Foodies On Foot, Napa & Sonoma Food Tours

Happy National Soft Serve Ice Cream Day! With the temps in the hundreds this week, I think all ice cream is soft serve - lol. ~As legend has it, on Memorial Day weekend 1934, an ice cream truck driver got a flat tire in the town of Hartsdale, New York, so he pulled into a parking lot and sold his melting ice cream to vacationers. They loved the softer consistency, and his entire supply was sold out within two days. This was a light bulb moment for the vendor, who immediate...ly set to work on developing the formula for soft serve.~What was that ice cream truck driver’s name? Tom Carvel, the founder of Carvel. Within three years of his truck breaking down, he’d opened the first Carvel on that exact location, specializing in his newfangled creation. A competitor, Dairy Queen, also claims to have invented soft serve, but they date their creation to 1938, a year after Carvel went into business. ~ Long before she became prime minister of the U.K., the Iron Lady (Margaret Thatcher) worked as a chemist at a British food manufacturer at the time when they were working on a soft serve recipe that would work with American-made ice cream machines. ~While ice cream has a milk fat content of between 10 and 18 percent, soft serve’s milk fat level is usually between three and six percent. ~Soft serve is actually called American ice cream (translated into their local language) in many parts of Europe and Israel. It’s called soft ice in Germany and parts of northern Europe, machine ice cream in Greece and Romania, and soft whip in Ireland. ~As opposed to ice cream, which can essentially be made by anyone, making soft serve is a more complicated process. The liquid mix is always prepared in advance (usually according to a very specific recipe developed and prepared at a central location), and poured into a chamber in a specialized soft serve machine for storage at about 37 degrees F. ~It’s then drawn into a freezing chamber, where it’s churned, frozen, and mixed with a specific amount of air, and then stored until it’s dispensed. See more

Happy National Vanilla Custard Day! I started making custard when I was around 10. My mom showed me how to do a bain marie- of course she called it a hot water bath :) I loved making custard though, and think of my mom whenever I make it. What we made was an egg custard with vanilla- just a little different. ~Vanilla custard has been around since the Middle Ages, and was traditionally used as a pie filling. (A very simple custard tart was a popular dessert during that t...ime period.) ~ The origin of the English word 'custard': the French term 'croustade' originally referred to the crust of a tart, and is derived from the Italian word crostata, and ultimately the Latin crustre. ~ Although the ingredient components are simple enough, the preparation requires some precision. Custards must only undergo gentle heat to avoid curdling. Using a thermometer can help avoid this, provided that the custard is removed from heat when it reaches 170 degrees. ~ Mixtures of milk and eggs thickened by heat have long been part of French cuisine. Custards baked in pastry (custard tarts) were very popular in the Middle Ages. ~ Today, custard is an important component in many dessert recipes including éclairs, trifle, and Boston cream pie. ~ Vanilla Custard also can be called by many names including crème pâtissière, stirred custard, boiled custard, soft custard, light custard or creme anglaise and even flan. See more

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Happy National Creme Brûlée Day! ~Creme Brûlée (also known as burnt cream, crema catalana, or Trinity cream) is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a contrasting layer of hard caramel. It is normally served at room temperature. ~ The exact origin of crème brûlée is uncertain. France, England, and Spain all claim to be the country where crème brûlée had its origin. ~ The earliest known reference to crème brûlée as it is known today appears in François Ma...ssialot‘s 1691 cookbook. ~ In the early eighteenth century, the dessert was called burnt cream in English. ~ Crème brûlée is usually served in individual ramekins. Discs of caramel may be prepared separately and put on top just before serving, or the caramel may be formed directly on top of the custard, immediately before serving. To do this, sugar is sprinkled onto the custard, then caramelized under a salamander broiler or with a blow torch. ~ The world record for largest creme brulee topped out at 26 feet in diameter, weighed 1,600 pounds and was estimated to have two million calories. (The previous record was held by a 20-foot-diameter creme brulee made in 1999 in California.) The recipe included 4,000 eggs, 125 pounds of sugar, 115 gallons of cream, 19 gallons of milk and 1 gallon of vanilla extract. Chefs used an industrial blowtorch to caramelize the creme brulee’s sugar-coated surface. See more

Happy National Fortune Cookie Day! Sherry and I went on a food tour in San Francisco and stopped at the original spot where a little old lady sits hunched over a stool on an alley doorway stuffing and folding fortune cookies. It cost $3 to take her picture - lol. Well, there are conflicting stories- we believe they were invented in San Francisco, not Japan or China. :) ~It is actually an American invention originating in California. There are many theories, and much specu...lation surrounding the mysterious origin of the fortune cookie, regarding in which city the fortune cookie originated and who invented it--Chinese-American, Japanese-American or 14th century revolutionists--there has been much debate. In 1983, there was even a mock trial held in San Francisco's pseudo-legal Court of Historical Review to determine the origins of the fortune cookie. ~Or maybe...The latest history of the fortune cookie is that it originated in Japan. A wood block image from 1878 shows what seems to be a Japanese street vendor grilling, fortune cookies. They can still be found in certain districts of Kyoto Japan, but are larger and darker than the fortune cookie we are familiar with. They are made with miso paste or sesame and have a savory flavor instead of the sweet, sugar fortune cookie that is readily available in the United States. The fortunes were never put inside the cookies either. Instead, they were tucked into the fold of the fortune cookie on the outside. This may be the earliest fortune cookie to appear in the classic shape. ~ Or maybe...The Chinese immigrant, David Jung, who founded the Hong Kong Noodle Company while living in Los Angeles, invented the cookie in 1918. Concerned about the poor people he saw wandering near his shop, he created the cookie and passed them out free on the streets. Each cookie contained a strip of paper with an inspirational Bible scripture on it, written for Jung by a Presbyterian minister. ~Three billion fortune cookies are made each year around the world and the vast majority of them are used for consumption in the United States. ~The cookies are baked as flat circles. After they are removed from the oven, fortunes are folded inside while the cookies are still warm and flexible. As the fortune cookies cool, they harden into shape. ~The largest manufacturer of fortune cookies is Wonton Food Inc., headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. They make over 4.5 million fortune cookies per day. ~Some fortune cookie fortunes are so completely nonsensical because they are a direct translation of a Chinese proverb. ~The Fortune cookie machine wasn't invented until 1964 See more