Ice Cream

Chocolate cake may be the obvious choice for a Valentine's Day celebration, but ice cream is so much sexier. Put a slice of chocolate cake on a plate and lovers discreetly nibble it. But just notice what happens when you set out a carton of ice cream: Two spoons dive in, uniting, tangling and scooping up rich, creamy ice cream in unison. It's a shared experience, without the crumbs. With that in mind, here's a very romantic and delicious recipe for ice cream. As a shortcut to this sensuous dessert, prepare the coffee beans and pecans and fold them into a softened pint of good-quality, store-bought ice cream.

Opulence isn't easy. Caviar means labor for the sturgeon, and each truffle recalls the ardors of a hunt. But ice cream cake is something else. Instantly extravagant, the image of ice cream cake hovers between the classic elegance of a bombe glacee and the tacky heights that can be reached only when three tiers of Rocky Road are surrounded by an arcade of Oreos. Especially in the summer, when baking is a breach of sanity, ice cream cake is the ultimate hassle-free dessert. As easy as stacking ice cream and cookies into a log, these cakes can be prepared days in advance, and thawed a few minutes before presentation.

Ben & Jerry, the flower children of big business, are at it again. These are the guys, remember, who brought us Peace Pops to fight world hunger, poverty and disease, and Rainforest Crunch to save the environment. Worthy causes all - and the flavors weren't bad. This time, Ben & Jerry plan to add labels to their ice cream declaring that they do not buy milk from farmers who use rBGH, a genetically engineered hormone given to cows to increase their milk output. According to www.benjerry.

Jurors yesterday found an ice cream vendor not guilty of kidnapping a 12-year-old Port Richmond girl last summer after his lawyer told the jury that the child asked for a ride. Mohammed Saleh, 21, of the 900 block of Carver Street in the city's Summerdale section, wept and embraced family and friends after the jury of seven women and five men announced their verdict clearing him of all charges. In his closing argument yesterday, defense attorney James A. Funt told the jury that Jessica Galdo "wanted to get into the truck.

When it comes to ice cream history, few places can lick Philadelphia's reputation. The city is credited with cranking out the first commercial ice cream machine, inventing the ice cream soda and formulating its signature vanilla ice cream - smooth and creamy, speckled with flecks of vanilla bean. Philadelphia's genius for ice cream even netted it some unwanted notoriety. During Prohibition some innovative ice cream parlors used ice cream sodas to surreptitiously dispense liquor.

Corn ice cream? "Some people come in and think it's strange, but they have to remember, corn is sweet," explained Noelia Scharon, one of the owners of the La Michoacana ice-cream parlor on East State Street. Guava, cucumber, passion fruit and papaya are some of the dozens of traditional Mexican flavors that the shop serves - in water ice (resembling sherbet), ice cream, cones, and homemade ice pops. The store's employees are quick to offer customers samples. Scharon said many people who are at first reluctant quickly become believers, some even dusting the traditional chili powder or cinnamon atop their ice cream.

Supervisors here will have to decide whether an ice cream vendor will be able to peddle in the township this year after a resident complained that he tried to get her 9-year-son into his truck last summer. At a hearing Monday, Sady Forukh appealed the township's rejection of his vending license. He said that the boy misunderstood him and that he had done nothing wrong. Forukh, 44, said he lived in Philadelphia from April through September, but returned to his wife and eight children in Palestine during the winter.

Food: Handmade ice cream in unconventional flavors. Earl Grey Srichacha sounds like a bad idea. We assure you, it is not. There are usually six flavors, three Philadelphia-style (with 16 percent butterfat cream from Trickling Springs Creamery in Chambersburg) and three nondairy. Who's behind it? Founded one year ago by Pete Angevine, Martin Brown and Jeffrey Ziga. What's in that name? Ziga says: "It sprang out of the ether. It's emotional. I'm a little baby, you're a little baby.

While chatting at a neighborhood party a few years ago, Emily Clark and Lisa Dougherty realized they had something in common. Their husbands were both considering opening an ice cream shop in Elkins Park. Today, the two women have something else in common. They work together at the Little Dipper, the ice cream parlor they helped their husbands launch and later expand. Emily waitresses and does marketing. Lisa works the counter and decorates. The children of both couples clear tables, wash dishes, and most of all, taste ice cream.

On a scorcher of a day, the hardest thing at the Taste of Philadelphia food festival was to keep the ice in ice cream. A team of 400 volunteers executed a precision plan that mapped out the move of chocolate and vanilla from refrigerated truck to standing dry-ice freezer to table to cup to outstretched hand. Yasu Nagi, of Center City, downed 15 scoops in an hour. "It's hot, but that's great for eating ice cream," said Nagi, 31. Nagi, who is originally from Japan, was among the crowds of people who came out to Penn's Landing on Saturday to sample the sweet and the savory at the annual Taste of Philadelphia food festival, part of the 10-day Wawa Welcome America!