[HOT LIST] Ice cream

(Photo by Nicole Rupersburg)

Did you know that the popular American locution "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream" originated from a 1927 jazz song of the same title? So next time you see that as the lede in a story about ice cream, go ahead and say "1927 called and it wants its peculiar expression back."

We'll cut to the chase: it's July, it's as hot as Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis as FWBs, and it's also National Ice Cream Month. In metro Detroit you can get your licks of homemade gelato and custard, hand-packed ice cream made from local dairy cows, and quirky flavors with multi-culti twists. Here's five of our faves and a few more for good measure.

#1 Shatila Bakery Dearborn
This place is one of the many reasons you should make yourself more familiar with Dearborn. Just 15 minutes from downtown Detroit and you're in the epicenter of the largest population of people of Arab descent outside of the Middle East. AND their food. Shatila Bakery serves sweet and savory Middle Eastern pastries, from fried kibbie to endless variations on baklava, but they are known best for their super-premium ice creams: rich butterfat ice creams in traditional flavors like chocolate and unique flavors like kashta (a Lebanese dessert similar to a super-rich vanilla). Whole fruit is combined with cream for intensely-flavored apricot and mango, but the pistachio might actually change your life. Try it once and you won't bat an eye at $9 for a quart - it's that good (and they deliver worldwide!).

#2 Nevería La Michoacana Detroit
Let's stop talking taco carts for a second: over on Vernor, this place is the real deal for summertime treats. Yes, they have ice cream. They also have a wide array of Mexican popsicles in flavors like cajeta, or caramel, which is more like a caramel-flavored fudgesicle; and frozen fruit bars made with REAL fruit in flavors like guava and pineapple. Get a chocolate-covered frozen banana, or have one of the several flavors of homemade horchata - a Mexican dessert drink made from rice milk and nuts. One of their house flavors is bright pink with chunks of strawberries, mangoes and pineapple and tastes like a strawberry milkshake. Oh, also, it's a buck for a fruit bar and two bucks for a very LARGE small horchata. Even the prices are authentically Mexican.

#3 World's Finest Frozen Custard and Family Fun Center Chesterfield
Lots of places claim to be "world's finest" this-or-that; World's Finest Custard might actually be that. Their handmade custard (available in standard flavors like chocolate and vanilla as well as rotating special flavors) is thick, creamy, rich, decadent, smooth, velvety, wonderful. You will NOT find a finer custard in all of metro Detroit - this place seriously makes a roadtrip to Chesterfield worthwhile. For hard-packed ice cream purists, they also carry Michigan's own Ashby's Sterling Ice Cream. The mini-golf course at the "Family Fun Center" is cheesy even by mini-golf standards, but full-grown adults can still enjoy sitting on the swings with some of the best old-fashioned frozen custard in the ... well, world.

#4 Treat Dreams Ferndale
They're still pretty new but have already made a name for themselves as one of the most unique ice cream parlors in metro Detroit. Why unique? Some of the flavors they've had include honey lavender, hot jalapeno, purple yam, and Sunday breakfast (maple syrup ice cream with bacon). They also serve extra-huge scoops, so come hungry and not just snacky. (You're an adult; you can eat ice cream as a meal.) Salted caramel ice cream is their specialty, and they also carry a variety of baked goods including cake pops.

#5 Calder Dairy and Farm Lincoln Park
If you want the best ice cream possible, get it from the source. Milk for Calder Dairy's New England-style hand-packed ice cream comes from their very own dairy cows at their farm in Carleton, Michigan. Stop by the Dairy in Lincoln Park to try one of their 34 homemade flavors (which include a few seasonal, as well as their new soft serve) on one of their homemade waffle cones, or drop by the farm and take a tour while enjoying your dairy treat.

Bubbling under Ray's Ice Cream (Royal Oak), The Chocolate Bar/Alinosi's (Grosse Pointe), Guernsey Farms (Northville), Zingerman's Creamery (Ann Arbor), Wally's Frozen Custard (Harper Woods), Dairy Twist Cafe (Wolverine Lake), Sweet Earth (Birmingham), Mootown Creamery (Detroit)

From Concentrate: Zingerman's U

"If you live within twenty miles of Ann Arbor you are undoubtedly familiar with the Zingerman's brand. What began as a humble delicatessen in 1982 has since grown into a $30 million artisanal empire that includes a creamery, a bakery, a restaurant, a deli, a market, a coffee roasting outlet, a candy manufactory, as well as steady catering and mail order business. And along with its yummy foodstuffs Zingerman's also exports its philosophies and practices to other businesses for a fee. In a very expensive nutshell, the company has made a name for itself with its strict adherence to exceptional quality, subscribing to standards that most of its competitors don't even bother trying to aspire to.

'The end result is often products that are outstanding examples of their particular variety—robust yet delicate coffees, tender pie crusts filled with pricey lard, cheese made from an antiquated recipe no other creamery in the world uses. Quality is emphasized and underscored so much that the resulting product can seem inaccessible, even intimidating, to the fledgling connoisseur.

'It's okay: there's an app for that…er…rather, a program at Zingerman's to educate the eager gourmand!..."

Read the rest of the article here.

Zingerman's, I Was Wrong About You

Porn
Bloggers like to pop off at the mouth. It's kind of what we do. Guilty! Ahhhhhh...errrrr...hm.

Last summer I popped off about Zingerman's. And while some points I made were valid--who can afford the $30.00 olive oil???--I failed to account for other factors, the most significant of which being a fierce committment to having the highest quality products available even if that means they're more expensive, and recognizing that the increased cost makes for an exceptional difference in taste and quality.

Yesterday I got to speak at length with managing partners for Zingerman's Creamery, Zingerman's Coffee Company, and BAKE! with Zing (baking classes presented by the Bakehouse). I received full tours of all the facilities as well as a crash-course education in the sciences of cheesemaking, coffee roasting, and baking--and make no mistake, there is a very real science behind each one, and each of these masters of their domains are well-versed and willing to share.

In the coming weeks you'll be able to read more about my experience at these places, but for now I just felt compelled to share a little about them and, GULP, admit that I was ohdeargoddon'tmakemesayit wrong.

In keeping with the environment of education that the Zingerman's Empire has become known for, John Loomis (cheesemaker extraordinairre), Allen Liebowitz (coffee roaster extraordinairre) and Shelby Kibler (baker extraordinairre) were more than eager to take the time to explain their trades as well show me the ins & outs and explain why they have such a committment to educating their customers through classes, tastings, and tours. As Allen remarked, "An educated customer is our best customer," alluding to the idea that an educated customer will not only be willing to pay a little more for a higher quality product, but will also understand why it costs more and how the product is better.

The Zingerman's vision is to constantly be learning as well as teaching, espousing the idea that one is never done learning and that one also has a responsibility to teach what one has learned...ah, but I'm jumping ahead of myself a bit. I'll save it for the article; you'll just have to wait.

After seeing the OBVIOUS passion, commitment, and knowledge that each of these men have for what they do--as well as their general friendliness and excitement to share--I now consider myself a card-carrying convert of the "cult," as I so glibly put it.


I couldn't quite go home empty-handed, now could I?
But oh, I do like to tease...okay, just a morsel of something I probably won't be able to work into the article. One of the Creamery's signature cheeses is the Great Lakes Cheshire, one of the oldest recorded cheeses in British history. The recipe used at Zingerman's is an old one--it is a "winter" recipe, which allows the cheese to keep for about two months (as there was less concern about milk spoilage during the cold winter months so folks weren't forced to churn out cheeses in order to avoid wasting all that spoiled milk). This particular recipe was popular until World War II when the British government was forced to ration food supplies. This more delicate recipe lasted only two months, and the government wasn't able to ration it out fast enough before IT would spoil. They then required cheesemakers to produce a heartier but less nuanced recipe that would keep for six months, and after rationing ended cheesemakers just kept producing Cheshire in this fashion.

John Loomis learned this traditional winter recipe from a Welsh cheesemaker, and since that man's retirement Zingerman's Creamery has the DISTINCT honor of being the only creamery in the world producing Cheshire cheese using this particular recipe.

Added bonus: the milk used at the Creamery all comes from local producers Calder Dairy.

How about that, eh? Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again: you had me at "cheese."