Blue Skies and Blue Ice Cream - What Summer Fun!

I'm sure many of you will agree that there's no greater pleasure on a warm summer's day than eating a cool, delicious ice cream!

In fact I actually remember many places that I've visited by association with a particular ice cream flavour that I ate whilst there. Here are a couple of examples:

La Rochelle in South West France - a wonderful, medieval French port with a stunning harbour, great restaurants and coffee shops. What do I think of when someone mentions La Rochelle? Pistachio ice cream! Here is the pistachio cone I ate on a visit to La Rochelle some years ago.

Pistachio ice cream cone

Le Puy du Fou in the Vendée - one of the world's best theme parks and it's all based on history. The spectacle at the Roman Amphitheatre is incredible ....

..........  but then so was the ice cream I had there! I queued to get this delicious violet ice cream cone.

Violet ice cream cone

Matching your ice cream to the location

It may sound a little crazy but you can actually go one step further with all of this. You can even  match the colour of your ice cream to your surroundings! I did this recently on a visit to La Flotte on the beautiful Île de Ré. It was a beautiful morning with a glorious, bright blue sky. So I bought a bright blue ice cream!

Can you guess what ice cream it is?
It's a mint flavoured water ice (sorbet) with chocolate chips. Unusual but refreshing!

If I had to pick a favourite it would be the pistachio. Its colour, texture and taste was superb. I even have my own pistachio ice cream recipe which you can try and make at home. You don't have to go to La Rochelle for it!

Pistachio To Pecan - Just Nuts About Ice Cream!

Pistachio ice cream is a great favorite in my family. The color, taste and texture is unique. Whenever we get to visit an ice cream parlor we tend to check out their pistachio ice cream and you can usually tell just by the look of it if it's going to be any good. The one in the photograph above (matched with a scoop of caramel ice cream) was every bit as good as it looked!

In addition to pistachios, there are plenty of other nuts that work well in ice cream recipes. Pecan nuts, hazlenuts, macademia nuts and walnuts are good examples. This pecan ice cream smothered in caramel sauce is another example of how great ice cream can look.

Here is one of my own favorite nut ice cream recipes - butter pecan ice cream. Read more about ice cream and nuts.

Taste, Texture & Tone - Ice Cream Has It All!

Ice cream has to be one of the best foods in the world. There are so many colors, flavors and indeed textures to ice cream that it's virtually impossible to run out of ideas for ice cream recipes! Words cannot adequately describe what I'm trying to say here but my photographs can. Here are 2 fabulous examples of ice cream with vastly varying taste, texture and tone.

Marshmallow Ice Cream

Cherry & Pistachio Ice Cream

Big Ice Cream Cones!

Anyone who loves ice cream will enjoy an ice cream cone. It might be a straight strawberry ice cream cone or a vanilla ice cream cone with strawberry sauce swirled on top; it might even be a multiple scoop cone with lots of different flavors! The funny thing is that all of these ice cream cone variations can be seen in a larger than life way - as giant ice cream cones used for displays.

Whenever I'm out and about I keep my eyes open for these; you can usually find them outside ice cream kiosks and ice cream parlors.

On a recent trip to Zandvoort in the Netherlands I couldn't believe my eyes - within the space of a few hundred yards I counted 6 (six) beautiful giant ice cream cones and every one of them different! 4 were outside fast food kiosks that also served ice cream and the remaining 2 were outside Zandvoort's beloved ice cream parlors. Out came the camera of course. Of all the photos we took, my favorite is the polar bear with the 2 scoop ice cream cone who sits happily outside the San Remo Gelataria in Zandvoort (photo). He's holding a giant cone of chocolate ice cream, pistachio ice cream and whipped cream on top! Click here to see a other photos of ice cream in Zandvoort.

And you can't visit the San Remo and not eat an ice cream! We enjoyed some truly wonderful ice cream there - all homemade from what I'm told too. Some great photos and an inside scoop of a story (forgive the pun) to follow soon including a picture of one of the best ice cream spoons I've ever seen!

In fact there should be 2 or 3 more articles to follow shortly about ice cream in Zandvoort. I've just seen the photos we took and can't believe just how many ice cream associations there were on that trip. Maybe that's why I love the place so much!