Walking downtown, or uptown, one travels through a cross section of New Yorks neighborhoods. As I walked my Whole Foods circuit I traveled from the suited business world through the city strata like a many-layered cake. Clothing changes, speech patterns change and the make-up of couple becomes more diverse.
I saw a well dressed young man walking down the street, and then noticed that he was wearing catholic school-style short pants with shiny black shoes and black socks pulled all the way up, and he was perfectly confident that he looked better than anyone else. I love to see the diversity around my adopted city, it reminds me why I moved here in the first place.
I made another wonderful discovery at the Whole Foods in Chelsea. I stopped by for bread for my boyfriend and raw cacao for myself, but every once in a while I wistfully peruse the frozen dessert case. As far as I'm concerned, most of those selections are off limits because of questionable flavoring ingredients. But what did I see? I saw Purely Decadent dairy free frozen desserts, and three flavor said gluten free. Snickerdoodle, Key Lime Pie and Blueberry Cheesecake.
I had to get one. After trekking to two more Whole Foods to get everything on my list I finally got a seat on the F train home to Queens. I pulled out my flimsy plastic spoon and opened my new find. I have never had a soy based frozen dessert, but I am always curious. Gelatos are often gluten free, and they are rich and creamy. Low calorie options are often a lot like iced milk or have weird flavors. I was trying not to get my hopes too high.
What I got was a cool, delicious, light, smooth cinnamon ice cream with real big chunks of gluten free snickerdoodle dough. It was great. It didn't taste like dairy ice cream, but it didn't need to. It was over all a little lighter and the snickerdoodle pieces tasted just as good as any snickerdoodle dough I've ever made.
I was reading the ingredients and although the packaging says that it is both dairy free and gluten free it also appears to be egg free as well.
Really, the best endorsement I can give is to say that, without a doubt, next time I go to Whole Foods I am going to try one of the other flavors.
