Three recent posts on USA Network’s Character approved Blog cover a lot of ground—and flavors.
Ice cream trucks loom large in our collective summer memory bank. Who hasn’t urgently pleaded for ice cream money from whichever parent was the softer touch when the siren song of the Mister Softee truck or the Bomb Pop guy caught our ear?
A diminishing number of these old school trucks still prowl the streets of some neighborhoods, but a new breed of ice cream trucks is serving up artisanal ice creams in exotic flavors, made from carefully sourced ingredients. And not just in New York and L.A. My latest post on the USA Character Approved Blog highlights five of them with a slide show, just in time for summer.
Takin’ it to—er, off—the streets
We ate our way through Seattle last fall when we visited for the first time. There are so many great restaurants, serving up every stripe of fresh, local and delicious. Frank Bruni just eloquently sang the praises of this city’s charms, culinary and otherwise, in his recent piece in the New York Times, “Seattle, a Tasting Menu.” But one stop we missed was chef Josh Henderson’s farm-to-table traveling bistro in a vintage Airstream trailer, Skillet Street Food. Just last month, he upped the ante, opening a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, Skillet Diner. See why it became an immediate success—and what became of the Airstream—in this post on the USA Character Approved Blog.
David Chang’s sauces help you cook like a Momofuku
First, let me start with this: David Chang doesn’t like food bloggers. And I respect that. Too many of us are far too confident of our culinary chops, far too ready to disrupt meals with cameras, note taking and grilling servers about arcane details.
But the irascible Mr. Chang does like people who love to eat. It’s evident in the inventive, delicious, cheap takes on working class food he serves up at his growing Momofuku empire in New York (and now elsewhere). It’s also apparent in the two new sauces he’s created for home cooks, Momofuku Clay Pot Cooking Sauce and Asian Braising Sauce. In this post on the USA Character Approved Blog, you can find out how to use them and where to find them.
Ok, I will.
But back to the ice cream truck — I must have been four or five when I got a quarter from my dad and was allowed to buy my first Heath Bar from the ice cream man. But I was so excited, I paid my money and ran, forgetting the bar. Then it was the walk of shame in front of all the neighborhood kids when the ice cream man shouted, “Hey little girl, you forgot something.”
Awww, you still remember your first walk of shame, Altadenahiker! My ice cream truck-related embarrassing moment involved a brand new snow cone and having the entire pristine, syrup-laden ball of ice fall onto such a dirty patch of ground that even eight-year-old me wouldn’t salvage any of it.
Oh gosh, how mortifying.
O M G!!!! how i love ice cream