It is a tradition that when I visit my friends in Cambridge, we all go to Christina’s Homemade Ice Cream, which, in my view, is the best place in America to get the stuff. Not only is it truly homemade on the premises, but it’s fantastic and creamy AND comes in a gazillion flavors. They had 45 flavors of ice cream yesterday and additional flavors of sorbet.
When you see the selection below, you’ll see the difficulty of choosing a flavor. This time I had a lot of trouble, as they had my favorite flavor (burnt sugar, which is ethereal) but there was so much more!
Some photos:
The entrance, same as in years past:
A panorama of the inside (click to enlarge), which also never changes. (There is only one store.) Betsy can be seen eating at the left side, while the ice cream selection is on the striped board to the right:
Below: the Big Board (click to read)! There were 45 flavors yesterday. Some of the ones I considered ordering included mango, burnt sugar (the best!), sweet cream (yes, that’s what you taste), ginger, ginger molasses, chocolate lavender, chocolate banana, malted vanilla, banana cinnamon, dulce de leche, chocolate Chinese five spice, and orange pineapple. In truth, I would want them all!
Please put in the comments which ones you’d order (maximum three flavors). You can have them in either a cone or a dish, but cones are drippy and it was hot yesterday. Plus my theory is that you get more if you get it in a dish.
Tim always gets the same thing: mint chocolate chip, and I always razz him about it. And he gets only one scoop, even when I’m paying!
Betsy got two scoops of salted caramel; I consider it a great shame not get only one flavor if you get two scoops, but at least it was an excellent choice of flavor:
My haul: three scoops. From nine o’clock clockwise: sorghum ginger snap, green tea, and adzuki bean. The sorghum ginger snap was just as you might expect: a superb Indian Pudding of ice cream. And when I get green tea, I always get adzuki bean, as it makes a nice Japanese combination of flavors. They were all terrific, though I much mourned the absence of burnt sugar. If you go to Cambridge, you must go to Christina’s and get that flavor, which they always have.
Me and my haul. I’m a happy complacent man! (For a lugubrious Jew, complacency is the highest state of being.)
When you go to Christina’s and order burnt sugar ice cream, tell them that Jerry sent you. They’ll have no idea what you’re talking about.
I can smell – and hear – that interior panorama from here
I’ll take pistachio and … Indian pudding you say? Then sorghum ginger, dish. Thank$, much obliged.
…
And the … khulfi … intrigued to get those altogether…
That ginger-molasses sounds very interesting. I think I would order that as one of my scoops if I were there.
Burnt sugar, fresh mint and Guatemalan coffee.
Not sure my choices go that well together….
It all looks so good right now and it’s 8:45 am here on west coast!
Somebody at Christina’s is a big fan of the Reds!
My daughter discovered a place that does homemade ice-cream that’s not too far from here (although with the way everything is cut up around here by water courses, it’s probably twice as far by car as it would be to walk it, if you could). They always have fantastic flavors, and I always get two scoops, mixed.
Chocolate, burnt sugar, coconut butterfinger.
Jerry’s dish looks like fairly gesundtna scoops. Normally I would get only one scoop, but as a special travel entertainment and because I would be walking there, I would surely splurge on three scoops.
Yep, the scoops are big.
I wish I could order 2 scoops and sample 4 half-scoops of different flavors.
What a selection!
Assuming Christina’s had vegan versions, I would order burnt sugar (because PCCE likes it), cinnamon, then chocolate lavender.
No Grapefruit flavour?
I’d love to try burnt sugar, and ginger, and maybe ginger molasses. All are flavors new to me.
I’d get sweet cream and sorghum ginger in a cup. If they had sweet rhubarb I’d go for 3 scoops 🙂
Oy!!!!
Ginger Molasses, ginger molasses and ginger molasses
That’s quite an emphatic preference!
The scoops are gi-normous! I’m very interested in dulce de leche, Bailey’s Irish cream and chocolate lavender, but I don’t think I’d put them all together. Figuring out which flavors would be compatible takes the decision-making process to another level. I’m not sure I can do that! You would have to help me.
When I was a child my favorite flavor was chocolate chip mint. I thought I was quite daring! What I would choose now: something with the word “chocolate” in it.
Sweet Cream please. I’ve never been there. Why have I never been there? Did they exist between 1978 and 1983? We used to go to Emack and Bolio’s in Harvard Square back then. Cambridginians really love their ice cream, even in the middle of the winter!
My favorite of all ice cream flavors? Lavender! Straight lavender, not chocolate lavender. Green Tea is awesome, too.
We don’t keep ice cream in the house—not even the wonderful Tillamook brand—as it wouldn’t survive for long. My 89-year-old mother, who still lives on her own and walks 1.5 miles per day, has a dish of ice cream every night. It’s her secret to longevity.
“The years in your life matter less than the life in your years.”
My mother has both! Longevity and ice cream.
What tasty photos. I’d go with:
Bailey’s Irish Cream
Peach
Burnt Sugar
Your view of the Gaza peace plan would be appreciated (at least by me)
Mmmm.
Chocolate lavender, burnt sugar, ginger molasses.
Or maybe I’d have two chocolate lavenders. That sounds delish.
I would order one of the variants of coffee and then, in addition, pistachio. I’m struck by the absence of what would be a very standard flavor in many European countries, namely hazelnut.
I think it’s really mean of you to limit us to only three scoops. But with that off my chest, here’s my order:
Chocolate chip (plain, NOT mint)
Black Sesame. It’s a risky choice, but I love sesame seeds
Salted caramel
It’s weird how salt tastes so good in sweet things. I’ve taken to doubling the amount of salt called for in recipes for things like brownies. I also use the kind of salt with big flakes that don’t fully melt into the recipes, so that I get a tiny hit of salt with every bite.
In the same order as the board: Orca, Capybara, and Black Desdemona.
(Maybe I should have cleaned my glasses first.)
What a fun post!
I have to get something novel:
Coffee Toffee
Blue Flower Earl Grey
Chocolate Chinese 5 Spice
For the most surprising, delightful flavors see
https://humphryslocombe.com/pages/flavors
in San Francisco
One of the least exotic is “Secret Breakfast”,
corn flakes in milk with Bourbon flavor. It is non-alcoholic.
I made a new ice cream flavour this summer, and it was smashing. Used fresh blackcurrants and star anise flavouring to make kind of licorice-blackcurrant. Looking forward to next year’s crop of blackcurrants.
Ginger Cappuccino – I think I know her 🙂
The best dessert I have ever had was a wavy bowl made of toasted sesame seeds and honey (think Bit-O-Honey if you ever had that candy) with large scoops of homemade ginger and coconut ice cream, all drizzled with ribbons of Belgian chocolate.
That combination of ginger and coconut ice cream somehow kept refreshing the palate. The last bite was just as good as the first. So, ginger, coconut, and sesame for me. With chocolate sauce, if they had it.