Showing posts with label italian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label italian. Show all posts

Thursday, 12 January 2012

amo il gelato, i love you ice cream

So, I've been feeling a bit down in the dumps the past few days.  My mam knows when I'm not feeling good, it's like she can read my mind.  It's quite scary really...but I love that she knows me so well.  She really is my best friend in the world.


Anyway, yesterday she promised me she'd take me to perhaps my most favourite place EVER.  And I mean ever ever ever.    It's even better than my squidgy bed with two duvets, although after a I've visited this place, it usually ends up me lying in said bed, in a sugar induced half-comatose state.


Two words.  Lickety Split.  The number one destination in the North-East of England for ice cream lovers.  Situated on the coast front in the small seaside village of Seaham, about 10 minutes drive from where I live, Lickety Split is the place to be if you're in need of a sugar/feel-good fix in the form of a delicious ice cream sundae!


Growing up with ice cream playing such a huge part of my heritage (my mam's father was from the italian Minchella family, who have an ice cream business in the North-East),  I've had my fair share of gelato.  So much, I think I'm a pretty good judge of what makes an excellent ice cream.


From outside, Lickety Split doesn’t look special, but once inside it’s as if you’ve entered a genuine 1950s diner- think the sort of place which would be fit to be the hangout of the Pink Ladies and T-Birds. Every detail has been considered to offer an authentic experience- from the juke box, to kitsch neon light signs, checkered floor and red leather booths, not forgetting a smattering of vintage posters on each wall.  


My camera was playing up, so I didn't manage to get any decent photos of the interior :( but here are some moutherwateringly delightful shots of the ice cream sundaes!  (I know you'll be tempted to lick the screen, but don't, trust me - you won't be able to taste it and you'll look very strange if someone walks in whilst you're doing it).


Safe to say, my resolution for 'healthy eating' has well and truly been broken.  I think I gained half a stone just from looking at it.










My mam eventually settled on the 'Cherry Lee Lewis' (left), a concoction of chocolate ice cream and morello cherry ice cream, topped with fresh cream and pistachios, and with a filling of warmed sour cherries in syrup.  I created my own sundae (right)- bubblegum ice cream,  Hannah Montana ice cream (pink bubblegum icecream with Smarties) and banana ice cream with fresh cream, fudge chunks, mini-marshmallows and bubblegum syrup.  Safe to say mine probably contained enough E numbers to power a whole classroom full of 5-year olds for a few hours.


We ate every last drop, with my mam even dropping and smashing her sundae glass, trying to get the cherry syrup out of the bottom. CRINGE.




What's the best ice cream you've ever had?

Do you know a place which you think could rival Lickety Split?

xo

Sunday, 8 January 2012

hip-hip hooray!



As promised earlier, here is the post on the fabulous news that I received the Kreativ Blogger Award, as nominated by Jennifer at Inordinately Plush.  If you haven't checked her blog out already, do it NOW.

It's a great feeling knowing people are reading and enjoying what you have to say.  So stay tuned, because I still have plenty left to say...


So, here are the rules if you have been tagged in this post:

1. Link back to the person who gave you the award.
2. Answer the 7 questions below.
3. Award 10 other bloggers and let them know.
4. Share 7 random facts about yourself.


1. Name your favourite song: Atticus by The Noisettes, everything about the song is perfect..."to kill a mockingbird is to silence the sound that seduces you..".  And the fact it's sung by Shingai Shoniwa, who I have a massive girl crush on.



2. Name your favourite dessert: Hmmm...it would have to be treacle sponge and custard.  I remember being at school, and everyone would moan if our year group was on last sitting for dinner time. I would secretly love it, as the cooks would give me all of the leftover treacle sponge so they didn't have to throw it out.  Yes, I am a greedy cow.


3. What ticks you off? Bullying in any shape or form.  It's the lowest of the low.


4. When I'm upset, I...play some piano or guitar, music is a great way of letting go of pent up emotions. 



5. Favourite pet? My first, and only pet, well apart from goldfish- they shouldn't count as pets, was my guinea pig Fidget.  He was so adorable- ginger and white, with brown ears and little pink feet.  I used to swaddle him up in a blanket like a newborn baby and bottle feed him.  I wish I was joking, but I'm really not.  *Please don't phone the RSPCA*


6. Black/White? Black without a doubt.  Sometimes I will end up wearing a full black outfit, and not even realise it till I look in my full-length mirror and see I look like the Grim Reaper.


7. Biggest fear? Losing the ones I love.  



8. Everyday attitude? I'm a self-confessed pessimist, but I'm working on that.  I think my problem lies in the fact I'm a perfectionist...I always feel like I can do better and I'm  massively scared of failure.


9. What is perfection? Nobody or nothing is perfect, but some people are pretty close to it, just by being who they are.


10. Guilty pleasure? Going to bed early to watch QI on the Dave Channel.  Stephen Fry is God.



7 Facts About Me:
I have a weird crush on Derren Brown. I'm half-Italian, from my mother's side. I’m the most determined person you'll ever meet. It makes me feel physically sick when people use the word "nom". I'm allergic to all furry animals, but I WILL be a crazy cat woman when I'm older. I found a £3000 diamond in an envelope when I was about 8, it had dropped out of the postman's bag as someone had ordered it specially to be custom-made into a ring- I returned it and got a £5 reward. I believe in ghosts.