Ice Cream

My husband Leo loves ice cream.  I like it, but he loves it. For a wedding present, we received a wooden ice cream maker that like the old fashioned ones, needed to be filled with ice and rock salt, but unlike the old fashioned ones, could be plugged in and churned the ice cream without the 'elbow grease.'  Once every few years, we'd pull it out and impress ourselves by making a batch of lovely vanilla ice cream, but it was always a big production for the results.  About 6 or 7 years ago, as a birthday gift for my ice cream loving husband who almost always has a quart of vanilla in the freezer, I bought a double Cuisinart automatic ice cream machine.  It consists of a motorized bottom, plastic churners and plastic covers with two metal containers which I keep in the freezer at all times.  

A group of good friends, connected by a love of politics and good food, always used to get together every August in Santa Barbara.  Life slowed down; we’d cook together using all local produce – sweet corn, plum tomatoes, Armenian cucumbers, peppers, tomatillos, Blenheim apricots, avocadoes, Santa Rosa plums – and then feast as the sun went down behind rolling hills planted with avocadoes and lemons.

So you can imagine our excitement when we heard that Johnny Apple – the legendary political columnist and food writer at the New York Times – was coming to town with his wife Betsey.  Johnny was (as many have noted) a force of nature. I first met Johnny when he came to LA to do a feature on Asian Pacific food.  We hit three restaurants in four hours one evening, going from Vietnamese to Chinese dim sum to a Chinese restaurant famous for its “pork pump”.  I was so exhausted I begged off the next three days of eating. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone enjoy food and wine more (even that third dinner you have to eat when you’re a critic.)

"We all scream for Ice Cream..." but what flavor and from what shop and why? National Ice Cream Month begs the eternal question, "What's YOUR favorite kind?" One for the Table asked some of our favorite scoop fans to reveal their guilty pleasures....

Andy Warhol Ice Cream Cones w/ Tray

Mine is the caramel gelato at the Piazza Del Popolo -  when in Rome there is NOTHING better - Or was it the gorgeous young purveyors seductive,"Bella, Signorina!!!"

I always order toasted coconut almond.  Not because I like toasted coconut almond. In fact, I hate toasted coconut almond.  I just order it because I feel sorry for it because everyone hates toasted coconut almond.  So I order toasted coconut  almond, dump it in a trash can when no one's looking, then go back to the store and order cherry vanilla which I really like. – Alan Zweibel, writer

"You haven't had ice cream till you've had Graeter's. The butter pecan is Stedman's favorite, and mine, too." — Oprah Winfrey from her O list

A Tin Roof Sundae ! ! French Vanilla Ice Cream is topped with warm heavy chocolate syrup mixed with some finely ground black pepper and the roof, of course, are salted peanuts. Go way! Get your own! – Marilyn Lewis, owner of Kate Mantillini.

Sadly, not available to the public. My husband's freakish devotion to our Masso Gelato maker helped him churn out "Earl Grey Tea with Honey" gelato. The best thing I've ever eaten! – Eva Ein, co-owner of Stella Mare restaurant in Montecito

Stephen Colbert believes the Ben & Jerry's flavor made in his honor, AmeriCone Dream, can make a difference. “I’m not afraid to say it. Dessert has a well-known liberal agenda. What I hope to do with this ice cream is bring some balance back to the freezer case.”

My favorite flavor is, and has been for forty years, 31 Flavors Jamoca Almond Fudge. I get it on Cerrillos road, in Santa Fe. – Brooke Palance Wilding, artist

There is absolutely no question that the best ice cream is made on Nana's terrace in the back garden in Waco, Texas. We still use the old fashioned rock salt and real cream but have finally acquiesed to an electric turning handle. When the fresh peaches reach their ripest that is the time for an ice cream party. Everyone gathers. The mint julieps flow and ice cream becomes the flavour of the evening. – Alice Faye Cleese, Radio Host

For most of my dad’s young life, he lived above and worked at Felcher’s, his parents’ candy store/ neighborhood lunch counter, tucked between P and G's Bar and Grill and Simpson's Hardware Store on Amsterdam Avenue between 73 and 74th Streets. Christopher Morely, imagined the man of the future while watching my dad as a tiny boy play in front of that store and immortalized him in his novel Kitty Foyle.

Throughout college and law school my dad scooped ice cream and served meals at this lunch counter, as his then girlfriend, my mother, perched herself on a stool out front, eating fudgicles and enticing much of the passing parade, including Frank Gifford and his pals, the other NY Giants. I can still see the scoop my father kept from Felcher’s with its well-worn wooden handle and the scored thumb press that pushed a slim metal band, which would release the perfect scoop every time.