Friday Photo: Ice cream man reopens with new flavors, locations

Allan Johnson, the ice cream man, taste-tests his product at MoMo’s BBQ and Grill, Harrisburg, where his vintage ice cream tricycle is stored

If you haven’t met Allan Johnson already, you’ve surely seen him.

Maybe he’s been standing next to a peach-colored ice cream cart during the lunch hours of downtown Harrisburg, digging into the cart’s storage compartment to hand out half-pints of homemade ice cream.

Maybe you’ve seen him pedaling down Front Street or juggling bowling pins while surrounded by a crowd of patrons digging into their soft treats with plastic spoons.

Wearing all white except for a black bow tie, ice cream man Allan Johnson is unmistakable—and he’s back for the 2012 summer season.

“An ice cream cart is an American tradition,” says Johnson.

Opened in 2011, Johnson’s company, CreamCycles, is now selling 15 flavors of homemade ice cream made by Bootlleg Creamery in Blain, PA.

“Bootlleg Creamery: it’s so good it should be illegal,” says Johnson, and he’s right.  The ice cream’s velvety texture is coat-your-mouth creamy while not being too heavy, which allows the ice cream to be both full-bodied and refreshing.  Creator Jeff Trout doesn’t skimp on the flavor, either; the Orange Pineapple is bright with citrus and laden with crushed pineapple, and the Peanut Butter—Johnson’s favorite—is so rich that no chocolate swirls are necessary.

New flavors this season include Gangster Grapenut, Sweetheart Cherry, and Coffee Brickle.

Johnson sells half pints of ice cream—which are small enough to eat solo or big enough to share—one for $3 or two for $5.

In addition to his downtown sales, Johnson is also available this season for at block parties, birthday parties, picnics, and fundraisers.  During his off-hours, his vintage ice cream tricycle is stored at MoMo’s BBQ & Grill on 307 Market Street, which also serves Bootlleg’s chocolate and raspberry ice creams on the premises.

“I’m hoping for more exposure this season,” Johnson says.

More exposure may even mean more ice cream carts, he says.  Currently, Johnson is brainstorming about owning a fleet of carts made by local craftsmen and leasing them to individual owners, expanding his business into different markets, including the West Shore.  A second cart on the streets may be seen as early as this summer.

HOURS: 11am-2pm, 4pm-8pm Monday through Friday, downtown Harrisburg.  Weekend hours vary according to local events and the weather. Text Johnson your location for ice cream delivery at 603.801.2420.

This article was first published in The Patriot-News on Wednesday, May 16.

Friday Photo: Little Amps’ ‘Cold Jar,’ Harrisburg, is a refreshing summer drink

Little Amps owner Aaron Carlson, 2012

‘Tis the season of clear plastic cups of iced coffee sipped with green straws.  However, this season, treat yourself to a coffee that is more than just cold.

Evoking the chilly haze of a rustic icebox, Little Amps’ “Cold Jar” ($3.75) is made in the tradition of an Italian caffe shakerato, an iced espresso that is often mixed with cream in a martini shaker.  Here, it’s a shot of roasted-on-the-premises espresso poured over ice, sprinkled with brown sugar, flooded with cream, and shaken vigorously in a pint Ball mason jar until thick and frothy — and served in the same jar.

So rich it’s nearly chocolatey, Little Amps’ “Cold Jar” shakerato is Italian elegance blended with those summer afternoons of canning cherries on my family’s farm.  Enjoy with one of Little Amps’ featured apple tarts, quiches, biscotti, or macroons by Short and Sweet Bakery, Lemoyne.

Little Amps
1826 Green Street
Harrisburg, PA 17102
http://littleampscoffee.com/

Monday-Friday: 6:45am-2pm
Saturday: 8am-2pm

Friday Photo: Divine deviled eggs, Home 231, Harrisburg

Deviled Eggs at Home 231, March 2012

Home 231, Harrisburg, markets itself as a “stylish restaurant serving seasonally-focused homestyle cuisine.”  Therefore, I wasn’t surprised to find deviled eggs nestled on the Small Plates menu between the chorizo corn dogs and the fried green tomatoes.  For me, deviled eggs are both a food item from my childhood and a symbol of American cuisine, but these eggs pushed my expectations beyond just a food that, in my mind, used to make or break the dinner of a good housewife.

At Home 231, the deviled egg platter is served with three types: classic, bacon, and red beet — the red beet made in the Pennsylvania Dutch spirit of pickling by soaking the eggs in a mixture of spices, red beets, and vinegar.  Beyond the visual appeal — each egg is a tiny artist’s canvas, dusted with paprika or a sprinkling of chives — these eggs are a full-fledged mouthful.  These farm fresh eggs encase yolk that is whipped so light that it’s almost ethereal; the yolk suspends on your tongue an instant before dissolving into the crispness of toppings like julienned bacon or a crown of fresh herbs.

If classic deviled eggs can be treated so delicacy, I deem the rest of the menu of Home 231 is worth sampling.  For brunch, try the smoked trout & bagel with whipped cream cheese, tomato, red onion, and capers ($10) or splurge on the dinner menu’s in-house pasta (specials rotate daily, $20).

Home 231

231 North St.

Harrisburg, PA

http://www.home231.com/

(717) 232-4663

Monday-Thursday, 11am-2pm; 5pm-10pm

Friday, 11am-2pm; 5pm-11pm

Saturday, 5pm-11pm

Sunday brunch, 11am-2pm

Friday Photo: Strawberry pie returns to Kathy’s Deli, Shippensburg

Kathy's Deli, Spring 2009

Luscious strawberries nestled in a buttery crust, swirled in a fruit glaze, and dabbed with real Cool Whip define this fresh strawberry pie, now back for the season at Kathy’s Deli, Shippensburg. As a former Kathy’s Deli employee, this was one of my favorite desserts to make—I loved to cut the strawberries carefully, crowd them into the crust, points up; and delicately edge the pie with cream. I still feel like there’s nothing better than a piece of this carefully-crafted fruit pie, enjoyed on a patio with a glass of lemonade.

Welcome back, spring.

Slice: $2.39
Pie: $10.99

Kathy’s Deli
891 West King Street
Shippensburg, PA 17257
(717) 477-8300
www.kathysdelionline.com

Monday-Friday, 6am-7pm
Saturday, 7am-4pm

Friday Photo: Otterbein Acre’s Donut Making

Donut-Making, Otterbein Acres, 2012

Otterbein Acres Sheep & Cow Dairy, Newburg, is a clean, red-barn operation near the Appalachian Mountains, overlooking pale brown pastures that are still barren with March.  My feet crunch on the gravel paths as I walk from barn to barn—one of bleating sheep scampering over fresh straw, one that is dusty and quiet with soft-eyed ponies, another with two black sows rolled over on their sides as piglets squeal and run.  This farm is usually known for its excellent cow’s milk and goat’s milk cheese, sold at multiple Central Pennsylvania markets, but on Saturday, March 10, I know Otterbein Acres for its donuts.

It’s the family’s 6th annual open house, and the animal displays and spinning demonstrations are accompanied by BBQ chicken, grilled sausages, homemade canned goods, fudge, soaps, and cheese.  The food’s set up in a large shed with a cement floor and sturdy walls, and in the corner fries fresh donuts that are being sold as fast as they can cook.  Mixed with yeast and fried in pure lard, the donuts are then dipped into a mix of powdered sugar and oil and hung on a simple wooden tree to drain.  Unlike store-bought donuts, these pastries were chewy, yeasty, and light — so light, as a matter of fact, the air hissed out as you bit into it.  No cream or jelly was needed; the glaze soaked the donuts with a perfect sweetness.

I do not know the name of this Mennonite girl who permitted me to take her picture as she bent over her work, illuminated by the window, but I loved her humility in the food that she created, even if it was just nuggets of dough.

Otterbein Acres Sheep & Cow Dairy
10071 Otterbein Church Road
Newburg, PA 17240
(717) 423-6689.

Friday Photo: The Cookie that Made Me Proud to Be American

Peanut Butter Cup Cookie

This cookie is truly worthy of a Friday photo because I only purchase it at the end of a week.  Made at Sinful Sweets, Broad Street Market, the peanut butter cup in the center is this cookie’s highlight — salty, chocolately, and moist.  I’ve been addicted to these cookies ever since moving to Harrisburg, claiming (when I first purchased one), “I think I was meant to come home from France just to eat this.”

In France, the sweet-and-salty combinations that so dominate American food (think chocolate-covered pretzels or caramel popcorn) aren’t so prominent; neither is, as a matter of fact, peanut butter.  In Talange, for example, peanut butter was available but in small 8 oz. jars for around $7, and only a small handful of my colleagues had ever tried Reese’s peanut butter cups.  (An adjective assignment I used for my seventh grade students was to write to my French friend in Paris who had spent a year teaching and eating Reese’s at Susquehanna University; my students and I sent her letters describing the cup’s taste, flavor, and texture and included a handful to satiate her craving.) When I was home for Christmas from teaching in France in 2007, my parents gave me a bag of Reese’s minis to use in the classroom, but when I returned to France, I stashed the bag in my apartment for weeks, feeding them only to myself.

Because of this, if there’s one thing that I love about being in the States, it’s peanut butter cups — and cookies like these.  If a cookie this simple can be worth a continent, it’s definitely worth your time.

Sinful Sweets
Broad Street Market, Brick Market Building
1233 North Third Street
Harrisburg, PA 17102
(717) 232-0440

Thursday-Friday: 7am-5pm
Saturday: 7am-4pm

Friday Photo: Bruges and the Belgian Friterie

Belgium, February 2008

I was fifteen when I first tasted it: French fries “drowned in” mayonnaise, as explained by Vincent Vega in the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction.  It was a Sunday afternoon in Holland in July 2000; my brother Chris and I were visiting my three cousins, and my uncle allowed us to watch TV while munching on our lunch of oven-baked fries and slim finger-length sausages.  My cousins eagerly dipped their food into mayonnaise that they’d squeezed from a tube, and I tried it, too — the greasy, salty fries pleasantly warming the sweet mayo into an altogether-new taste sensation.

Little did I know that years later, I’d be back in Europe in 2008, sharing the double-fried fries with my boyfriend from a paper cone on the street of Bruges, Belgium, as mentioned Friday, February 24 in the New York Times.  This time, however, I was more adventurous, choosing the curry sauce, the mayo and relish, and pickles on the side.  I love the picture above not just because the shopkeeper of this Belgian friterie is … er … clearly gearing up to make our order; I love the photo for its imagery.  The colorful array of French fry condiments are in large glass jars in the case next to raw meat patties, pre-rolled for frying; on the left side of the case is the line-up of cold drinks including Jupiler beer.  The offerings of sandwiches and fried fricadelles are written in Dutch on the back wall.

While Dutch and Belgian food can be elegant, this photo shows another side of Europe — the one that is not built up by our imagination into something too pretentious to handle.

LOCAL FOOD RECOMMENDATION:
Cafe Bruges
16 North Pitt Street
Carlisle, PA 17013

(717) 960-0223

Sun–Thu 11:30am–9:30pm
Fri–Sat 11:30am–10:30pm

Friday Photo: Smoked-Chipotle Pickles at Peter Piper’s Pickles

Pickled foods bring out the Pennsylvania Dutch in me.  Every Christmas, one of my favorite parts of the epic Grove Christmas luncheon is the little dish of my grandmother’s homemade “chow-chow”: a mix of cauliflower, red peppers, carrots, kidney beans, celery, and seasonings that has been pickled in a sweet-tangy brine.  When I lived in France for the first time in 2005, there were no such delicacies — no relishes on my baguette sandwich, no slaws nestled on roasted meats, just more mustard and olives and less ketchup than I was used to eating in my life.  For this reason, I have come to treasure pint jars of home-canned vegetables in any form.

Susan Smeal serves up samples at Saturday's Market, Middletown

Peter Piper’s Pickles, located at various Central PA markets depending on the weekday, features vats of vinegar and vegetables, including bread-and-butter pickles, dill pickles, garlic pickles, hot pickles, hot cherry peppers, and more.  The smoked-chipotle pickles are especially memorable: smoky and crisp, sparkling with heat and bright acidity — the perfect way to jazz up a turkey sandwich on Dimpflmeier 7 grain.

My German-Swiss ancestors would be proud.

Peter Piper’s Pickles
$4/pint, $7/quart

Tuesdays, Roots Market in Manheim Area #5
Wednesdays, Lewisburg Farmer’s Market, Lewisburg
Fridays, Green Dragon Building #1, Ephrata
Saturdays, Saturday’s Market, Middletown

Marty: (717) 682-2952
Peterpiperspapickles@yahoo.com

Friday Photo: Rustic Apple Tart by Short & Sweet Bakery, Lemoyne

Rustic Apple Tart by Short & Sweet Bakery, Lemoyne

 

It’s likely that we Americans get the coffee-and-pastry breakfast from France, where baguette slices are spread with Nutella and dipped into bowls of morning Joe, and fresh croissants are eaten with hot chocolate by afternoon.  However, mass-produced Starbucks pound cake or stale Panera stick buns (with a dark roast in a travel mug) shouldn’t cut it for you.  Return to the pastries of your grandmother with a rustic apple tart made by Short & Sweet Bakery, Lemoyne, and served at Little Amps Coffee Roasters, Harrisburg.  It’s fresh apples folded into a flaky crust about  then sprinkled with sugar for just a touch of sweetness — perfectly paired with the richness of one of Little Amp’s house-roasted coffee or espresso drinks.  Also available for breakfast (and equally delicious) are biscotti, cookies, granola, macaroons, and quiches.

Little Amps Coffee Roasters
1836 Green Street
Harrisburg, PA 17102

Monday-Friday, 6:45am-2pm
Saturday, 8am-2pm

Friday Photo: The Jackson House Burger Nazi

A respect for quality: I like that, especially at this lunchhour shop that proclaims its food is “better than Philly’s”: 1/2 pound hamburgers, cheeseburgers, cheese steaks, sandwiches, and salads.  Situated in a classic soda-style shop on Sixth Street in Harrisburg, this place is strict with its rules — cash only and patience are just a few — but they deliver, every time.  Just look at the narrow window of their opening hours, then drive past once to see how packed it is.  Then you’ll realize what this sign indicates — a quality burger that can help a restaurant defy business sense is definitely worth waiting for.

The Jackson House
1004 Sixth Street
Harrisburg, PA 17102
(717) 238-2730

Monday-Friday, 10:30am-2pm