Day 297: Deep Fried Ice Cream

     It always looks so good when I look at the picture on the back of the menu when I go to a Mexican food restaurant, but I never seem to be able to gather the courage needed to order it. This time however, I ordered my usual dish and the deep fried ice cream. I had no choice, ice cream and things that are deep fried are too high on my list of 'things that don't suck' for me to not get it. I was honestly excited for my dessert  to get to my table, and my excitement skyrocketed more once I saw the piling tower of whipped cream heading towards me. It was go time. Sadly, as I bit into the treat, it just tasted like whip cream, coconut shavings, and ice cream. There was no crazy deep fried flavor, or even a hint of one. Total disappointment. It was still delicious, but not in the way I wanted it to be. I'm still not sure if the cook messed up the order or if all deep fried ice cream tastes like that.

Day 201: Dream Job- Ice Cream Taste Tester

     My work (Target) suffered a massive power outage for 8 hours yesterday (don't worry, I wasn't there, so they can't pin this one on me) and lost like tens of thousands of dollars in temperature sensitive foods. Basically, all the milk and meat, and more importantly, ice cream were just getting tossed. I was helping out with the throwing away of dairy and meat products when this tall employee with a name tag that read "Westwood" came up to me. He asked me if I liked ice cream and responded with the only answer my good judgement would allow, "yes". I then explained that I happened to work at an ice cream store for the past two year and that I considered myself an expert on the subject. If you know as much trivial knowledge about ice cream as I do, then  your fat, or a former employee. So anyways, Westwood sent me to get spoons to help me with my newly assigned mission. I was to preform a quality test on the ice cream to see if if was still good. I, along with another employee named Brad, strolled down the ice cream isle to pick out products for testing. I asked Westwood if we could try any of the flavors and he responded with "We just lost 30 thousand bucks bucks, I don't think a couple of Popsicles are going to are going to do much more damage". So we took Westwood's advice and reached for some of the fanciest ice creams in stock. Anything from Drumsticks to Klondike Bars were far game. I gave a good college try while I was grabbing ice creams, and I put even more effort in while I was eating it. We individually unwrapped and unopened each product, sampled it, took note of the quality, then sampled it again. We did this till we had our full and where satisfied from our study. I still can not believe that I was actually getting paid to eat ice cream, like a lot of ice cream. That was a pretty good day at work.

Day 58: Mildly High Risk Juggling

What I do at work

Me in the act

     Now, before you judge me for counting juggling three balls of ice cream as a decent challenge, let me explain myself. I have worked at Baskin Robbins on and off for a total of two years, and in those two years, I have done some pretty stupid things. Nothing gross or anything, just goofing around (skating in the walk-in freezer and that ice cream fight are ones that come to mind). So I was working and I was trying to think of something to do for the project. I decided that I would teach my co-worker Jarred


(you may remember him from Day 56: A warm up for the gallon
challenge) how to juggle. We looked for things around the store to toss around but we couldn't find anything. That whole idea evolved into something I have thought about trying a couple time but never got around to doing; juggling ice cream. I mean, they are the perfect weight and shape to do the job. To make things more interesting, I was going to juggle over my newly mopped floor. So, I got three scoops of mint chocolate chip cause it's way more solid and firm compared to most of the other flavors. I put on some plastic gloves and positioned myself prepared my balls (the mint ones). I was surprisingly nervous before trying, but I went for it anyways. I juggled for about 4 cycles and then caught the balls safely. I had to keep redoing the feat so that Jarred could get the timing right on my phone camera but I never did drop the mint (which I am proud and thankful for). So there you have it, you may think its a lame challenge (which it kind of is), but its something I've wanted to try for a while and this project has forced me to try it. Hooray for throwing ice cream!

Day 20: Ice Cream Sampler

     So I recently got my job back at Baskin Robbins and, between that job, my other job, and school, I have been trying to juggle paying for student loans and completing this little project of mine. My life is pretty busy, which is good. Busy is gooooood, just, a little overwhelming at times. So I was working (Baskin Robbins), trying to remember exactly how to do my job (it's been roughly a year and a half since I worked there) when a costumer suggested an idea that was all too familiar to my past experience at that shop. An indecisive couple came in and were browsing through the flavors for some time. And then I said something like "would you guys like to sample a flavor?" and the man replied with a comment that I consider a bit cliche. After a good 2 years of service at that humble ice cream shop, I've served a lot of people, and I've scooped a lot of ice cream, and I've had a lot of conversations with the guests (mostly small talk but not limited too) so its hard for me to fake a genuine chuckle of agreement when I hear some wise guy say "what would you do if I asked to sample every flavor". It wasn't even moderately funny the first time. Its just a way for me to uncomfortably nod my head to keep the transaction moving. That line (and others that are quite similar to it) are on my short list of pet peeves for that job. I hate dealing with dill weeds thinking they're clever by stating the obvious (example: if its cold outside/ snowing and people walk in and say "great weather for ice cream eh?"), or kids that are too scared to order their ice cream by themselves (example: kids that look no younger than 13 that whisper their order into the ear of their mother {while standing feet away and holding eye contact with me}and have her tell me, really?), or obviously dealing with morbidly obese sugar raged costumers. But, other than that, my job is a piece of cake (sorry about the cake pun, I don't think its funny ether).

     So anyways (sorry about the tangent), I was working and some guy says that line (you know: "what would you do if I asked to sample every flavor"). And I awkwardly chuckled and he chose his flavor and I rang him up and he left. Well, I decided that the only way to never have to reply to that question with an awkward chuckle was to actually sample every single flavor. And so I did. I got a cup and 48 taster spoons (I know I know, Its Baskin Robbins 31, theres only supposed to be 31 flavors. Welp, Baskin Robbins actually has over a thousand flavors that get circulated and discontinued and we have enough room for 48, so, I tried 48 samples). I tried them one-by-one and dumped them into the designated used spoons cup. I tried to savor and assess/rank each flavor because I had yet to try some of the ice creams. Mainly the unappetizing sounding ones like gingerbread and mustard (if mustard was in fact a real flavor, I guess I would have to try it outta curiosity). But the moral of the challenge is this: its not worth it. There is too much clashing of flavors to really enjoy any of them and you get kind of disgusted with it. My suggestion is to simply sample a flavor (love potion 31, its the best), then continue to sample it. Say that you couldn't get a descriptive taste or that you want a sample with  a caramel chunk. Or just ask, I'll do it. There's how you get free ice cream for life. Your welcome.

Here's the list of every single flavor: Gingerbread, White Chocolate Yogurt, Chocolate Overload, Vanilla Yogurt, Raspberry Chip, Lemon Blueberry, Tropical Ice, Daiquiri Ice, Rock N' Pop Swirl, Rainbow, Bubblegum, Orange, Carmel Turtle, Wild N' Reckless, Aloha Brownie, Peachy Raspberry, Peanut butter & Chocolate, Oreo, Reese's, Snickers, Cookie Dough, Butter Pecan, Gold Medal Ribbon, World Class, Jamoca, Jamoca Almond Fudge, Pistachio, Coconut, Apple Pie, Love potion 31, Chocolate Mousse, Mango, Pralines N' Creme, Vanilla, Strawberry, Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, Mint Chip, Rocky Road, Cherries, Black Walnut, Quarterback Crunch,Chocolate Escape, Chocolate Almond, Icing on the Cake, Chocolate Fudge, Strawberry Cheesecake, and Red Velvet Cake.