EuroLIfe: Day 229

It's been a few days since I've written anything about desserts, so it seemed about time to do so. Late this afternoon, Michael and I went out to our favorite ice cream shop to sit in the sun and play Scrabble while eating delicious ice cream. (This is one of the finer, though rarely exercised privileges of being an adult--eating ice cream before dinner.)

I have posted about this ice cream shop before, but I had not yet the Mango Becher. This is the sundae to end all sundaes.

Start with four scoops of ice cream: mango, lemon, vanilla and strawberry. Add whipped cream, strawberry sauce, a drizzle of mango sauce, and 4 or 5 big slices of mango, plus a little cookie and (oddly, I think) a single grape. It's incredible. I have only had it once before, and actually it was quite different--no strawberry ice cream, no strawberry sauce, more real mango slices. I'm not sure which I prefer, but this is hands down the best ice cream sundae I have ever had. The funny thing is, I've never been a big fan of fruity ice cream. I like my ice cream in chocolaty or minty flavors, thank you very much. For whatever reason, though, these Italian ice cream shops don't do a great job with the flavors I like from back home. Their fruit ice creams, on the other hand, are unbelievable. Who knew that lemon ice cream--not ice, but creamy gelato--could be so delicious?

As further proof, I will show you Michael's selection for the evening: chocolate ice cream and chocolate chip ice cream drowned in coffee and topped with whipped cream, a cookie, and a chocolate covered coffee bean.

Michael looks pretty happy about his selection in this picture, don't you think? And, indeed, he took one bite and said "oh...this is very good." Then I made the mistake of giving him a bite of my sundae, and that was the end of that. Suddenly his was "bland" and "uninteresting" and Michael was unabashedly attacking my Mango Becher. (At times, he practically took the spoon from my hand as I finished a bite.) Now, you might have noticed that my sundae was a bit on the large side, so this was alright...but next time he's getting his own :)

So, for those of you who will be visiting this summer, you have this to look forward to! For those of you who were considering coming for a visit one of these days, consider this extra incentive :)

On the way home, however, I noticed one area in which German is not necessarily better: Pizza. I have had my concerns with German pizza before. (Why would you put tuna fish on a pizza, for example?) Here was a new idea, though:

Pizza Butterfly. As in, pizza with butterfly pasta as a topping. Again: why?

One more funny sighting that we should share. The city center is again full of carnival rides, food and drink stands, and in general a flurry of activity. There is a big stage set-up, and various musicians have been performing over the weekend. On our way home, Happy Feeling was the band of the hour. Click on this photo to zoom it...it really is worth it. We couldn't tell if she was trying to be goofy with this outfit (heart-shaped glasses and all) or earnest!