Food fashion: Is ice cream the new cup cakes?

Suddenly everyone is lining up for a scoop of the cold stuff.

Food is prone to fashion. Like the cup cake craze that we’ve had to endure ever since Sarah Jessica Parker ate one on Sex and the City once. (Long-standing readers of this blog will know that I think cup cakes are mostly over-hyped cake wannabes, even if sometimes I find one I like). Or two years ago, when all the restaurants in London were briefly serving jelly.

Right now ice cream seems to be having its moment in the spotlight and I couldn’t be happier because I’m a huge fan! I don’t mean to imply that ice cream is in any way a fad. It’s not. Ice cream is a classic – it never truly goes out of fashion. It’s just that there seems to be special enthusiasm for it at the moment.

I blame the cup cake revival on the illusionist’s trick of clever marketing. With ice cream, I believe we are seeing magical artistry of a different kind – that of the alchemist. Aside from a few food scientists trying to invent ice cream that doesn’t melt in the name of reducing carbon emissions, the trend has been towards more traditional methods and natural flavours.

Artisanal ice cream makers are reviving quality ice cream, using quality ingredients and unusual flavour combinations. Even in Italy, home of gelato, there is something special going on. I loved this post by Kelly on Travellious in which she boldly declared she had found the best gelato in Italy at Golosi di Natura in Gazzo in the Veneto region. I’m usually sceptical of such claims but after reading the post, I had to agree they were really doing something distinctive.

Writers are lapping it up – I keep seeing articles on where to find the best ice cream.

Weekly entertainment and listings bible Time Out London ran a piece on the best ice cream in London last month. The Evening Standard ran a similar article in June and the afternoon freesheet London Lite ran its version in July. (The lists are remarkably similar – I was happy to see they all included my personal favourite gelateria Scoop in Covent Garden).

I’ve been reading similar lists in San Francisco – such as as this one on Gayot (the list includes Oakland and Berkeley not just actual San Francisco), this one on the Good Life Review or one I read recently in free magazine Common Ground. As well as the lists, I’ve noticed that people seem willing to queue for the best ice cream in the same way they used to for cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery or Buttercup Bake Shop in New York or Hummingbird Bakery in London.

I’ve seen long queues at both the Bi-Rite Creamery in the Mission (pictured above) and Mitchell’s Ice Cream in Noe Valley. Both places make good, heavy ice cream with interesting flavours. Salt caramel and balsamic strawberry were two flavours on the menu at Bi-Rite. Meanwhile, Mitchell’s had a good range of classic flavours as well as some quite unusual ones such as ube (purple yam), avocado and jackfruit! I have to go back to Mitchell’s when it’s less busy so I can sample a few flavours – I’m super-keen to try the ube, which has an amazing vivid purple hue.

I’ve also had great ice cream at Gelateria Naia in the Castro – the peach, pluot (a type of plum) and roasted banana flavours are highly recommended. The ice cream at Ciao Bella Gelato in the Ferry Building is tasty too – I liked the blueberry flavour – but quite expensive. I’m yet to try Bombay Ice Cream in the Mission, which does what it says on the tin – serves up Indian ice cream flavours such as cardamom or salted lassi.

Latin countries, like Italy, Spain and France have a long tradition of excellent ice cream or gelato. What’s the difference? Apparently ice cream and gelato are essentially different in terms of the fat content, but I don’t personally distinguish between the two. It’s all ice cream to me, and my liberal definition also extends to sorbet and frozen yogurt. The Spanish for gelato is helado (with a silent ‘h’) and in French it’s glace (pronounced ‘glass’).

It’s lucky for my waist line that my holiday in Italy in 2006 only lasted two weeks because I had gelato almost every single day – and that was on top of all the pizza and pasta! I was slightly more restrained when I went to Spain in 2008 – I had a wedding to prepare for, after all – but I still had helado more than I’d planned. Paris was a regular pilgrimage during my five years in London – it was just two hours away by Eurostar train, after all. I recommend Berthillon in Ile St-Louis and in particular the blackcurrant or cassis flavour. (If you want to read more, there’s a great post on Berthillon on food blog Not Quite Nigella).

The one type of ice cream I’m not keen on is soft-serve. I do have a nostalgic fondness for ice cream vans – but not enough to buy their wares! Mr Whippy was the dominant brand of ice cream truck when I was a kid in Sydney. (I’ve linked to the Kiwi site as the Australian one is still under contstruction). The vans were pink or white and they played a muzak version of Greensleeves. It still makes me happy when I hear or see an ice cream van – it brings back childhood memories of long summer days at the beach. I wish I still actually liked the product and could relive my childhood with a scoop of soft serve – like my friends at our excursion to a pick-your-own farm near London in June. The fact that I would prefer to have a scoop of purple yam ice cream from Mitchell’s makes me feel sad that I have lost such a simple pleasure. It’s not pretentious because it’s genuine – but I feel almost disloyal to my childhood, like I’m Jackie Paper in Puff the Magic Dragon.

Where do you get your ice cream from? Any particular brands, stores or flavours? Give me the scoop in the comments!

Gelateria Golosi di Natura
Via Vittorio Emanuele, 22
35010 Gazzo, Padua (Veneto)
ITALY
Tel: +39 049 9426264
www.golosidinatura.it

Scoop
40 Shorts Gardens
London WC2
UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7240 7086
www.scoopgelato.com

Bi-Rite Creamery
3692 18th St
San Francisco, CA 94110
USA
Tel: +1 (415) 626-5600
biritecreamery.com

Mitchell’s Ice Cream
688 San Jose Ave
San Francisco, CA 94110
USA
Tel: +1 (415) 648-2300
www.mitchellsicecream.com

Gelateria Naia
Locations in: Castro, North Beach, Potrero Hill in San Francisco and around California.
USA
gelaterianaia.com

Ciao Bella
Began in New York’s Little Italy in 1983. San Francisco store in Ferry Building.
USA
www.ciaobellagelato.com

Bombay Ice Cream
552 Valencia St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
USA
Tel: +1 (415) 861-3995
www.bombayicecream.com

Berthillon
31 Rue St.-Louis-en-l’Ile Paris
FRANCE
Tel: +33 1 43 54 31 61
www.berthillon.fr/

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The photographs above were all taken by me at Bi-Rite Creamery in the Mission district of San Francisco. Thank you to Kimberly Kradel from Artist at Large for being my hand model!

Update: Kimberly has her own post on ice cream in the Mission district and references our trip to Bi-Rite – how fun!