la.foodblogging

Me: “Hey, I know this great Mom and Pop ice cream place.”
Friend: “Umm, you mean this one? Carvel?”
Me: “Yeah! I ran across it the other day.”
Friend: “Dude… Carvel’s a huge chain on the East Coast…”
Me: “Uh…. Oh… … … …”

And so failed my distinction of knowing a secret, hidden-away gem of an ice cream shop. However, given how delicious the ice cream is, I quickly overcame my disappointment. In all my visits, I have never experienced that icy taste you get when the ice cream gets old or if it is just plain bad. It is firm enough such that each scoop holds its form in your mouth as it melts creating a delicious creamy sensation.

Aside from the texture, the flavors are what really separate Carvel from the other ice cream shops I’ve been too. Each flavor holds the pure essence of what I imagine each flavor to be. The pistachio (my personal favorite) has that sweet artificial-like taste yet also contains more pistachio nuts than I’m accustomed to. However, what really draws me to Carvel are the cake-batter and black-forest cake flavors. The cake-batter is perfectly well-done. It’s not so sweet that you can’t eat more than four scoops. However, it still manages to present the full essence of cake-batter in each bite. This balance is something I’ve not found in some time. The black-forest comes with loads of cherrys and perfectly replicates the flavor of the cake.

Being a bit of an ice cream fanatic (I routinely eat two containers of ice cream in three weeks), I’ve been disappointed with the non-supermarkets offerings that LA has. Baskin Robbins isn’t creamy enough for me and sometimes I prefer simple scoops of ice cream as opposed to the marble slab offered by Coldstone. So even though Carvel is a national chain, it still has that mom and pop feel (at least at the one on Santa Monica Blvd.). The manager is always very friendly and loves to see you enjoy the ice cream, which is what its all about.

By Jeff (see more of his posts).