Posts Tagged With: sundae

315/365: National Sundae Day

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Mark Petruska

Sundae, bloody sundae. Again. I know you’re supposed to scream for ice cream, but when you’re on your third go-round celebrating the same food holiday, you’re more likely to want to scream in frustration instead. November 11 is National Sundae Day…

It’s not that I don’t enjoy a good ice cream sundae. Of course I do. But I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: there are so many other deserving foods that don’t have their own holiday yet, it seems unfair to simply regurgitate different variations of the same thing. Actually, I think I’m more irritated over the fact that I have nothing new to say, but feel like I’ve got a certain amount of white space to fill before I can hit “publish.” I watch that word count carefully, believe me! And since we’ve already done hot fudge sundaes and strawberry sundaes, well…

…same old dilemma.

Not to mention the fact that sundaes are much more enjoyable in the summer months. Not November. It’s like drinking hot chocolate in July. Who’d want to do that?

But I really shouldn’t complain. We’re entering the home stretch now. And really, I’m bellyaching because we have to eat an ice cream sundae?! Oh, woe is me. First world problems indeed. 🙂

So of course, we made sundaes. And we licked our spoons when we were finished.

National Sundae Day

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Categories: Dairy, Desserts | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

206/365: National Hot Fudge Sundae Day

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Mark Petruska

It feels like “a month of Sundaes” lately with all our ice cream holidays. We’ve also celebrated fudge three times now. So, it’s kind of fitting that July 25 is National Hot Fudge Sundae Day!

We’ve already talked about the history of the sundae. While there is some debate over who invented that particular ice cream dish, there is no dispute over today’s flavor. Los Angeles candy maker Clarence Clifton Brown opened an eatery named C.C. Brown’s in 1906, where he would serve ice cream with a little flask of molten chocolate customers could pour over the top. According to legend, Brown was constantly tweaking the recipe, changing the formula every day for 20 years until he had the perfect flavor and consistency. In 1929 he moved the business to Hollywood, right down the street from Grauman’s Chinese Theater, and it became a celebrity hotspot. With turn-of-the-century retro decor and homemade ingredients, the hot fudge sundaes become popular with stars like  Mary Pickford, Bob Hope, and Joan Crawford. Marlon Brando was so enamored of the sundaes that he would go inside, place an order, and take his sundae back to the limo to eat in order to avoid the prying eyes of tourists, while his family stayed inside the restaurant and ate theirs. The business closed down in 1996 but the name lives on – as does the hot fudge sauce, which can be purchased through the Lawry’s website.

To celebrate, my mom made us hot fudge sundaes. We had a mini family reunion of sorts, with my brother up for a visit from California (first time in 3 years), along with my aunt, uncle, grandmother, and parents. I’d much rather talk about my mom’s wonderful stuffed cabbage rolls, but alas, there is no National Stuffed Cabbage Day. What a shame, too. They are good. As were the sundaes. It’s hard to go wrong with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, and – of course – a maraschino cherry on top. She apologized for the lack of nuts, but honestly, who needed them? We were already around family. 🙂

National Hot Fudge Sundae

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188/365: National Strawberry Sundae Day

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Mark Petruska

Happy Sundae! Err…Sundae. It’s a happy coincidence that today’s food holiday lands on its namesake day. July 7 is National Strawberry Sundae Day! And no, I did not stutter.

As recently mentioned, the sundae was created when conservative governments in several states banned the sale of ice cream sodas on Sundays. In order to keep their businesses afloat (joke alert!), ice cream purveyors came up with a soda-free alternative called the sundae (spelled that way to avoid offending Christians, who apparently believed that soda was the devil’s bidding). Many cities claim to be the birthplace of the sundae, including Two Rivers, Wisconsin; Plainfield, Illinois; Evanston, Illinois; New Orleans; New York City; Ithaca, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York. The exact origin is unclear, but it is generally accepted that the first ice cream sundae appeared sometime between 1880 and 1892.

The world's most expensive sundae.

The world’s most expensive sundae.

Ice cream sundaes are simple desserts consisting of one or more scoops of ice cream, topped with sauce, syrup, whipped cream, nuts, fruit, or sprinkles, or – in some cases – all of the above. Most sundaes are cheap and satisfying, but a restaurant in New York City called Serendipity 3 serves a $1000 sundae that is hailed by Guinness World Records as the world’s most expensive. Called the Serendipity Golden Opulence Sundae, this treat is made with 5 scoops of Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream infused with Madagascar vanilla, covered in 23-karat edible gold leaf, rare Amedei Porcelana and Chuao chocolates, caviar, passionfruit, orange, Armagnac, candied fruit from Paris, and marzipan cherries. The whole thing is covered in gold dragées and served in a baccarat Harcourt crystal goblet with an 18-carat-gold spoon. You get to keep the goblet, but have to give back the spoon. Seriously?

Fresh out of $1000 bills, we had to scale back our celebration of the strawberry sundae. Instead, we spent a buck and change and grabbed one from McDonald’s. I remembered that they sold sundaes, but it had been years since I’d gotten one. They were smaller than I remember, actually – but not bad. Not bad at all.

National Strawberry Sundae Day

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181/365: National Ice Cream Soda Day

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Mark Petruska

You just may float on a happy haze when you celebrate today’s perfectly summery food holiday. June 30 is National Ice Cream Soda Day!

June 20 was also National Ice Cream Soda Day, so I suppose if you didn’t get your fill back then, today’s your encore. We chose to celebrate the vanilla milkshake on that day instead so as not to repeat ourselves. Just to keep us on our toes, there’s also a National Root Beer Float Day coming up in August. Knowing that, we should have opted for something a little more unique today, but laziness got the better of us.

Ice cream sodas, or floats, go by the name “snowballs” in the U.K. and “spiders” in the land Down Under, where women work and men plunder. They are exactly what their name implies: ice cream served in a soft drink. Ice cream sodas were invented in 1874 by Robert McCay Green in Philadelphia. According to legend, during that city’s sesquicentennial celebration, Robert ran out of cream for the flavored sodas he was selling on a particularly hot day, and substituted ice cream instead. But Robert explained in an interview that his creation was no accident: he wanted to invent a new treat to draw customers away from a competitor who had a bigger, fancier soda fountain. He experimented by mixing vanilla ice cream with soda water and a choice of 16 different flavored syrups. This new treat was a big hit, and Green was so proud of his invention, his will stipulated that “Originator of the Ice Cream Soda” be carved on his tombstone when he died.

While teens loved the tasty treat, many adults did not, and the drink was actually banned by some conservative local governments who believed that soda, which was marketed as a “miracle cure” (for what – skinniness?), was a controlled substance that should not be served or purchased on Sundays. In an effort to boost business, soda fountains came up with a treat that contained ice cream but no soda. They coined the new dessert a “sundae” that they could serve on “soda’s day of rest.”

Now, that’s clever!

To celebrate, Tara and I made root beer floats. I mean, what other type of soda-and-ice-cream combination can ever top the classic?

National Ice Cream Soda Day

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Categories: Beverages, Desserts | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

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