Sticky Ice Cream

Sticky fig & Honeycomb
Originally uploaded by knicole7.

Well, well, finally a blog post after a 2009 that was free of sticky date pudding. And not only is there going to be this post, but there will soon be another post to follow - if Adam gets around to doing it.

Granted, this post isn't about sticky date pudding, but the next one will be.

Anyway, not to give away our first 2010 encounter with SDP, but it was pretty much a disappointment.

Over the christmas/new year holiday we spent almost two weeks visiting family and friends in Melbourne, and then decided to drive up the coast to Sydney to catch our flight back to Canada.

The three day drive was marvelous - crystal clear waters, white sand beaches, rolling countryside, stunning views and million dollar sunsets.

On our third day's drive from Narooma to Sydney, we decided to stop in Jervis Bay for lunch. While the view was spectacular and promises of dolphins jumping through the clear waters convinced us that it was an ideal place for lunch, those factors also drew a couple hundred other holiday makers. So parking was a bitch, but we eventually found a spot. The trick is to park on the street because Australians are scared of parallel parking so there's usually a spot.

Anyway, after wandering past crowded, unappealing cafe after crowded unappealing cafe, we happened upon Toby's Estate whose menu offered an amazing looking roasted pumpkin, Jarlsberg and pesto turkish bread sandwich. I must say, that where Australia has failed in street parking, they have definitely dominated in sandwich making.

After my near perfect sandwich, I felt a needed something a bit sweet and noticed little tubs of ice cream in the freezer behind Adam. Fooled by the colors of the tubs, I asked Adam if he wanted strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, or chocolate vanilla swirl. He told me I could decide.

When I reached the freezer, I realized how wrong my ice cream flavor stereotype had been. The 'strawberry' was actually tangerine flavor, the 'chocolate' was double chocolate fudge, and the 'vanilla' was *gasp* sticky fig & honeycomb!!!

Now I realize sticky fig isn't sticky date, but since we haven't blogged in over a year, and since our SDP experience from the previous night was so poor (see upcoming blog), I thought I needed to redeem our poor little blog.

The Sticky Fig and Honeycomb ice cream was incredible and only $3.50AUD. The figs weren't too sticky and the honeycomb wasn't too overbearing. All in all it was a very refreshing end to a lovely lunch and a perfect addition to a beautiful location.

Anyway, a quick Google of Serendipity Ice Cream provided me with this information: Serendipity is a family business which was started in 1966 by my mother, Alix Mandelson. She started making her own ice cream at home because, at the time, the most exotic ice cream available in Sydney was Neapolitan – and she is allergic to chocolate!

So there you go.

The moral of the story is, if you are in New South Wales and feeling the need for ice cream WITH traces of the excitement of sticky date pudding, Serendipity's Sticky Fig & Honeycomb could be your best bet.