Ice Cream! Ice Cream! Ice Cream!

Also great tortillas. A vintage menu. And my guiltiest pleasure...

I offer up this early article of mine for three reasons.

In the first place, because it’s so much fun.

Also because, in this age of ice cream inflation, it’s astonishing to recall a time when 69 cents seemed like a LOT of money for an ice cream cone.

But mostly because this article taught me a great deal as a freelance writer.

It was 1977, and I was just getting started. Which means that for big-deal publications like New West Magazine (sister publication of New York Magazine), I was relegated to “service articles”. The assignment for this particular piece was to survey the best ice cream shops in the Bay Area.

I dutifully went off and tried them all, comparing the various textures, prices and depth of flavor. I sampled cones, compared chocolates. Then, just as I was finishing up, I came upon this quirky little shop in Oakland, fell in love, threw out all my boring research and turned in this article.

It was taking a chance: this was not the assignment, not part of the contract. But it just seemed so much more interesting.

Luckily, my editors agreed. They not only published the article, they commissioned three more pieces. Oh yes - and made me their restaurant critic.

The closest I’ve come to Mary B. Best is Fortune’s Ice Cream in Tivoli New York, which makes the most extraordinary ice cream. Using seasonal local ingredients they churn out flavors like Sour Cherry Labneh, Peach Buttermilk, Chocolate Pretzel and (on occasion) Mulberry.

If you are anywhere in the neighborhood, you need to stop in.

Ever since The Bite closed down in Martha’s Vineyard I have been in mourning. I love fried clams - and theirs were the finest I’ve ever encountered.

But last week, on a road trip to Maine, my mourning period ended: I had the great joy of stopping at Bob’s Clam Hut in Kittery. Their clams are fantastic! In fact, everything I tried at Bob’s was first rate. I am still thinking about their superbly simple chowder, a deliriously delicious concoction made of clams, clam broth and cream. Bob is wise enough not to thicken this elixir.

I had a bowl. And then - I couldn’t help myself - I ordered more fried clams.

Pure pleasure. And worth the drive from anywhere.

Speaking of the Bay Area…

By 2004 the entire region had been utterly transformed, and it had lost the innocence of the Mary B. Best days. But I remember this dinner at Fifth Floor as one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten. The chef at the time was Laurent Gras and the sommelier was Belinda Chang. Two of the greats.

They are crazy expensive - at least if you order them by mail. (It’s the shipping.) But Caramelo Sonora-style tortillas are, hands down, the finest flour tortillas I’ve ever purchased.

Made in Kansas, they contain pork fat, duck fat or avocado oil. You simply place them over a burner (or in a pan) for 15 seconds a side and watch them puff up.

I order lots and give the extras to my friends. But lately I’ve been finding them in local gourmet shops. (Hudson’s Talbott and Arding now carries them). It’s worth asking your favorite emporium to stock them.

One bite and you’ll want more.