Everything new is old again

So, it's true that come this time of year we have to look a little further afield to find the kind of ingredients for our gelato that are going to appropriately distance us from those indolent layabouts offering only the same thirty-some flavors all year long. Certainly, given that the holiday season is in full swing, it's wholly necessary that we have King Leo mint stracciatella in circulation. Candied chestnuts are floating around like chewy little...nuts or something, I kinda lost the train of that metaphor between stations.

And medjool dates are back, which is great because it allows for two things: me eating dates and also me sharing this video:



Because if you're anything like me, this was the first time you'd heard anything about dates other than as a way to tell where on the calendar you were. Also I'm guessing a lot of you had forgotten that Gimli used to hang out with Indy...and was approximately three feet taller, but let's move on before this whole bit also stretches too thin, like a gauzy filament made of...candied chestnuts, maybe? Nono, soft peppermints. That's the stuff!

Not that our staples have gone anywhere--the orange cardamom sorbetto is holding strong. And it's funny, sort of in the same way I never knew what dates were beyond the scene above, the only thing I knew about cardamom is that Woody used a really particular kind of cardamom (we've moved onto Cheers, if you got lost there) for entering his bloody mary into a Boston best of competition...and didn't it end up getting confused with someone's ashes? Or sneezed into with powdery explosive effect? Or something equally hi-larious? I dunno, I stopped watching Cheers like a decade ago. And as hard as I tried to find a clip of the bloody mary scene I couldn't, so we're going to have to just roll with this one instead, which I think also serves nicely as the traditional music-video-play-out...



I'm here all week! Don't forget to tip your barista! Try the veal or, failing that, the soup!