If you are a regular
follower of mine you can probably guess what I am about to say. Scratch that.
Even if you have read two or three of my food blogs you can guess where I am
headed. That is right folks; I am going to talk about my favorite television
show of all time “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”. To be truthful until I started
writing this all down I didn’t realize how much of an influence it had over my
life. Sure I watch every week even if it’s a repeat. Yes I look up any restaurant
in any city I might be interested in. Of course it then goes immediately on my
to-do list and I closely monitor said list until I can proudly cross it off,
blog about it, and move on. Ok this might border more on addiction than fan
behavior. But I can’t help it. Lord knows the boring stuff I would be eating
without their help. Plus I share and help spread their message of amazing eats.
It is what separates us from the animals.
This is how I found out
about “Big Gay Ice Cream” and it has been on my wish list ever since. It was on
the episode Street Food where Gail Simmons host of Top Chef, shared of her love
of the “Salty Pimp”. I would never be the same.
Contrary to the recent
blogs, I am not normally an ice cream eater. I only go for it when it is something
special. I do not like just anything. It has to be worth it and draw me in.
This would be just the thing. On this episode I watched as the owner, a man
named Doug Quint, took a popular concept- vanilla soft-serve ice cream in a
cone and made it a work of genius. The “Salty Pimp” starts off with some
homemade dulce de leche in the bottom, followed by the vanilla soft-serve, then
some salt, with more dulce de leche, and the best part a layer of chocolate
that hardens in seconds as a protective coding on this treat. It seems all so
easy but oh so delicious. It is both salty and sweet, the pinnacle of desserts.
But what intrigued me was that the bottom got as much attention as the top of
the cone. That is where average ice cream stores like Carvel go wrong. By the
end you are eating a dry, stale, flavorless cone. Who wants that?
“Big Gay Ice Cream” has
one truck that rotates to different locations every day and one shop in the
East Village. I had been following them on Twitter hoping to find a
semi-convenient location to catch up with the truck but in the past few weeks
it had been unavailable. That is when I decided just to go to the store. I
didn’t want to wait any longer and although I wanted to meet Doug who is often
on the truck, I had to have a “Salty Pimp” more. Sorry Doug.
As for our topic at hand,
the day of, me and my eating partner (yes within our group when we are an even
number of us we divide into eating partners so as to share food so we can try
more things) decided to get both a “Salty Pimp” and a “Bea Arthur”. We had gone
back and forth about what to do but this seemed like the most sense. We both
wanted to try these and knew we could barely eat one as we had already gone to
Pomme Frites at this point. A “Bea Arthur” is similar to the above description
of the “Salty Pimp” but except for the chocolate, which in this scenario is now
crushed vanilla wafers. I had been teasing my friend when we order we had to
say we wanted to eat Bea Arthur. I found that amusing.
There is actual one other
Golden Girl named dessert on the menu, it is the Rue McClanahan which is an ice
cream sandwich containing bourbon ice cream and pecan cookies. This is only
available at the store though.
So, the big question, how
was it?? When we finally ordered our ice cream the anticipation was too high. I
couldn’t imagine what the first bites would taste like. We got dishes so that
we could lay them down without creating a mess as they melted. After a few
photos we had at them. They were cool, scrumptious works of art. While I was
already full and could argue there was too much ice cream, I have no proof do
I? That cone was devoured within seconds like I was on a C.I.A. mission. It was
too good but we both agree the absolute best part was the bottom of the cone.
That final blast of ice cream and toppings in the crown of the cone was awesome.
I could eat a bucket full of just cone endings, if that makes any sense. It was
better than anything I ever tasted. Gail Simmons was right.
Now that I have checked
that out I only have a few remaining questions. How do you make ice cream gay?
Does that even matter? I know believe it does. It turns out the more gay the
ice cream the better it tastes. I find that I love the gay community when it is
involved in theater as well as ice cream. It is good to know. I wonder what
else this will be true for.
I also wonder where the
idea for the name “Salty Pimp” comes from. Then again do I really want to know?
If this is what one tastes like no wonder Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman” made
being a hooker look like so much fun, “I say who, I say where, I say who”. If Doug
needs more naming ideas just from this movie alone he can create “The Blue
Banana”. I am just saying. Now I could kind of go for it.
In conclusion this is a
place where you have to go at least once and then it kind of stays on your mind
while you think of what else you should try. You will start making plans to go
back. I already am.
Doug one last thing, this
song is for you “because what you do you do so well...makes me want to
yell…Let’s hear it for the boy”!
If you want to eat ice
cream that is so good you have to yell and sing, I suggest a trip to the “Big
Gay Ice Cream” truck or store. Trust me it will be hard to eat this and not
have this song in your head. Go and try, I dare you!
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