It’s hard work driving around sampling ice cream and gelato. You’ve got to get in and out of the car, your fingers get sticky, those spoons are really small… oh, who am I kidding, it’s not hard at all.

Freelance writer Katherine Curry and I met up to check out a couple of ice cream spots in the area. You may remember the last time Katherine and I did something like this, I made a short video of it.  No video or hot dogs this time around — just a few scoops of the cold, creamy stuff.

First stop was at Metro Desserts in Scarsdale, where they sell both gelato and ice cream.

I’ll be honest, based on looks alone, the gelato didn’t make a great first impression. We both noticed that it appeared goopy and melted.  I also saw condensation and water droplets on the glass, so possibly there’d been a problem with the temperature of the refrigerator.

The mixed berry gelato (purple at the bottom) appeared the least melted, and it sounded good anyway, so that’s what I got.

Katherine picked up a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of I believe chocolate chip cookie dough.

The gelato comes with a crispy wafer, a nice touch.

The mixed berry was smooth and not too sweet, if a bit subtle in flavor.  There were also whole berries in there (nice), but they were frozen and icy (not so nice), and the contrasting crunch kind of threw me off.

Our second stop was at El Sabor de Michoacan, a Mexican ice cream shop in New Rochelle.

El Sabor is also a paleteria, meaning they sell paletas, the Latin American ice pop, often made with fresh fruit.  I noticed one of the flavors was gazpacho… oof, cold soup on a stick, that’d be my nightmare paleta.

Unique flavors among the ice cream as well.  Pine nut caught our eye, as did mamey (a tropical fruit) and tequila.  Tequila ice cream?  Do we need to be carded for this?

Here’s a scoop of pine nut on the bottom, and a scoop of mamey on top.

I’m wondering if the pine nut was mislabeled, because neither of us tasted any hint of pine nut — nor was there a crunch.

“Maybe the words didn’t translate correctly,” Katherine noted.

I liked the mamey better. Katherine thought it tasted like coconut. I didn’t pick up on that — not sure how to describe the taste, actually.  But, according to Slow Food USA, the flavor of mamey is “A combination of sweet potato and pumpkin with undertones of almond, chocolate, honey, and vanilla.”  So, there you go.

And here’s the tequila ice cream.

When you eat rum raisin ice cream, you usually get the flavor of the rum, but not the alcohol.  Not here — that tequila was strong. Katherine and I joked how ridiculous it would be if we got drunk off it and had to explain to a cop, “No officer, I wasn’t drinking, I was only eating ice cream.”

Still haven’t decided if I liked it or not, but it was worth a try.

Can’t say we were blown away by anything on this expedition, but it’s always fun to see what’s out there.  Do you have a favorite ice cream/gelato spot?

Metro Desserts
8 Palmer Ave.
Scarsdale, NY
914-723-0275

El Sabor de Michoacan
574 North Ave.
New Rochelle, NY
914-235-2781