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MISC: Gelato

These are the flavors of gelato that I had while in Italy:

Pistachio (Pistacchio)
Green Apple (Mela Verde)
Lemon (Limone)
Strawberry (Fragole)
Honey (Miele)
Caramel (Caramella)
Chocolate (Cioccolatto)
Banana (Banana)
Hazelnut (Nocciola)
Torrone

Torrone? What's that?

Exactly.

On our last night, getting my last Italian gelato, I was trying to pick a flavor I hadn't had before, and I saw this one called "Torrone" with a picture of what looked like a sponge next to it. So of course, not speaking much Italian, I had to get it in order to figure out what it was. It tasted like a birthday cake to me and had little sweet chewy things in it. It tasted familiar, but naming the taste just ever so slightly eluded me. But I kept getting this picture in my head of a box, vaguely remembered with something delicious inside.

So I had to look it up. Torrone is a nougat dessert with nuts. Oh yeah ... I think this is one of those things that my college landlord used to bring us back from her trips to Italy as a reward for getting her mail. I think I liked the gelato much more than I liked the actual thing.

And no, I did not get gelato three times a day. You automatically get two scoops for the lowest price, so I only got it once or twice a day. Excuse me, but YOU go to Italy and just try to walk around with fabulous gelato places everywhere you look and just try not to get gelato every day. It's totally impossible.

Especially when you are about to go to Germany, which features such concoctions as "spaghetti eis" and a bright blue gelato flavor called "puffo." Which I just found out means "smurf." Much as I enjoy eating ice cream that resembles pasta or is made out of ground up cartoon characters, I think it's best that I enjoyed all the gelato I could in Italy where it is normal instead of having to deal with that insanity. I also noticed in Germany that the going thing was mondo-gigantic ice cream sundae concoctions that you queasy just to look at them. I prefer a simple copetta with two flavors of gelato any day.

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Comments

JoAnna said…
I've seen that spaghetti ice cream, they sell the devices on late-night TV. it's awful.
KT said…
It reminds me of that play-doh factory thing ... where you could crank the play-doh into long spaghetti pieces. It did not look like something I wanted to eat.
Jeremy said…
"Oh, I'll boil a few
and pickle a few
and SERVE A FEW REAL COLD
And I'll roast a few
And toast a few
and turn some into goooollllld."

-- Gargamel, 1986.

Evidently, only the "real cold" plan proved to be marketable. All though I hear Smurf Fois Gras is making a comeback.
KT said…
Ha ha ha! Love the Gargamel song ... I was obsessed with Smurfs when I was younger so I don't think I could stomach eating them. They were my friends!

Smurf fois gras sounds like about the nastiest thing I could possibly imagine. I wonder if their livers are blue as well? A little Greedy Smurf foie gras might make quite a decadent amuse bouche, what with all of those cupcakes he ate.
Jeremy said…
seeing as how they subsist on smurfberries and byproducts of such, I'd wager most smurf fois gras would be sweet and delicious.

(dude, I knew you would appreciate the Gargamel song . . .)

Man, maybe there's a market for a fantasy food blog. First recipe: super chicken's Super Sauce (which, I just realized after finding an old episode on Guba last night, is actually a Martini -- complete with little martini pitcher and glass!)

Shoot, I better go make a blog for this NOW, before one of your millions of readers steals my awesome idea.
KT said…
!!!! That would be an awesome blog. You could call it "Geek Gourmet."

I would read it.

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