Straus Ice Cream

You ever go to a trendy restaurant and eat a bunch of good, but wildly over-priced food with some close friends and then walk out of the place wanting something simple?

Such was the scene tonight at Sushi Roku, where the fish was raw, the sake unfiltered and the toothpicks all had those little ingraved end thingies.

We ate like pigs, talked like senators at a confirmation hearing and left with a little extra around the waist and a little less in the wallet.

I had a hankering for something sweet, but not something from Roku's dessert menu (which conveniently did not have any prices on it) so we headed over to Wild Oats market to get some ice cream.

I love a good scoop of ice cream. Carvel (a staple on the U.S. East Coast) just opened here in L.A. (why at the end of the summer makes no sense to me), and we've got Cold Stone Creamery, which is really over-priced and over-hyped. Ben and Jerry's is still pretty good, but the whole "homemade" thing went out the window when the sold out to Unilever, who also own Country Crock, Dove Soap and Slim Fast. Gives a whole new meaning to the word "Chunky Monkey."

So I was very happy when I got home and had a nice scoop of Straus' Dutch Chocolate ice cream. This is the real stuff -- fresh, creamy and without that weird aftertaste some ice cream has. I had tasted their vanilla bean before, but this stuff was even better. Pick some up today. You'll remember what "homemade" tastes like.