Kitchen Call

In New England,  a once-popular chain of sandwich shops has hit on hard times …  the thing is, this company started out, and made it’s mark, making ice cream … then came the sandwich shops with sundaes for and windows for take-out ice cream cones … and supermarkets carry half gallon tubs of their ice cream in the freezer section … their Forbidden Chocolate is better than any overpriced half pint with a European name, better than the loaded chocolate from those two bighearted partners in Vermont (although I really wish those guys would revive the Peach Cobbler ice cream that debuted and departed in only one summer and better than any I ever tasted in Georgia and New Jersey) …

anyway I think Friendly’s Forbidden Chocolate – they make lesser flavors of chocolate, too – is the best on the planet, according to my tastebuds …

But I can’t stop there … I need triple chocolate … so I head for the nearest Italian market and pick up package of chocolate pizzelle, those waffle-like crispy cookies … and a jar of Nutella, the Italian echo of peanutbutter, a hazelnut-and-cocoa spread popular as an after-school snack in Rome … Nutella is now produced in the USA, so most big supermarkets carry it at a decent rather than a decadent price …

So, I slightly thaw the ice cream, press a big spoonful of it between two pizzelle, and put it in the freezer … while it firms up, I warm some Nutella … then I put the ice cream sandwich on a plate and pour on the warm, melty Nutella … and eat it very, very slowly …