Dole Whip at Disney's Adventureland

After a sweltering and unexpectedly life-threatening Jungle Cruise in Disneyland's Adventureland, nothing cools you down better than pineapple on pineapple. The place to sate yourself is none other than the Tiki Juice Bar (or at Aloha Isle at the Magic Kingdom) where they serve up the Dole Whip float, a dish of pineapple soft serve filled with pineapple juice. The line for this refreshing treat is never short as it has become a bit of a cult classic. Simple in concept but rarely seen elsewhere, it is worth the hype.

Don't be fooled by the lack of line -- it was closing time.

Top 5 Cookies-n-Cream Ice Creams

1.) Kopp’s Frozen Custard (Greater Milwaukee, WI) – Cookies-n-Cream

One day I will do a full post on the wonder that is Kopp’s Frozen Custard. In the meantime, the teaser is that theirs is the best Cookies-n-Cream I’ve had in my life. The bad news is, like most frozen custard places, they only do vanilla, chocolate and their flavors of the day. So Cookies-n-Cream is only available when it is one of their two special flavors of the day. I recall going to Kopp’s with my family and my aunt’s family in my youth , persuading my parents to let me order a triple scoop, finding chunks of whole Oreos within and my Dad and I being unable to finish it.

2.) Gelati Celesti (Richmond, VA) – Oreo

The bases of cookies and cream ice creams are either white (playing up the “cream” part of the name) or speckled with black cookie dust. Not this flavor, which is pure grey. The reason? The Oreos are blended completely into the base, not simply mixed in to a sweet cream base. Translation: the base tastes like Oreos, not cookies “in” cream. This explains why the flavor isn’t named Cookies-n-Cream…because it’s straight, undiluted Oreo. Gelati Celesti aren't the only ones to have this idea, but they perfected it.

3.) Golden Cow Creamery (Charlotte, NC) – Salted Oreo

I may be a foodie, but I generally find the trend of adding salt to desserts that never needed it before to be bougie nonsense. Sure, a little bit is science, but a lot bit is superfluous. But this flavor, Salted Oreo, made me eat my words and then lick the bowl. Adding salt to this Oreo ice cream created a completely new flavor, one I loved. When I ate at this spot in fall of last year, they had only been open a couple months and didn’t have enough flavors to fill their freezer yet. Once operating at full freezer capacity, I have no doubt, based on this and the others I tried, that their place on the Charlotte foodie map will be staked.

4.) Turkey Hill (grocery store) – Double Dunker

This paragraph previously appeared in “Top 5 Cookie Dough Ice Cream”

Years back, Ben & Jerry’s created Milk & Cookies, a mash-up of Cookies-n-Cream and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. It was simple and brilliant, but a combination not represented in grocery stores before then. Turkey Hill came up with their own twist on the idea (“Mocha ice cream swirled with chewy cookie dough and crunchy chocolate cookie swirl”) and created a superior product, which was no small effort given that Milk & Cookies ranks among one of the last of Ben & Jerry’s best flavors of recent years. Suffice to say, when a half gallon of Double Dunker is in the house it isn’t there for long. I consider it one of my Freezer Favorites.

5.) Josh & John’s (Colorado Springs, CO) - Colorado Cookies-n-Cream

A scoop shop of personal legend, I recall eating a Josh & John’s on a snowy winter day in the early 2000’s, marveling at how ice cream is good no matter the temperature and drawing in the snow on the outdoor picnic tables after. But mostly I recall their twist on Cookies-n-Cream. It was the first time I saw the base for a Cookies-n-Cream ice cream be chocolate. And, really, since the base is always ice cream, the “cream” part of cookies-n-cream is up for wider interpretation. The answer was there all along, waiting to be found. I doubt anywhere else refers to Cookies-n-Cream with a chocolate base “Colorado Cookies-n-Cream,” but I did for years because Josh & John’s was so tasty.

Top 5 Cookie Dough Ice Creams

1.) Thomas Sweet (Washington, D.C. and New Jersey) - Chocolate Chip Cookie
The best twist on Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough I’ve encountered, so good it overtakes the original. A wholly unique flavor that I have yet to see anywhere else, this ice cream base tastes like cookie dough. That’s right: unlike other cookie dough flavors, this one contains no hunks of cookie dough because the flavor is in the ice cream itself. It’s so good that I’ve blogged about it twice before. It’s like eating the dough right out of the mixing bowl, complete with a mouthful of mini-chocolate chips in each bite.

2.) Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream (Madison, WI) – Snap O’ Lantern

Much of this paragraph previously appeared in in the autumnal entry “Snap-O-Lantern & Other Pumpkin Ice Creams.”

A perennial favorite in my annual autumnal challenge to consume as many varieties of pumpkin foods as possible. The addition of gingerbread cookie dough isn’t the only reason Snap-o-Lantern tops the list. The ice cream reminds me of my first memories of pumpkin ice cream at the Hilton Village Parlor Restaurant back home: sweet in front, pumpkin in the back, creamy all the way around. I attribute this to the gingerbread cookie dough, which excuses the ice cream from having to be all spices at once and instead to focus on being pumpkin.

3.) Oberweis (Midwest grocers/parlors)–Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

This paragraph appeared in the ongoing Freezer Favorites series.

It may seem strange that I lean on Oberweiss for my grocery-store Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough cravings since Ben & Jerry's are the ones who put the flavor on the map. But I'm going to commit foodie-sacrilege here: Such a heavy mix-in as cookie dough bites demands a lighter ice cream. Oberweiss is a super-premium brand that makes a product that manages to be flavorful without being heavy. Creamy and light, their Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough isn't overloaded with mix-ins, but doesn't skimp either. Most bites have some cookie dough with only a few containing chocolate chips, that perfect touch of chocolate to leave semisweet lingering on the tongue after the ice cream melts away.

4.) Turkey Hill (grocery store) – Double Dunker

Years back, Ben & Jerry’s created Milk & Cookies, a mash-up of Cookies-n-Cream and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. It was simple and brilliant, but a combination not represented in grocery stores before then. Turkey Hill came up with their own twist on the idea (“Mocha ice cream swirled with chewy cookie dough and crunchy chocolate cookie swirl”) and created a superior product, which was no small effort given that Milk & Cookies ranks among one of the last of Ben & Jerry’s best flavors of recent years. Suffice to say, when a half gallon of Double Dunker is in the house it isn’t there for long. I consider it one of my Freezer Favorites.

5.) Ben & Jerry’s (RIP) – Oatmeal Cookie Chunk
Once Ben & Jerry’s discontinues a flavor, it is rare for them to bring it back. Oatmeal Cookie Chunk was actually the first occasion where I heard of such a thing happening. Like a cult TV show, when this flavor was discontinued, there was fan outcry, letter writing and pleading via Ben & Jerry’s online form to resurrect the dearly departed laid to rest in their Flavor Graveyard. (My girlfriend at the time was among the grieving, it having been her favorite flavor.) It had a rough-textured (oat-y?) base with chunky cookie dough and the perfect amount of fudge chunks to suggest chocolate without overwhelming the flavor. The flavor may not have lasted the second time around, but Ben & Jerry’s did drop a similar flavor is 2017: Oat of This Swirled. It's the next best thing.

Kirchhoff's Bakery in Paducah, KY

While some parts of small town America are becoming homogenized and others are dying out, some seem to thriving. The secret seems to be small business, whether breweries, an arts scene, breweries, dining foodies can appreciate, or breweries. I can only speak from a single afternoon as a tourist, but it seemed Paducah, Kentucky is one if those small towns finding its place in contemporary times. The true measure for me, of course, is the dessert scene.

Wandering Paducah’s easily walkable downtown, we passed a homemade ice cream shop, a soon-to-be-open rolled ice cream purveyor and a bakery. But Kirchhoff’s Bakery & Deli is not one of those “iced brownie with your white bread sandwich” places; it is an institution bubbling over with superior offerings, crowded with folks there for a quality lunch and delectable sweets at shockingly low prices. The only thing I didn’t like about the place was how I could never try it all in such a short trip…which, among problems, is a good one to have.

Looking in the display case, it is awfully tough to make a decision. I always like to ask the workers, who are often local authorities on what is best vs. merely popular. I was directed to the very item that had caught my eye, the Chocolate Chip Cheesecake bar, my favorite of the four desserts I purchased. The bar was a unique take on the more common cheesecake brownie, swapping in cookie bars for the brownie. Pairing of cheesecake with cookies? Of course it’s good! I started nibbling it while my friends were getting coffee and, even though I tried to pace myself, discovered the futility of trying to do so with such a delicious treat; I had scarfed it in full before my friends made it to the café table. The turkey pesto sandwich on homemade ciabatta with a cup of chili was also excellent and the price a steal. I ate my half of that before moving on to the next dessert. Additionally, we brought back two mini pies (a mere $3.50 each) which made our evening so much more delicious.

So if you find yourself in Paducah, or just passing by on I-24, stop in at Kirchhoff’s and treat yourself. You can enjoy your items there, sitting at one of the café tables out front on the market street, or you can take it with you on a walk over to the river front, enjoying the flood wall’s many historic murals. Perhaps you’ll wander over to Allen’s Music to play some of their unique and vintage stringed instruments. Or visit the National Quilt Museum, where arts and crafts are synonymous. Just know that Kirchhoff’s isn’t the only reason to stop in Paducah; the still ticking heart of small town America is there, waiting to be heard.