|
STORIES
RELATED INFO
Chicago Restaurants
|  |
 |
 |
|
Subscribe in your favorite reader using the links below. To learn more about feeds and RSS, click here.
 | |||||
|
Articles
Sections
>>
>
|
|||||
|
Oh Goody, Gelato!
Thursday Sep 08, 2005.
By Laura Brown
|
|||||
| |||||
After recently living in Europe for four months, I returned home with a new sense of culture and, just as importantly, a new outlook on ice cream. The Euro equivalent of an ice cream parlor doesn't carry the glut of flavors we know as ice cream. Most countries have soft ice (you don't need to be a whiz to figure out how that's different than ice cream), but it was Italian gelato that gave me a new appreciation for the creamy dessert.
Made in machines that churn more slowly than ice cream mixers, gelato owns a denser texture and more compact flavor. I indulged then considered my mother's warning that anything that tastes too good leads down a quick path to a blocked artery. But gelato doesn't challenge Europeans' fight to stay skinny; it has less than a third of the fat content of ice cream (four to seven percent for gelato, compared to 20 to 25 percent for ice cream). Now back in Chicago, I set out to discover just how close America can get to emulating the art of Italian gelato.
Caffe Gelato
Owner Dominick Geraci grew up in Italy and had always aspired to bring a little corner of his homeland to Chicago. He overwhelmingly succeeded, with gelato that tastes as close to the Italian version as you'll find in America. The creamy delight is made fresh every day and comes in traditional flavors such as tiramisu, stracciatella (vanilla with chocolate chips), frutti de bosco (forest berry) and pineapple. To add to the quality, all the fruit flavors are made with locally grown fresh fruit. The gelato is presented just as it is in Italy, with swirly heaps in narrow metal pans, garnished on top with corresponding fruit or chocolate. One scoop of heaven costs $2.25, or double your pleasure without doubling your cost and go for two scoops for $3.50.
Penguin
Penguin carries 11 flavors of gelato, all made daily or every other day. Traditional flavors such as hazelnut, banana and dulce de leche are offered next to the South American-inspired sabayon, a rich, wine-laced frozen egg custard that has an unparalleled taste. Curzi never uses flavoring when fresh ingredients are available, and he claims the old-school gelato machine he uses (which produces a batch of gelato exponentially slower than in new machines) adds to the quality. Penguin's gelato is best described by Curzi as a combination of ice cream from Argentina and gelato from Italy, but all that's important is that it may be the most unique dessert to ever hit your tongue.
Linz and Vail
Gelato is Linz and Vail's specialty, and owner Susan Dejanovic goes to great lengths to ensure authenticity while maintaining a kid-friendly, carefree atmosphere. The gelato is made from a Wisconsin dairy base and PreGel, a pure, unadulterated flavoring imported from Italy. The shop carries 18 flavors (out of a pool of about 25), which range from the traditional hazelnut or pistachio to the exotic papaya, cinnamon or cantaloupe. A grande (the smallest size) is $3.39, and you're encouraged to mix flavors rather than sticking to the "one scoop, one flavor" mindset. Gelato comes in Dutch-style waffle cones (which are longer and narrower than what you're used to) or environmentally friendly edible cups.
Tintin
Tintin has eight flavors of gelato, few of which could be considered traditional (rum raisin, Chinese green tea, toasted coconut and raspberry tiramisu). It receives weekly shipments from Palazzolo's, a Michigan-based wholesaler that uses fresh, uncompromised ingredients. And although the gelato is flavorful, the fact that it has the occasional ice crystal and is closer to the creaminess of ice cream only goes to show that the freshness of the overall product, not the individual ingredient, is what's most important.
Mario & Gino's Ice Cream
Mario & Gino's also holds the unfortunate distinction of selling the most expensive gelato in the city (if not the country). They carry two brands of gelato, Ciao Bella and Al Gelato, which respectively sell for $3.25 and $2.75 a scoop. That means you're paying a staggering $6.50 for a double scoop of Ciao Bella. In this case, quality isn't on par with the cost. Though it comes in tasty flavors like key lime graham, burnt caramel and chocolate chocolate chip, it's bought in bulk and the freshness that's so vital to gelato is lacking. That said, as long as you're not looking for the most authentic Italian replica, Mario & Gino's gelato is full of flavor and may even be worth the occasional splurge.
Freddy's Pizza
If it's possible to say that one item stands out most at Freddy's Pizza, it's the gelato. Owner and native Italian Joe Quercia makes nine flavors daily, usually featuring frutti de bosco, limoncello, dulce latte, pistachio, Oreo, chocolate hazelnut truffle and tiramisu. He uses a special milk and cream base that leaves your palate clean and without the aftertaste that sometimes accompanies lesser quality gelato. Quercia uses PreGel, the same flavoring in Linz and Vail's gelato, as well as lacing thin layers of cocoa powder and chocolate through the applicable flavors for an extra burst in each spoonful. And even though Freddy's is in Cicero, brighten up a lazy day and make the trek…the experience is worth it.
|
|||||
| |||||
