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 Amazing Facts..... |
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| inasia2008 |
 Jun 1 2008, 09:18 PM
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Aaah how funny was that! Great minds think alike!
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| inasia2008 |
Jun 1 2008, 10:10 PM
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Amazing facts about.... ice cream
First, ice cream is not a cooler. Oh, it may cool your taste buds momentarily, and its psychological effect may convince you that you're cooling off. But ice cream is chock-full of calories, the unit of measurement of heat. So, the ultimate effect of a bowlful of ice cream is to make you warmer, not cooler! Which brings us to the History of Ice Cream.
Modern American refrigeration techniques and ice cream infatuation notwithstanding, the frozen dessert is neither a recent concoction nor a product of Yankee ingenuity. Most historians would trace the first bowl of ice cream to 15th or 16th century Italy, or perhaps England, but the story of ice cream's rise to gustatory prominence is a good deal more interesting than a simple date.
In ancient Rome, the Emperor Nero had snow transported from nearby mountains to cool his wine cellar, and reportedly concocted some of the first water-ice desserts by mixing the snow with honey, juices, and fruit. But the first frozen dessert made from milk didn't reach Europe until the thirteenth century, when Marco Polo returned from the Orient with a recipe for a milk-ice, presumably similar to sherbet.
Improvements in ice and sherbet-making probably led to the invention of ice cream some time in the sixteenth century. We know that early in that century Italian noblemen were enjoying a frozen milk product called "flower of milk." Yet Anglophiles may proudly point to a 15th century manuscript reporting on the coronation of Henry V that mentions a dessert called creme frez. If creme frez was indeed ice cream, then the manuscript proves that the reputedly Italian invention was actually being made in England before the sixteenth century.
Italian ice cream arrived in France in 1533, along with Catherine de Medici and her retinue of chefs, when the fourteen-year-old Florentine moved to Paris to marry King Henry II. (Modern French cooking, by the way, is actually Italian in origin, descended from the Florentine cuisine of Catherine's chefs.) For many years, the chefs of various French noblemen tried to keep their recipes for ice cream a secret from other chefs and from their masters, who were frequently astounded by their cooks' talent for serving a cold dessert even in the warmest weather.
Ice cream remained a treat for the rich and regal until 1670, when Paris's first cafe, the Procope, opened its doors and made the frigid dessert available to the masses for the first time. Other cafes quickly followed including the Cafe Napolitain, whose proprietor, a Monsieur Tortoni, concocted the creamy delight that still bears his name.
The first mention of ice cream in America occurs in 1700, but the dessert was not made here in any quantity until much later in the century. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were known to be ice cream fanciers. Jefferson, who had learned how to make French ice cream during a visit to France, was one of the first rulers to serve the confection at a state dinner. Jefferson once served a dessert of crisp, hot pastry with ice cream in the middle, perhaps the first ice cream sandwich in America.
Ice cream remained an expensive dish until the early nineteenth century, which saw the invention of the insulated icehouse and the hand-crank ice cream freezer. By the 1820's, the dessert was being sold by street vendors in New York City, who beckoned passersby with shouts of "I scream ice cream."
Many vendors peddled a concoction they called hokey pokey,made from milk and eggs boiled to form a custard, then frozen in pewter vessels surrounded by salt and ice. Hokey pokey could thus be considered the ancestor of today's frozen custard. The term, by the way, is thought to be related to "hocus pocus," since one could never be quite sure what went into cheap ice cream. By the middle of the century, ice cream was so popular that a magazine editor was moved to write: "A party without ice cream would be like a breakfast without bread or a dinner without a roast."
The father of the American ice cream industry was Jacob Fussell. Beginning in 1851 with a small ice cream store in Baltimore, Fussell was soon selling his wares in shops from Boston to Washington, and during the Civil War the ice cream entrepreneur sold huge quantities of ice cream to Union supply officers. By the end of the century, ice cream could be bought almost anywhere in the nation. New inventions such as steam power, mechanical refrigeration, electricity, and the homogenizer made the ice cream plant virtually as modern as it is today.
In the early decades of this century, the popularity of the soda fountain made ice cream an American institution. Temperance preachers urged listeners to give up the grape in favor of the cool confection. Baseball star Walter Johnson, no relation to Howard, boasted that all he ever ate on the day he was to pitch was a quart of ice cream.
Beginning in 1921, officials at the Ellis Island immigration station in New York, intent on serving the newcomers a "truly American dish," included ice cream in all meals served at the station.
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| mmbcross |
Jun 2 2008, 09:31 PM
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Tripper
Group: Local Expert
Posts: 2002
Joined: 4-June 06
Member No.: 2195
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Hello All,
Just got back from a trip to Mexico. Family Reunion. We stayed in an all-inclusive, so I won't be writing a blog as nothing interesting ever happens in an all-inclusive except that you eat and drink far too much. We stayed at Playacar Palace in Playa del Carmen.
My accent? My British friends think I am totally American, yet my American friends think I'm either Australian or South African, God knows why as I don't speak anything like an Australian or South African (nothing personal).
I have had to fight to keep my accent, as it's very easy to loose it. I have to roll my "r"s a bit as Americans just can't understand when I tell them my name, Maaatin. And they go starry eyed when I invite them to a paaaty. But I still insist on pronouncing progress and schedule correctly. I really get hard stares when I ask for tomato ketchup in Burger King.
Anyway, my accent doesn't really matter in Miami, as most of the inhabitants don't speak English anyway. In fact, I'm mistaken more for an Argentinian there than an Englishman.
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| inasia2008 |
Jun 2 2008, 10:25 PM
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Interesting that you say you get that you sound Australian or South African from the Americans you know! I get that too...
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| inasia2008 |
Jun 2 2008, 11:07 PM
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Yeah that's true!
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| inasia2008 |
Jun 2 2008, 11:15 PM
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Ha ha yes it cut and paste! I am a fast typer but not THAT fast!
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| inasia2008 |
Jun 2 2008, 11:18 PM
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Ha ha, I would HOPE I would always have a job, just right now the circumstances don't let me! I type usually at around 80 wpm! I would love to work for TP, but shouldn't think its possible, wrong country for a start!
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And where do I find that GIFted gentleman?
THANKS to you two great minds that think alike!
donYan 
¡Of course NOT! I am OK 
it's the rest of the World that's crayze...
striked me? ¡BIG RESET!!!) 
¿Have you read Erasmo/Erasmus of Rotherdam? 
