Restaurant review: Fosselman's Ice Cream

As summer slowly draws to a close, I am drawn to my favorite ice cream spots to enjoy one last scoop before the summer is over.   It's not like I won't enjoy ice cream the other three seasons, but there's something about ice cream in the summer that makes it taste especially good.   And one of the best places to get some great ice cream is Fosselman's Ice Cream Parlor in Alhambra.

Ice cream is one of my favorite foods, and Fosselman's is one of those places that does it right.   Family owned since 1919, the current owners still produce a high quality product in a large variety of flavors.  They have all the regulars you'd expect, from chocolate chip to spumoni, but they also have several flavors unique to the store, such as chocolate covered strawberry, chocolate raspberry mousse and green apple sherbet.   They have a few exotic flavors as well, such as lychee nut and taro but fortunately these flavors are kept to a minimum.   Most of the flavors are the regular crowd pleasers, and they usually have about 46 flavors available on any given day. 

Best of all, Fosselman's has a full-service soda fountain with people who actually know how to use the equipment.   This is a big plus in my book.  I am a big fan of strawberry ice cream sodas, but unfortunately making a good ice cream soda seems to be a dying art.   No one seems to know the correct way to make it right.   You have to start with a "starter" then add the syrup, then the soda, then the ice cream...  you do it wrong, and either the syrup doesn't mix right or you get ice crystals on the ice cream.   Worse yet, you have to know the right amount of syrup to use, or the soda will be either too week or too strong.   I have been many places and tasted quite a few ice cream sodas, and I can say with some certainty that Fosselman's is one of the best.   They use a strawberry puree for the syrup that makes a perfect soda every time.   YUM.

Fosselman's great claim to fame is their designation as "The best place in the world for a milkshake."  This honor was bestowed upon them by several food critics reporting "The 50 Best Things to Eat in the World and Where to Eat Them" for Guardian Magazine.   I admit, they make a great milkshake, but I'm not sure I'd deem it the best.   Besides, there are so many other great reasons to come here.   From my own personal experience, I'd recommend the blueberry ice cream and the raspberry ice cream.   I mix them together to create a berry ice cream that is simply delicious. 

This is one of my two favorite places for ice cream.  In a coming post, I'll give you the second place.   Until then, enjoy a trip to Fosselman's!

Saturday Morning Cartoon: Puss 'n' Booty

Here's a classic Warner Bros. cartoon from 1943, Puss 'n' Booty, directed by Frank Tashlin.   I've mentioned several times before on this blog what a fan I am of Frank Tashlin's work, and here's a prime example of his directorial skills.  This was the last black-and white cartoon released by Warner Bros., and Tashlin makes use of the limited grays to create a real film noir feeling in this cartoon.   Parts of this cartoon were re-made five years later with Tweety and Sylvester in "I Taw a Putty Tat," but that's a cartoon for another time.   Enjoy!

Olympic Highlights

Just like every other reasonable person in the world, I've been fascinated with the summer Olympics.   Who can stand to miss the pagentry, the sportsmanship, the beach vollyball players....   not to mention the promos for the fine NBC shows we're missing while they are broadcasting the games.   For those of you who may have missed some of the 1,764 hours of broadcasting, I have found this three minute truncated version of the games, courtesy of Monty Python...