euroenvy

Also gelato is very low sugar that leaves an aftertaste and it only lasts a week vs the ice cream which can be kept for months. You can use fresh eggs if you know someone with chichens.
The best I ever had was Vivoli's caramel pear and my son picked it because there was just a little left...smart move! now thats how we pick our flavors...

Christina

I would sort of generically refer to gelato as "ice cream", also, even though different ingredients. I think people call it gelato to get into the mood. Ice cream has widely differing recipes, also, after all.

I like both and do like gelato for a change because it is lighter so tastes "cleaner" in a way than those with more fat. That was my understanding, but I don't know if that's always true as I've seen recipes called "authentic gelato" that had cream in them, and others says it's only in Sicily where it is generally not used. I've also read numerous times that it was the proportion, not that gelato absolutely did not have cream. It's just that gelato has much less cream in proportion to milk than ice cream.

I really do not think that gelato is very low sugar, as euroenvy says. None of these desserts are low sugar.

I don't know about the eggs, I thought it didn't have eggs. I don't think eggs belong in any ice cream, myself, and generally won't eat ice cream with eggs in it because I don't like it. I buy American ice cream all the time that doesn't have eggs in it (Breyers where I live).

This article on About.com claims some Italian gastronome says that gelato can have any of these things (eggs or not, cream or not), so it sounds like it isn't really that distinct, after all (according to him).
http://italianfood.about.com/library/rec/blr0115.htm

elaine

I notice the references to foie gras and that we're not just calling it goose liver.

ira

>Senti, come se dice "Buon Appetito" in Inglese?<

"There ya go"

cmt

Not all foie gras is goose, and not all goose liver is gras, so the terms are not interchangeable.

elaine

ol, just fowl liver

ira

>No-one writes comparing the succulence of beef in different regions. <

If one has had beef in Chicago, Kansas or Texas, there is no reason to discuss beef in Europe.

Veal is another thing.

>Or seafood. Or mushrooms. Or foie gras.<

IIRC, a number of posters have commented on the seafood in various countries of Europe.

I never go to Paris without having oysters and St Jacques (not on the same plate).

Many of us have praised Porcini and Cepes and foie gras, whether goose or duck.

.Very little discussion of wine.<
You want Americans to talk about wine?

>No discussion of any other beverage except for the surprising interest in limoncello.<

Well, there have been folks who have discussed the comparable merits of Coke in Europe and the US.



As for beef in Europe

Patrick

euroenvy, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but if you choose your flavors by the one with little left because you think they sell more, you could be absolutely backwards. Maybe the others are full because they have to replace them more often like a couple times a day, and that carmel pear thing has been sitting there gradually being whittled down for the past week?

Marilyn

Ha, Patrick, that was my thought EXACTLY. I pick my flavors by what sounds good to me, and when in doubt, there's always nocciola (?sp). That carmel pear thing sounds awfully good, however.

ssachida

metellus,

>The best I had in Italy was a limoncello gelato at a place near the Parthenon.<

Surely, you mean the Pantheon? Or did they actually dig up the Parthenon and move it to Italy?

TexasAggie

Amarena (amarenata) - cherry... my favorite flavor of gelato is just HEAVENLY!!! 35 days and counting until I get my next taste...

ira

stracciatella

seetheworld

Thanks a lot, folks . All of this gelato talk led me to eat half a pint of Cherry Garcia frozen yogurt today I thought a few spoons would soothe my laryngitis. All I have now are regrets

euroenvy

You could be right patrick but it was flying out of the tin when we were there..and we always get three flavors in our cup anyway

caroline_edinburgh

Well, I've read all your replies, & I still maintain that 'gelato' is the Italian for ice cream and 'ice cream' is the English for ice cream. I have had fantastic ice cream on my c.13 visits to Italy but would never refer to 'going for a gelato' - it just sounds pretentious to me.

Maybe it is a UK vs. US difference.

Ice cream in the UK can be made many ways - with/without cream/eggs, whatever - so it's not a question of the recipe. The worst types contain no dairy ingredients at all, just vegetable fats - but are still called ice cream. Some (but not all) of the best are made by the descendents of Italian immigrants, especially here in Scotland, and I would have thought that would also be the case in the US.

Incidentally I have also been on the tour of the excavations under St Peter's.

Kate

Don't worry Caroline, I'm still with you. I too put it down to a cutlural difference - the Americans on this board seem to have a MUCH tighter definition of ice cream than we do.

And yes, I have tried the Italian version, considering I visit Italy about 6-8 times a year (and am buying a 2nd home there).

My Italian uncle (by marriage) ran the family ice cream firm in Suffolk, and I never heard him say the word gelato, although he would bang on and on about "italian ice cream" being the best in the world...

ira

>..he would bang on and on about "italian ice cream" being the best in the world...<

I agree that the Italian frozen milk confection, known as gelato, is superior to frozen cream confections, known as ice cream.

cova

Hi Kate and Caroline,
letīs say it is an american vs european thing. For us in Spain, gelato is "helado" or ice cream. You have different kinds, but at the end all of them are ice cream.

And I have eaten my fair share of magnificent ice cream ( in places like Laredo in Cantabria or Vienna or Lucca or my hometown, Bilbao). In case someone wanders into Laredo, go to La Valenciana for a few great flavours ( blackberry, chocolate and orange, truffle and cinammon milk, among them).

BTW, a young italian guy opened last year an ice cream place near my home in Bilbao, and he calls its products "italian ice cream". He prepares quite imaginative things, such as red wine ice cream, and was in charge this year of serving the ice cream at the Contemporary Art Fair, ARCO, in Madrid.

Rgds, Cova

Kate

red wine ice cream! Now THAT's my kind of frozen dairy based dessert...

SeaUrchin

I happen to love the ice cream in Mexico. I order it the way they do, the same with enchiladas, I don't say tortilla wrapped around cheese with a sauce poured over it, lol.

When in Rome......