Apologies: new posts and updates and so on will probably be intermittent for the next while, due to other writing a.k.a. Ye Booke. Summer: time to enjoy some ice-cream. Yes, it’s medieval and pre-medieval. OK, not everywhere, but in civilized parts of the world with civilizedly-warm summers. And I’ve had the good fortune to live and otherwise spend time in places that featured great ice-cream, albeit not always as local as those above: Belgium, too many to mention, and joys of the ubiquitous Dame Blanche; moving to the UK when, fortuitously, Häagen-Dazs did too; dark chocolate sorbet at Efe’s, Cambridge (alas, removed from menu & otherwise decline witnessed in 2003, cannot vouch for them now); moving to Manchester when Ben & Jerry’s launched internationally; early days in New Jersey featured Godiva dark chocolate ice-cream, then the Glorious Advent of the Spoon. One sad exception: Dublin was sadly lacking on the luxuriantly chocolatey or innovatively seasonal fronts; except for that most exceptional of places, Cafe Paradiso in Cork (not Dublin, so can it count?); albeit some slight consolation from Botticelli, Mauds, and the childhood classic Milk Lolly. I would of course be delighted to be proven wrong about Dublin …

So here’s some nice ice-cream, c/o

• Gelateria Di Piazza, San Gimignano, purportedly best in the entire known universe ever
• Salt Spring Gelato here in BC, makers of sublime sorbets and the Chocolate Bliss which is one of the best chocolate ice-creams I’ve had anywhere
• and the Bent Spoon, Princeton NJ, contenders for the obrienaternal special award for best ice-cream in the world, ever (and The Authorities Concur).

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