Can You Fall In Love With An Ice Cream Scooper?

Yesterday we woke up at the crack of dawn to make our daily two batches of apricot jam since we had to be in the south bay later that afternoon. As is usual, this jaunt triggered two fleeting obsessions, with one winning over the other.

We stopped into a local supermarket called Nob Hill. Now I am not too fond of this chain of stores since about two years ago when I ventured into one and inquired about how to present our jam and bbq sauce for review to be sold in the store I got a curt reply: “Forget it – you gotta pay.” What this meant is like most big chains, you have to pay for shelf space. Yeah, forget that.

Anyhow, wandering around I saw on one of the signs listing what was in the aisle, “Canning Supplies” which I had never seen in a market before. My respect for the store immediately went up a few points. And sure enough, there was a whole section of jam-making supplies!

First I saw the Kerr jars and lids we used in the old days canning our stuff at home. Then there was the evil pectin which I have no idea why people use. There were all sorts. There were freezer containers for jam as well. But what they were missing, and what I was looking for, was the tongs for lifting up canning jars. Where were they?

Disappointed and dying of thirst from hours in our hot kitchen making jam, I set out for the cold beverages.

There I found a dizzying array of unusual sodas. Now neither of us drink soda often. I probably have maybe 20 a year, but I do appreciate small companies. First I had to buy a bottle of Empire Cola. Yes, I should have taken pictures… It is made in Rhode Island and that was where I was born. Any soda with high fructose corn syrup was immediately eliminated and this met the criteria. Then I got an interesting bottle called Kikapoo Joy Juice with grapefruit flavor. Yes, less than 1% fruit juice! The clincher was it had caffine in it. And finally, a Hawaiian Soda called Waialua Soda Works that was the only one that was 100 percent natural. I should have gotten the exotic sounding Lilikoi, but opted for the root beer instead. Of course we haven’t tasted any of them yet…

An hour later I was standing at the ice cream counter of a Thrifty, um Rite-Aid. Yes, they were acquired years ago but I still think of them as Thrifty Ice cream. If you aren’t from California you will be immune to the lure of Thrifty ice cream. First, it is dirt cheap, or used to be. In 1991 when I moved to SF, I paid 40 cents for a scoop at the one on Mission Street. This was a high point of my summers, along with the instant photo booth outside I always had to take pictures in. My favorite flavors were/are black cherry and Chocolate Malted Crunch.

This Rite-Aid is a very sad store where I saw a depressed-looking BMW mechanic covered in grease walk out with a huge box of pink wine – and you guessed right – drove off in a Toyota. But when I saw the ice cream I cheered right up. Apparently the 4th of July weekend decimated their ice cream inventory, so the black cherry was gone, but I did get my Chocolate Malted Crunch on a cake cone. Yes, they taste like paper, but as a kid I was banned from eating them. My parents thought the sugar cones were better tasting (and they are) but I always liked the low brow appeal of these.

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I love mechanical things and this definitely appealed to me. It looks like a small, shiny caulk gun. It is completely made of metal and is very industrial in strength. I had to have one! I asked the girl working there and she said they are made just for Rite-Aid. “Do people ever try to steal them?” I inquired, (immediately giving away my thoughts) and she looked at me like I was crazy. “No,” she replied and followed my eyes looking at the scoop and moved her hand holding it out of sight.

When we returned home later that night I went onto ebay looking for one. Funny considering I don’t eat much ice cream. And my worst fears came true. First, you cannot buy them anywhere. Secondly, the almost never come up for sale on ebay. There is another company that makes a similar ice cream stacker – as they are called but apparently it is no where near the quality.

And this is when I realized that the ice cream you get at Rite-Aid is visually so different. The ice cream is not in balls, but in a cylinder shape. Somehow this hits on us subconsciously since it never occurred to me it looked different before. Or me at least. By now I have given up hope of getting one.

But on my search for these scoops or stackers I encountered a new phenomena I had forgotten: ice cream molds. Now I am sure there are people of a certain age who had grandmothers who made ice cream molds, but I have a feeling this is a lost art. These molds usually follow the seasons and are event-themed. There are Santa Claus molds, Halloween cats, wedding bells, but then there are some weird ones like the shoe I saw.

For the life of me I cannot imagine why you would want a mold of a high heeled shoe. What type of occasion does this go well with? Maybe the opening of a shoe store? A shoe fetish convention? But just the oddity of it made me want to buy it.

But all my money goes to jam making this month. So forget it. And like all good obsessions, the fun has passed and I no longer am craving that Rite-Aid scoooper/stacker, or seeking out new sodas or even a high heel ice cream mold I would never use. Maybe what all I want is another scoop of Chocolate Malted Crunch…