My mind works in strange ways. After reading today’s Best Ice Cream in New England post on Serious Eats (and a user comment about frozen custard) I immediately thought about the frozen custard of my hometown, Rochester NY. Spending the first 18 years of my life in Rochester, I ate plenty chocolate frozen custard from Abbott’s .

Even now when I go home to visit there’s only one flavor for me–chocolate with chocolate sprinkles. But because of the softer consistency, I always eat it out of cup and not a cone. It just melts too fast, especially in the hot, humid summers of upstate New York. For those of you who have never tasted custard, it’s creamier and denser than ice cream with an almost velvet texture. Also, it’s not served straight from the machine in the manner of soft serve. Rather the custard continuously flows out of the machine and is deposited into a holding bowl, and is then scooped into your cone or dish. By the time it hits your tongue it’s slightly warmer than your average ice cream, meaning you taste more of the flavor.

Now that I’m even hungrier than when I started this post, my mind wanders to another Rochester tradition–Zweigle’s white hot dogs. Made with beef, pork and veal it has the flavor of a mild bratwurst combined with the fine texture of a hot dog. My favorite is the natural casing white hot dog. When cooked on the grill the skin splits slightly and you experience a crisp ‘snap’ when you bite into it.

There are other Rochester foods that I crave from time to time. But I’ll wait and blog about those next time I return for a visit.

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I had never heard of a quahog (KO-hog) until I moved to Providence in 2001, but quickly discovered that this large clam was on quite a few menus across the state.

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Has anyone taken one of these tours/vacations? I read an article in the NYT last year about a chef in Fez, Morocco that provides cooking classes for tourists. I’d really like to go, this year if possible for some cooking, eating and photo taking.

I’ve been brushing up on my French!

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I had anticipated a spa weekend of sorts while we were in Miami last week, but instead I gravitated towards fried.

Wolfie’s is located down the street from our hotel, so we visited often for the potato pancakes and pickles:

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A quick day trip to NY for a meeting meant I only had time for one meal. I decided to finally stop at Pomme Frites. Just frites sauce on mine. They were quite tasty and perfect, I only wish I was hungrier. But I had a super-early meeting and my body never really woke up. I could barely eat half the cone!

On my next NY trip I’ll bring my appetite and get through the entire cone.

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