had something great to boast (HELLOOO Häagen-Dazs was free, my favorite price). Speaking of price, I created a new tag on my mint.com for money spent on ice cream, so I’ll keep you apprised of that situation as well. It all tastes better than vodka though, and I haven’t had any time to drink, so at least there’s that. See, mommy? Not all bad things coming out of this adventure.
I brought along a couple friends throughout the week to share the sugar, calories, and dollars spent. If you try this at home, I highly recommend bringing sharing buddies. For Holey Cream, I had my emoji-bf in tow, and on Saturday, 2 friends did a spin class with me at Peloton (fittingly themed the #RideOfShame) before we embarked on our ice cream journey so we could spin away a few calories. Emphasis on FEW.
Saturday was pouringggg rain all day long. My toes were wet and frozen before we even started tasting ice cream, but it was totally worth it because there were no lines! Nothing scares away a line-loving tourist like 17 hours of nonstop rain. But as they say at the USPS, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” In plain English, we were determined. And rewarded! We had some great surprises along the way: Soft Swerve gave us free stickers to put on our cones (helllooo insta), we found an Empanada Mama along the way for a mid-sugar-coma-break, it happened to be the Cronut’s 4th birthday, so Dominique Ansel had free treats, AND Pop Bar had a 7-foot popsicle on the wall for photo opps. Speaking of photos, make sure you scroll through all the ratings and commentary to see the fabulous pictures! Without further ado, Week 1 of #30Years30IceCreams.
This was the official start of my ice cream tour. I dragged my boyfriend here (see below) as a quick dessert date, and boy am I glad I did, this thing was HUGE. Sharing required. The wall was painted with the steps to make your masterpiece, although the workers didn’t follow them in order. FAKE NEWS. Gist of it was 1- pick a doughnut 2 – pick an ice cream flavor 3 – pick an icing 4 – pick a topping. There weren’t actually doughnut choices, so that made my life easier, as decisions are not my strong suit (why do you think I’m going to ALL of these ice cream places instead of picking a few?) My emoji-faced-boyfriend basically only likes cookies and cream ice cream, so that step was decided for me. Then we picked Nutella as icing, and rainbow jimmy sprinkles, because Instagram. Obvi. Ultimately, I’m not a huge fan of donuts so I was pleasantly surprised with this deliciousness. The ice cream was just regularly scooped, so nothing great on texture. Definitely recommend, if at least for the photo and the quantity.
The steps that were loosely followed to make our masterpiece.
I mean, COME ON. This looks too good to eat. But we ate it anyway.
This wasn’t on my original list but #IfItsFreeItsForMe (one of my life mottos). Free Cone Day was this past Tuesday, and it couldn’t have been more perfect timing. It was my one day off from spinning all week, which left me plenty of time to wait in line. (More on my increased Spin schedule to compensate for these calories at a later time.) I went to the HD across from Columbia, which was probably a dumb move, since college students have no money to BUY ice cream and plenty of time to wait for it. Oh well. The line took 20 minutes and I brought a book. Plus, maybe we saved some bees while we were at it. Häagen-Dazs wanted their “customers” to “pay it forward by planting wildflowers native to their region to help keep bees buzzing,” according to their news release. I got midnight cookies and cream, which was delicious but sort of hard in texture. Also I don’t really care for cones but I felt I could throw it away and save some calories because it was free. #WinWin. Also #Waste but oh well.
Long Lines. Note the backpacks. So many students!
#WorthIt
And they had their own snapchat filter! Totally made it even better!
This place is known for its dipped cones. I picked fruity pebbles because I liked it as an Eggloo topping a few months ago, and it’s pretty for a photo. For the ice cream, I picked Space Cake, which is cake batter ice cream with short bread cookie pieces and chunks of red velvet cake. Sounds amazing, right? Well, it looked amazing. The ice cream was good, not too hard, not too soft, but also nothing too special. The cake batter did taste like cake batter, not very sweet, so it depends what you like. Gearing up for a full week of sugar, I was thankful for the lack of sweetness. Full disclosure, I am not a huge cone-lover, and this place is specifically known for its cones, but even knowing that, I was #NotImpressed. The cone was hard and the fruity pebbles tasted a bit stale. Overall rating: eh.
I’ve seen pictures of this dark black ice cream for ages and I always wanted to try it. I didn’t even know what flavor it was. Good news: it wasn’t licorice, which I was dreading. Bad news: it was coconut ash, which literally got EVERYTHING black: napkins, hands, shirt, and teeth!! If you thought red wine teeth were bad, I looked like I’d been smoking cigarettes for 300 years and then used tar as mouthwash (see below). But it tasted great. It was a subtle flavor and incredibly creamy. They hand-make each batch, so they are served out of these little containers that look like leftovers. I felt bad asking for a sample because they had to take out those containers, but the workers didn’t seem to mind. There was a middle-aged man in a full suit there, who brought a photographer to take pictures of him eating ice cream. I asked him if it was for his new tinder pic, but he said they were “making a zine.” Then he sauntered out, photographer and pink pocket square in tow. New York is so weird.
Mini batches of ice cream in containers.
SO BLACK. Soon to be melted on everything.
Many flavors, but that black is so impressive. Also, note the constant phones and photo-taking.
My sharing buddies for the day. Thank goodness.
The melting began early.
I’m pretty sexy. I’m aware. I’m also still sweaty. No wonder my bf insists on being covered in emojis.
“New York’s Yammiest Ice Cream.” Also the creamiest. I went with the swirl ube purple yam and macapuno coconut in a black chocolate cone. The workers here were so friendly, and they offered multiple times for us to try any or all of the 4 flavors. Extra points there (figurative points, since I’m not actually rating service). I tried the matcha, didn’t love it, but I think that’s just because I don’t love matcha in general. The ube was awesome and I loved the purple color! Again I got a cone, but only for the photo. It was supposedly “black chocolate” but it tasted like cardboard to me (loss of points for flavor/lies there). But where they lost in cone flavor, they won in creamy soft serve. Plus they gave us stickers to put on the napkin around out cone. Looked beautiful on my Instagram.
My research paid off. If anyone looked through my google search history at this point, they’d definitely think I was a diabetic at best, someone starring on My 600 Pound Life at worst. But guess what, it worked. Because I found this off-menu gem by stalking their Instagram. In fact, after I ordered it, multiple people were staring and asking what it was. First of all, you can’t go wrong with a DKA (“Dominique’s Kouign Amann”). In their words, it’s a “tender, flaky, croissant-like dough with a caramelized crunchy crust.” In my words, it’s AMAZING. Then add salted caramel ice cream??? (There was a choice of vanilla or chocolate too, but come on, duh.) Then we added a side of a chocolate chip cookie and milk shot. Better than rum, if you ask me. AND to make it even better, it was the 4th birthday of the cronut (who knew?! Well, YOU would have, too, if you followed their instagram) so they brought out free cronut holes in special flavors to everyone in line! As I have said before, #IfItsFreeItsForMe. It was still pouring rain, so the line only took 4 minutes. During that 4 minute wait, we got to eat free cronut holes and watch a pastry chef using a blowtorch to make their famous frozen s’mores on a stick (it’s literally served on a smoked willow wood branch). AWESOME experience overall.
Pouring rain, but the garden was open!
My eyes were on the cronut… 4th birthday celebration!
Action shot of the free cronut holes as they were passed out.
This thang was HUGE.
Insta of my Insta! #PicturePerfect
YUM YUM YUM.
Popbar – Handcrafted Gelato on a Stick – (@popbar) May 13, 2017
Aesthetic (7) Flavor (4) Texture (4) Overall (6)
This was our last stop of the day, and luckily it wasn’t too too sweet because I was about to collapse from hyperglycemia. They had many choices for gelato, all made with real fruit and a few ingredients. They are all also kosher (you hear that, rabbis?), gluten and preservative free, and have no artificial coloring. We went with the chocolate banana gelato stick, and dipped it in dark chocolate, then hazelnuts on one side, and pistachios on the other. The texture was hard, tasted more like a popsicle and less like gelato. The flavor was subtle, which is good after 3 other ice creams, but I probably wouldn’t go there if I was craving something sweet. It wasn’t my favorite of the day, and it was very difficult to hold and take photos, which is always determinative to my final rating (one more shoutout here to the loopy cell phone case). They did have a cute oversized popsicle for photo opps, though (see below).
This place was so beautiful!
Our popsicles looked like minis next to this massive thing!
Are YOU a popaholic?
Wall decorations.
Snapchat’s new geofilters. It knew where I was! #BigBrother probably thinks I’m morbidly obese.
We made it! Ice cream buddies made it to 4 places in one day, in the pouring rain, ankle brace included. Great success!
I had zero ice creams yesterday, so I’m already officially behind for the week. To be continued…
