In this world of constant change and eternal craving for something new, gelato and ice cream makers are keeping things interesting for us. A quick scan of the Internet reveals that almost every unthinkable flavour has been experimented with in the frozen dessert world.
We all know that everything tastes better with bacon and of course more than a few big commercial ice cream and gelato producers have had some success with bacon or prosciutto.
Whistler has a generous selection of places serving up both products and one of the edgier providers of warm weather comfort foods is Lucia Gelato. The RCMP is short for Real Canadian Maple Pecan and this flavour features real Canadian maple syrup along with candied pecans.
"It will make you want to lock yourself up so you don't have to share with anyone," boasts the Lucia Gelato website.
Still with the law and order theme, Lucia Gelato also has what it calls The DON. This gelato flavour is described as a criminal combination of dark cherries, pure almond and dark chocolate chunks. It is described as larger than life, just like the Italian mobsters who inspired the name.
While Lucia Gelato takes inspiration from Italy, the Japanese appear to be the leaders in cooking up the most bizarre flavours out there. From wasabi to cactus and octopus or fish, the Japanese are really brave when it comes to capturing unlikely flavours in creamy frozen batches.
Bocca Gelato is now in operation with flavours that are far safer than some of the extreme examples from Japan. Each summer La Bocca converts part of the dining room into a gelateria. The gelato is made fresh in the restaurant along with the waffle cones that go under the gelato.
Hatley Gelato Scoops and Cows have some interesting name for their offerings of relatively common flavours. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Rogers' Chocolates also offer ice cream but they stick to the traditional flavours along with Dairy Queen.
Zachary and Jeremy Fradette-Roy of Ottawa both said chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream is their favourite ice cream flavour. The brothers were sharing a cookie dough Blizzard on Sunday at Whistler Olympic Plaza. Clearly they found their ice cream bliss and it didn't have any wasabi flavouring or hints of cactus.
Some of the more adventurous creameries have produced ice cream or gelato flavours using risky ingredients like garlic, avocado, chili, sweet potato or horsemeat. Yes, as horrific as it might sound, a Japanese company crossed that line and put horsemeat into ice cream.
Closer to home, Island Farms offers Sea Salt Caramel ice cream along with Green Tea ice cream.
In these, the hottest days of the year, a perfect way to beat the heat is to put a few scoops of a favoured ice cream onto a cone. Whether good old fashioned vanilla, chocolate chip cookie dough or fish flavoured ice cream crowns the cone, this is a perfect recipe for delivering ten minutes of summer bliss in a shady spot.
