Ice cream is so cool

At home, my go- to ice creamy dessert this summer of sunshine is a glace, a concoction of whipped cream, Italian meringue, cherries and chocolate bits; I’ve also been made chocolate hazelnut “fudgsicles.”

At Bella Gelateria, Anna Ng is standing in line for a gelato fix, as is her wont in summer. Today, she wants more than a gelato cone. She can’t pronounce what she wants but if she says “the wafer thing” they understand. The wafer thing is akbar mashti, a Persian ice cream treat. She likes the crisp contrast of the Persian wafer sandwiching the gelato, which is flavoured with saffron, rosewater, pistachio and studded with frozen chunks of Devonshire cream.

“That’s how they do it in Tehran,” says proprietor James Coleridge. “Some well- to- do Persians in Dubai have asked me to go and make it there.” Ng, though, will ask for a switch- up and request coconut gelato with shreds of coconut with the Persian wafers. “It’s got a lovely crunch as I bite into it,” she says. Bella Gelateria also does a mean affogato, where a shot of espresso is poured over his award- winning gelato.

Ben Ernst and Erica Bernardi of Earnest Ice Cream started pedal- pushing their addictive ice cream about a year ago. They sold ice cream sandwiches and cones at farmers’ markets from a tricycle- powered ice chest. That is, until stores like Edible Canada, Harvest Community Foods, Cocoa Nymph Chocolates, Dirty Apron, Stong’s and Mighty Oak, among others, started selling them in refundable canning jars. Of course, the ingredients are as local as possible. This month, they’re opening a shop at 24th and Fraser and to speed up their vehicular selling, they bought a red Japanese fire truck, equipped with a loudspeaker and two seats in the back. ( So sorry, no hoses to pour out gallons of their ice cream.)

“I’ve always loved ice cream,” says Ernst. “I just never thought I’d be making it.” Bernardi came along with her culinary arts degree and they set about addicting fans one flavour at a time. The people’s favourite is the creamy salted caramel. “My favourite is the 100 per cent Canadian whisky with organic hazelnuts from Agassiz,” says Ernst.

Ice cream sandwiches have leaped beyond the chocolate wafer with vanilla ice cream standard. They’re showing their wild side. Tacofino ( both the food truck and the restaurant in East Vancouver) drive people crazy with their Chocolate Diablo Cookie ( with cayenne pepper and intensely dark chocolate), sandwiching horcheta ice cream. ( Their banana sriracha ice cream teams up with a churro.)

At Beta 5 Chocolates, pastry chef Adam Chandler matchmakes shortbread and ice cream for seasonal ice cream sandwiches. How does bourbon- poached cherry ice cream between chocolate sound? His maple bacon ice cream sandwiches, which he sells to Meat & Bread, were such a hit that customers complained bitterly when the restaurant removed it from the menu. It’s back on.

You might also catch Ashley Watson of Brown Paper Packages with her ice cream sandwiches at farmers’ markets, the Food Cart Fest and at Dukes on Broadway. “They’re decadent, curated and artisanal,” she says. “My hope is that each flavour is unique from what people have seen before. Everything’s made by hand and from scratch by me.” Her Tropical Thunder has coconut, rum and caramelized pineapple ice cream between coconut oatmeal cookies. White Turtle has vanilla bean ice cream between chocolate caramel pecan sea salt cookies. “And that’s just the beginning,” she says.

At Chocolate Arts, you’ll find a rectangular chocolate sandwich enrobed in a negligee of chocolate. The base layer is chocolate brownie. The middle is the ice cream made with local fruits and berries and it’s covered in dark chocolate.

In Burnaby, Ron and Roberta LaQuaglia opened Glenburn Soda Fountain and Confectionery, a nostalgia period piece. They’ve brought back ice cream floats, malted shakes, milkshakes and banana splits. Tommy Dorsey, The Andrews Sisters and Perry Como transport you to the 1940s. They were surprised that the first of their fans were born some 50 years after the heyday of those musical artists.

“The first customers to arrive were of a generation who’d never experienced a soda fountain. They weren’t familiar with a real ice cream sundae. Ours is served in a tall glass with real whipped cream. Malted shakes died off for a while, but they’re really popular. The young people come in and say they love the music,” says Ron LaQuaglia, who’s the chap behind the counter in the retro soda jerk white cap.

And if you like Popsicles, no sweat. Johnny’s Pops, a bicycle cart, sells gourmet versions. His flavours have included blueberry cardamom, strawberry balsamic, apricot caramel and banana pudding. He can be found at Olympic Village, in front of Tap and Barrel.

You can’t miss it. Proprietor Johnny Wikkerink is six- foot- nine and can wave you in.