Pola Gelato Shop

New York spoils us with ice cream shops. One of several perks of the sweltering summer is regular after-work trips to one of the fancy ice cream spots nearby (Van Leeuwen and Ample Hills are our well-loved go-tos). So heading somewhere even more sweaty and sunny means ice cream's a daily necessity. Except in Mérida, ice cream's swapped for fruitier, more refreshing sorbet (when the fruit's this good, you'd be silly to choose anything else).

Pola Gelato was our first stop (after dropping our bags at our Airbnb) of the trip, and yes, there were many more trips back. Our favorites of the maybe too many that we tried? Mango and chili (it had a really spicy kick!), mamey (our new fave fruit), and pineapple & tamarind. And with those pretty tiled floors and a beautiful square two steps away, this little shop was an ice cream-loving photographer's heaven.

Pola Gelato Shop, 467D, Calle 55 x 62 y 64, centro, 97000 Mérida, Yuc., Mexico 

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Salt and Straw

We came home from a long weekend in Portland less than a month ago. After a few weeks back in NYC it feels like a lifetime ago. They were four very happy days.

Portland is beautifully different from New York: kids play in the street, adults leave work at five, stunning gardens spill onto the road, everyone smiles, people say hello, and you can breathe and laugh and not be looked at as if there's something wrong with you. 

However, it turns out we can't quite shake our New York spirit: we decided to spend a good 30 minutes of this mini break in a New York-style line for ice cream. However, the experience inside — both the ice cream and the service, made it totally worth it.

Salt and Straw has a few locations throughout the city (as well as in LA and SF), and on the hot, sunny weekend we were visiting, they all had a line out the door the entire time. A line of locals and tourists waited patiently, helping each other out to preempt what their order was going to be, and discussing the top flavor combination tips.

When you finally reach the front, an ice cream aficionado will talk you through all the options. We had a student from Johns Hopkins university who greeted us, talked to us about our background, family history, life, trip to Portland, and more, before insisting that we sample every flavor. Only then were we allowed to make a decision. I don't mean to sound negative. This was wonderful. We're simply not used to this obsession with making sure you're happy and getting what you want from a girl who I think could quite possibly be the next President. 

After a long tasting, we settled on different combinations. We found a shaded seat outside to perch on and enjoy the creamy chocolate gooey brownie, cinnamon snickerdoodle, honey and lavender, sea salt with caramel ribbons, and other fab combinations, all balanced in a freshly made waffle cone. And of course this was accompanied by a man and his guitar. This is Portland after all.

Salt and Straw, locations throughout Portland. 

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Moo Moo's Creamery, Cold Spring

Sunday was a perfect day. Fall has arrived in New York. The air is crisp, the skies are blue, there's a light breeze, the humidity has disappeared, and the leaves are gradually, gradually darkening, yellowing, and falling to the ground. In other words, this was the perfect day to head upstate for a hike. So at 8.30am on a Sunday morning with our bags filled with homemade lunch and plenty of water, we hopped on a train at Grand Central (sadly, no Serena van der Woodsen sightings this time) and headed up along the Hudson river until we reached Breakneck Ridge. 

Unsurprisingly, this popular hike was more than a little busy on this dreamy day, so we scrambled harder and faster than everyone else up the sheer cliff face that makes up Breakneck Ridge, and kept going up and up, over the rocks, higher and higher above the river, until we'd lost the crowds, had reached the summit, and were seemingly on top of the world. All we could see around us were miles and miles of dense forest, a wide, bending river, and bright blue skies.

Not ones to be sensible when it comes to walking/running/exercising/taking the easy route in life generally, this one climb wasn't enough. So we followed the path down through the trees and then wound our way up to the summit of Bull Hill, stopping briefly for lunch looking out over the vast canopy of trees, before putting our knees and ankles to the test as we clambered down until we finally arrived in Cold Spring. After a well-earned drink at Cold Spring Depot our tummies were rumbling, so we went on a hunt for ice cream. Thankfully, Moo Moo's Creamery wasn't too many steps away. 

The line winding outside the door of this shop in this quiet, idyllic town was a good sign. After walking for many, many hours, spending five minutes waiting in line, admiring the genuinely ginormous ice creams that all the smiling customers were walking out the door with, wasn't too hard. We finally ordered a single scoop each (B was adamant he didn't want a cone, and I was adamant I did, so no sharing was going to happen): golden oreo for me and maple walnut for B. This single scoop (which was actually multiple scoops, but apparently qualifies here as a single scoop) of ice cream was genuinely the biggest ice cream I've ever been given. Thankfully, the top secret family recipe, and fabulous flavors meant eating it, while we sat watching the sun sparkle on the river, was no challenge. 

Moo Moo's is an amazing little spot, especially after a super long hike. Their ice cream is all homemade, made fresh daily, and their are 16 flavors available every day. The cow print covering the shop and its interior are just an extra reason to smile. Apparently the ice cream store was opened by a guy called Alexi, who graduated from Syracuse University, started training to be an accountant, realized he hated being an accountant, and decided ice cream would make a better career choice. He made the right decision. I hope he knows that. If you're ever up in Cold Spring, and in need of a post-hike treat, don't miss out on the opportunity to eat an ice cream as tall as the mountain you just climbed.

Moo Moo's Creamery, 32 West St, Cold Spring, NY 10516

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Van Leeuwen Ice Cream

I have no idea how I have been living in my basement Brooklyn apartment for over a year now, and I haven’t told you all about one of the best things about it. There’s no doubt that when we were cluelessly walking the streets of Brooklyn last August, searching for an apartment, our decision to settle on the one we did was largely due to its insane proximity to both Blue Bottle Coffee, and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream. Since moving in last September we have undoubtedly made the most (well the most that our budget will allow) of our two nearby food hot spots.

Van Leeuwen began, as all hipster New York food companies seem to do, as a food truck roaming the streets of Brooklyn, back in 2008. This business has now become what they describe as a ‘mini empire’ of bricks and mortar ice cream shops (with an emphasis on exposed bricks, because, well, Brooklyn), in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and even all the way over in LA. But unlike many food businesses who expand so far, the quality of these ice creams is still tip top. And although I wasn’t here in 2008 to taste the food truck original, the product can’t have deteriorated at all, because the product today is still perfection.

Unlike the wonderfully over the top, ingredient-stuffed, creative, wacky flavors found at our other favorite ice cream stop, Ample Hills, Van Leeuwen focuses on quality and simplicity. Their permanent menu (the specials, which change almost daily, are often slightly more bonkers, ranging from fluffer nutter, to matcha, to s’mores, to vegan boysenberry shortcake) focuses on the classics, in both dairy-full and vegan, dairy-free versions. Chocolate, mint chip, ginger, vanilla, salted caramel, cookie dough, pistachio, and strawberry are available year round, and we’ve pretty much tried them all. And we are more than happy to repeatedly try them all at least once a week, for the entire year, every year. Obviously in the winter the scoops will need to be topped with a splodge of hot chocolate fudge sauce.

I’m normally fairly skeptical of vegan-takes on totally non-vegan food products, but Van Leeuwen’s ice cream has totally destroyed that view. They’ve not got their vegan ice cream to its top ice cream spot status by just swapping the regular milk and cream for a soy equivalent. Instead they’ve actually thought and tested and carefully considered how to go about making vegan ice cream which tastes wonderful, has a beautiful texture, and doesn't make you feel ill. And in my opinion, many of their vegan ice creams are even better than the non-vegan ones.  Creamy, silky coconut milk seems to create a perfect ice cream base, especially when it’s dotted with vegan cookie dough, and eaten alongside a scoop of totally non-vegan spicy ginger ice cream. Hopefully this all goes some way to explain why Van Leeuwen is a weekly (and in the heat of summer, daily) splurge we religiously treat ourselves to.

Van Leeuwen, 81 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 

P.S. Most of their locations are open from seven in the morning until midnight. It’s never too early or late for ice cream.

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Oddfellows Ice Cream Co.

As those of you who follow along with my life on Instagram you'll be well aware of my love of ice cream. And since arriving in New York 51 weeks ago, I have undoubtedly eaten more ice cream than in the rest of my life put together. This city has made ice cream a key life source for me, and, with this endless hot summer, ice cream adventures are a favorite weekend activity. We do our best to venture past our hyper local and totally superlative Van Leeuwen, and the slightly less local but totally wonderfully fun and bonkers Ample Hills. So, in the midst of the heat bubble, we dipped into Oddfellows, to get a taste of another of New York's top ice creams.

This Oddfellows store consists of red stripes, bar stools, and the perfect balance of old school kitsch and Brooklyn hipster. With flavors ranging from pink lemonade sorbet, to miso cherry, to coffee crunch, these ice creams are exciting enough to intrigue you, but not so fancy and mixed up that you're fairly terrified about trying them.

We took a seat in the satisfyingly air conditioned, stripy room, and our overflowing cup of blueberry buttermilk and strawberry olive oil rapidly disappeared We managed to restrain ourselves from ordering more and forced our satisfied tummies back out into the sweltering heat. Next stop: Oddfellows' Manhattan outlet, which serves exclusively ice cream sandwiches. You've been warned.

Oddfellows Ice Cream Co, 175 Kent Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11249

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Magic Fountain, Long Island

At first glance, Magic Fountain looks like a terrible road side ice cream stop, which will serve sickly sweet, overly processed ice cream. The next time you drive past you might read the sign and see that it lists flavors like avocado, vegan pomberri, and kulfi, and realize that this may not be your average, suburban ice cream parlor after all. The next next time you drive past, it's late, you've been out for a swanky dinner, you skipped dessert, and all of a sudden, there is nothing you want more in the world than a giant waffle cone piled high with peanut butter fudge and s'mores ice cream.  

So that's what we did. After a fancy dinner at North Fork Table & Inn, Papa missed the turning back to our Airbnb, and we rather fortunately ended up on Magic Fountain's front steps. Obviously, we make the most of the wrong turn and go inside to order our waffle cone filled with peanut butter fudge and s'mores ice cream. We were handed an ice cream as big as my head, and ate it sitting on the bench outside, in front of the hilarious ice cream wall painting, racing the summer heat to devour our sweet, salty, nutty, creamy dessert before it all melted onto the sidewalk. 

It turns out, thanks to some post-visit research, that Magic Fountain is considered to be the best ice cream on the North Fork, according to various not-always-trustworthy websites. I can vouch for its magical tastiness.

Magic Fountain, 9825 Main Road, Mattituck, NY 11952

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