This too is Yonkers–By Eric Schoen
Memorial Day is here! And so begins the start of summer. Hopefully we have bid farewell to the cold rainy weather we have been experiencing and the sunshine will soon warm us up. Unless of course you are in Colorado where ski lodges are re-opening to take advantage of last minute snow.
When it snows and rains and it is cold when it is not supposed to be, how can we cry ‘global warming?’ The weather is totally out of our control and as I said last week, Que Sera Sera. What will be will be!
So are you a soft serve or hard ice cream fan? Growing up in Yonkers I became a fan of Carvel’s soft serve ice cream, the ice cream that comes twirling out of those big metal machines. Tom Carvel’s truck broke down on Central Avenue in Hartsdale, so he pulled to the side of the road and started selling the melting ice cream.
People would travel from all over the world to learn the business of making and selling Carvel Ice Cream at the Carvel College of Ice Cream Knowledge at the Carvel Hotel on Tuckahoe Road at the intersection with the New York State Thruway (the current Royal Regency Hotel.) The city of Yonkers played a big role in the growth of Tom Carvel’s business with headquarters located in the city of Gracious Living for many years.
We would see Tom Carvel in his Cadillac (I think it was white-could the white have symbolized vanilla custard?) with the convertible down smiling mustache and all through the streets of Yonkers. His foundation has been very good to a lot of the charitable agencies in Yonkers and we are grateful for their generosity.
Wouldn’t it be nice if they made a machine that gave out an exact size portion of soft serve to every customer. How many times did you think your cone had too little or too much ice cream on it? Sometimes it would be the exact amount, always creamy and delicious.
They key to soft serve dispensing I would learn on a tour of the Carvel College is to make sure that the bottom of the cone (the part of the cake cone with the crisscross lines) was full with ice cream to serve as a foundation for the rising twirl of ice cream above. This was particularly critical when you were preparing a brown bonnet, basically encasing the cone in a chocolate hard shell. How many times have you seen clerks dip the custard cake cone in the brown bonnet chocolate hard shell mixture and all the custard ended up in the brown bonnet mix off the cake cone?
A solid bottom base in the cake cone is also critical to proper addition of sprinkles or other items like chocolate chips or nuts. Again, how often have you seen a vanilla soft serve cone twirled in sprinkles or other add ons disengage from its core base cone because the ice cream was not properly grounded in the base of the cake cone.
Let’s be clear. If the Carvel employee is holding up the cake custard filled cone and spooning the sprinkles on that is cheating. That person needs to learn how to build a strong firm base on the cone. And to be honest, don’t you look forward to watching the Carvel Employee turn the soft ice cream cone in the vat of sprinkles to coat it? Spooning the sprinkles on just doesn’t cut the mustard.
Rainbow sprinkles or chocolate sprinkles? I was always a rainbow sprinkles kind of guy. And do you lick the sprinkles off the cone before you get to the core center of the custard. Are you licking it because you enjoy doing it or because in the summer with .heat the cone is dripping and you don’t want sprinkles to fall on the napkin, floor or perish the thought on your clothing. How many times has that happened to you?
Some people put sprinkles on hard ice cream cones but for some reason that looks out of place. Sprinkles and chopped nuts nuts belong on soft serve ice cream cones. Larger items like cookie pieces, Reese’s pieces and Oreo cookie chunks and other larger pieces are best ‘mixed in’ to the hard ice cream. There’s millions of places that will gladly do it for you.
Lastly we have to discuss cones. Sugar cones including waffle cones are used for hard ice cream and cake cones are used for soft ice cream. it really looks awkward if you use the wrong cone with the wrong kind of ice cream.
Sadly to afford a Carvel Ice cream cone ones needs to take out a mortgage. I’ll never forget being in Connecticut and having sticker shock when I learned a soft serve cone with sprinkles was over $5 at a local store that was not even a Carvel franchisee.
McDonalds soft serve comes close in deliciousness to a Carvel franchise cone. And at most locations it is only $1. True bargain! The only thing to make sure is that your are getting the correct portion. If the McDonalds clerk is being skimpy. Call for a manager to give you the correct serving of soft serve on your cone. Sadly McDonalds employees never attended Tom Carvel’s college and usually get on the job training.
No matter how you slice up your Fudgy the Whale, perfect party cake for all occasions or Cookie Puss, I hope we have plenty of warm days to enjoy delicious ice cream this summer!
Hot Dogs
My perfect hot dog is a grilled Nathan’s hot dog on a toasted bun topped with spicy mustard and sauerkraut. Or replace the mustard and sauerkraut with onions or cheese wiz. I guess you can chalk that up to the fact that outside of Coney Island, Nathan’s biggest restaurant Was on Central Avenue in Yonkers. Though the big restaurant is gone, it’s replacement still serves grilled frankfurters with serve yourself mustard, sauerkraut and onions. Big juicy crisp French fries. And Orangeade. Franks on a plate, no bun with mustard, sauerkraut and/or onions barely make the cut on foods I can eat on my diet.
Interesting thought. Between Ice Cream and Hot Dogs Yonkers sure has its place in the history book of summer foods!
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen and Dan Murphy on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM, go to WVOX.com and click the arrow to listen to the live stream or download the WVOX app from the App Store free of charge.
