Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop

Ben and Jerry's is my absolute favorite brand of Ice Cream because they have such interesting and creative flavors, and they are all delicious.  While you can easily find the ice cream in every super market, it is so much better coming from one of their scoop shops.

I had minor surgery done yesterday morning, and knew that a trip to Ben and Jerry's was going to be my treat.  It seems counter-intuitive that you always end up eating worse when you are sick/have surgery, since you can't exercise and all you really do is lay down and sleep all day, but I went along with it and gave in to the ice cream temptation.

There aren't many scoop shop locations around, but luckily for me there is one in Mt. Kisco, which is only a 10 minute drive from my house out there.  I spent all day in anticipation of the ice cream, and ultimately decided that while I was going for it, I may as well go big.  So, I decided to get the Hot Fudge Sundae.

Unbeknownst to me, the sundae is a monster!  When I asked the worker there what was in the sundae, she said you pick two flavors of ice cream, either hot fudge or caramel, and two toppings.  For some reason I assumed that it would be served in the same cup that the small ice cream would be served in, since that also comes with two flavors, but boy was I wrong.  I looked away for a few seconds as she started to prepare the sundae, and it was too late to turn back.  All of a sudden, I saw in front of me what looked like a pint of ice cream.  It was smaller than a pint, but honestly not by much.

Since I am a chocolate lover, I obviously chose everything to be chocolate.  My two flavors of ice cream were Chocolate Therapy (dark chocolate ice cream with chocolate cookies and swirls of chocolate pudding--my favorite flavor here) and New York Super Fudge Chunk (chocolate ice cream with white and dark fudge chunks, pecans, walnuts, and fudge covered almonds).  On the bottom and coating the entire inside of the cup was the delicious hot fudge, and I chose reeses pieces and sno caps as my two toppings.  

This sundae was heaven for a chocolate lover.  The ice cream flavors were amazing, and the hot fudge sauce put it over the top.  I loved the toppings too, but I could've easily done without them, and ended up taking most of them off.  This is definitely something that I recommend only getting on a special occasion, since it probably contains a days worth of calories in the whole thing.  And, while it may look  a little daunting at first, I was surprisingly able to charge my way through and somehow ate it all.  Of course, afterwards I couldn't contract my stomach for hours and woke up the next morning still feeling full, but it was so worth it.

International Delight Cafe

Seeing as I was out on Long Island again on Thursday, I used my visit as an opportunity to go to one of my favorite restaurants in the area; International Delight Cafe.  I went there all the time growing up, and it was always my go to place for birthday lunches/dinners.  They have a very extensive menu, like you would expect at a diner/cafe, that has a wide range of breakfast items, salads, sandwiches, burgers, pasta, hot dishes, quesadillas and much more.

When you walk in, you are immediately greeted with a huge clear display case filled with over 30 flavors of their homemade ice cream and sorbet.  The decor is very simple no frills, but you don't go there for the ambiance.  In the past I have tried the salads and pasta dishes, but my go-to dish that I pretty much get every time is the Grilled Chicken on a bun with lettuce and tomato, and it comes with their thick-cut fries.  I also get honey mustard on the side to put on my sandwich and to dip my fries in. While that may sound kind of weird, you should just try it and you will understand. I don't know what they put in their honey mustard, but it is so much better than any other honey mustard I have had.   My sister always gets the grilled shrimp on a bun, and gets it with sweet potato fries.  I know that you are probably wondering what could be so great about such simple sandwiches, but it just tastes better than other grilled chicken sandwiches.  It comes with 3 huge pieces of chicken on the sandwich, so I always take the other two pieces to go.

While they may not have the highest quality food per se, it is just one of those classic neighborhood places that you have many childhood memories at. The service is also super quick, as we were in and out in probably under a half hour!  

The true star of coming here, however, is the desserts.  As I mentioned earlier, they have over 30 flavors of homemade ice cream, and it is so hard to choose because each flavor looks more delicious than the next!  When I was younger, I would always get the bubble gum flavor, which was pink ice cream with actual pieces of chicklets in the gum.  My ritual would then be to pick out all of the gum and save it until I was done with the Ice Cream.  But, seeing as I am a chocolate lover, I shifted my tastes and now my go to flavor is the chocolate chocolate chip.

The ice cream is so rich and creamy, and there are huge chocolate chunks generously spread throughout it (they are more like thick cubes!).  It comes in a cute little glass bowl with a chocolate stick cookie on the side, and you get a very generous scoop.  They have the classic flavors that would expect and the more unique ones like sunset, chocolate marshmallow chunk, mudd and confetti.  If I have had a really good day sometimes I will even get a waffle with a scoop of Ice Cream which I HIGHLY recommend.  I love waffles and ice cream, but it is one of those things that I don't really allow myself to order a lot. 

 Even though I do love the food here, the true reason I come here is for the ice cream.  It is my all time favorite, and it makes the perfect treat!  So, even if you are skeptical about the food here and choose to go to one of the nicer restaurant establishments in Rockville Centre, make sure to come here for dessert.  There is a movie theatre near by and tons of restaurants, so there have been many occasions where I came here with friends late at night to sit down, unwind, and have some dessert!  

Coolhaus Dexter Ice Cream Sandwiches

There are two things that I am completely obsessed with: Food (obviously) and Television.  On any given night there are usually 2 or 3 (at least) new programs that I watch live, and that is not counting the countless repeats that I watch throughout the day.  Some of my favorites (past and present) include: Friends, Law & Order, Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, Parenthood, Criminal Minds, Dexter, Smallville, and Homeland, to name a few, and this list doesn't even include the countless cable networks I watch like Bravo, TLC, and The Food Network.  The accounts that I follow on Twitter basically consist of the TV programs I watch, actors from those programs, and restaurants/food trucks.  So, I was extremely excited Tuesday night to see my Twitter account flooded with posts about free ice cream sandwiches from the Coolhaus food truck to promote the final season of Dexter.  This combined my two favorite things: TV and sweets.

I immediately went on their website to find out where the truck was going to located.  I saw that it was located in midtown on Wednesday, but since I was going to be working all day I knew I wouldn't make it. Then, Thursday seemed like a much more viable day, but seeing that I had the chocolate croissant for breakfast I figured it was probably not the best combination, health wise.  So, I waited until today to see where the location was going to be and hoped that it would be somewhere close by.  Sadly, it was downtown on the West Side, which is pretty far from where I am.  After much pondering, I decided it was worth the trip downtown and went to get my free ice cream sandwich!

I had never had an ice cream sandwich from Coolhaus, but it was on my list of things I have wanted to try.  Since these were specialty sandwiches, the flavor was pre-determined instead of custom made like they usually are at Coolhaus.  To go along with the Dexter theme, one cookie was double chocolate chip (to represent Dexter's dark side), one was Snickerdoodle (to represent his good side), and the ice cream was vanilla bean with cherry swirl (to represent blood).

After trekking downtown and finally locating the truck, I got there about 12:15 and was 6th in line.  They made the sandwiches fresh for each person, which takes a bit longer but makes all the difference. I watched as the sandwiches were handed out in front of me and my mouth began to water.  Finally, it was my turn and I could not wait to take my first bite (I of course waited so that I could get a good picture in of the label).

Since the weather today was beautiful and warm, the sandwich was handed to me all soft and melty.  I have some good ice cream sandwiches, but this one was by far the best.  The double chocolate chip cookie was the star in my eyes, because it was super chocolatey and was nice and chewy.  The ice cream was also great, as it was smooth and creamy.  You could actually see the specs of vanilla bean, which indicated that it was the real deal.  The cherry swirl also added a nice punch of flavor and balanced out the sweetness from the other components.  I did like the snickerdoodle as well, but it overall was my least favorite part.  I honestly don't even remember what it tasted like because the chocolate taste overpowered it.  It was also harder than the other cookie, so when I went to take a bite it tended to squeeze the ice cream towards to other end which made it very hard to walk with.  Supposedly the wrapper is edible as well, but I did not try it because, well, a piece of paper did not seem nearly as delicious as cookies and ice cream.

I had to limit myself to only eating half, but it was well worth it.  I would most likely return to this truck if I saw it again, but it was that much more special since it was made in honor of the final season of Dexter.

Ralph's Ices

Growing up on Long Island, one of the staple dessert places that everyone knew about was Ralph's Italian Ices.  There were a bunch of them all over Long Island, and there was one 5 minutes from my house that we would frequent all the time (sometimes we would go multiple times a week).   So, when I moved to the city, one of the saddest parts about leaving Long Island behind was not having access to Ralph's!  Yes, there are a lot of ice cream places in the city, but Ralph's specializes in their creme ices which ice cream cannot replace.

So I was thrilled last year when I heard that a Ralph's had opened up in the city.  What was even more amazing was the fact that their sole location in the city was one block away from where I was living!  Of course, I saw this as a sign that I needed Ralph's in my life and now that they have re-opened for the spring/summer season, I usually go once every week or so.

They have an extremely long list of water ice and creme ice flavors, but I can not imagine ever getting the water ices because their creme ices are so delicious.  The creme ice flavors include Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Birthday Cake, Rainbow Cookie, Java Chip, Peanut Butter Cookie Dough, and many many more.  They also have regular ice cream, soft serve, and delicious shakes.

(Just as a side note for the picture---I took it after having a few bites so usually you get a lot more in the small.  It was just so good that I forgot to take the picture at first!)

Even though they have a wide range of flavors and I usually do a taste test of a new flavor every time I go, I always end up getting the same 2 flavors: Peanut Butter Cookie Dough and Peanut Butter Fudge Pretzel (or Peanut Butter Candy Bar Fudge if I am on Long Island since they don't have that flavor in the city).  The peanut butter ices are so delicious and really taste like creamy peanut butter.  The texture of their ices is also great, especially when it is a hot day because they tend to be more melty and fudgy.

My sister usually gets either regular cookie dough, birthday cake, or java chip and she has rave reviews for all of them.  Everything they have is really good, and they have such a large selection of flavors and varieties that everyone can find something they are looking for.  While I would not call the ices healthy, they are definitely healthier than regular ice cream and it is more delicious, in my opinion.  If you are in the city near 24th and lex, or anywhere on Long Island, you should definitely pay them a visit!  I would also advise you to try the peanut butter flavors, but you really can't go wrong no matter what you choose.

UPDATE:

To celebrate my sister reaching one of her weight loss goals, we went to Ralph's for dessert.  To make it special, she vowed that she was going to get the Cake Shake.  Since she was getting a shake, I obviously had to join in and get one as well!  We have pretty different tastes, so I opted to get the Peanut Butter Blast.  The Cake Shake is a blend of vanilla ices, cake creme frappee, sprinkles, 1% milk, and topped with whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles, and the Peanut Butter Blast is a blend of peanut butter ices, ghiradelli frappee, 1% milk, and topped with whipped cream and reeses pieces.

Oh. My. God.  The Peanut Butter Blast is the most amazing shake ever.  If you love peanut butter like I do, it is a must!!!  Obviously it is not something you can get too often, but it is definitely something to treat yourself to every now and again.  It is so creamy and peanut buttery and the reeses pieces on top make it even better.  I did struggle to finish it because it is so large and filling, but it is just so good that I couldn't waste any of it!  My sister basically had the same response to her cake shake, so if you are a vanilla lover definitely go for that one!