‘Ice cream is exquisite. What a pity it isn’t illegal.’ -Voltaire*
I still scream for ice cream!
There’s something about childhood memories of eating ice cream that makes people smile!
Susan Gish writes: Sam and I had a really tough assignment over the summer doing the research for this article (she said sarcastically). But someone has to do it, so instead of worrying about getting rid of those post confinement calories, we only ate salad the days we indulged in double scoops of ice cream. (Ha – don’t you believe that!)
Sam is more of a purist than me, as you can well imagine. His test is to always try the vanilla first. If that is good, he’ll go back for other classics like pistachio or rum raisin. He eats his ice cream in a cup with a spoon. Classy, that.
I always eat mine in a cone. Nice and messy. Generally, I think, kids eat ice cream in cones and adults eat from cups.
(or ‘pots’ as they say here in France). I guess I’m still a kid then!
I’m far from a purist myself – I tend to like more interesting flavors and creative combinations of tastes together.
For example, my childhood memories are of eating watermelon and chocolate ice cream. Together. Double scoop on a sugar cone. At Michael’s Dairy in New London, Connecticut where I grew up. If they were out of watermelon it would be strawberry with big chunks of real strawberries in it. Or sometimes banana. Or black raspberry! My grandmother liked coffee best which was really good too. Then there was the chocolate threaded with peanut butter. Gulp.
Oh, wait! I just remembered the malted milkshakes with chocolate ice cream and a whole banana!
So thick, you couldn’t drink it with the straw. The straw would act as a spoon to scoop it into your mouth.
Waiting in line outside for a half hour and watching each milkshake being made through the glass windows, step by step. It wasn’t torture at all to wait. It was anticipation. To the 10 year old me, this was the bee’s knees.
Now I know what you are thinking. Eww, watermelon and chocolate? Together? Well that’s why there are different strokes for different folks. To each their own, as they say. I imagine this was the reason it was called Baskin Robbins 31 flavors. Everyone has their favorite flavor. It’s all about your own favorite taste combination.
When you see our list below of places that we went to, you’ll probably say: ‘She doesn’t talk about Amorino. She never went to Emki Pop. I can’t believe she never went to that place on Espariat/rue d’Italie/fill in place here! Oh, my gosh, how could she possibly miss that place, it’s the absolute BEST!’
…And that’s where I say, it’s all about taste and what you like! For example, we brought friends to our favorite ice cream shop in Aix and her response was: ‘I didn’t love it but I wouldn’t throw it off the plate. By the way, have you been to that ice cream place in Nice? It’s the best!’
I more than welcome your recommendations of the best ice cream you’ve ever had: feel free to write away in the comments so we can all agree to disagree and put a smile on our own faces thinking about it! For the record, besides Michael’s Dairy, I love any of the Gelato places we’ve been to in Italy. Or maybe my favorite is Bassett’s Butterscotch vanilla in Philadelphia. Berthillon in Paris? Hmm…
Since there’s nothing like a child’s love of ice cream, I asked 10 year old Elisa Le Borgne who lives in Aix, to give me her opinion of a few places:
Her verdict:
Amorino – nice but a bit too sugary
i’Pinguini – delicious – mango tastes like real fruit
Giovanni- lots of ice cream flavour choices and I like how you can also order a crepe or gaufre that they make fresh in front of you.
Weibel- you can only choose one flavour in a pot.
How did we choose which places to go to?
I can answer that by saying that if we saw colors that are not found in nature we would pass by that particular ice cream store. So. Here is our list of where we went to in the Aix area: (in no particular order except starting with our favorite)
Ice cream at i’ Pinguini
—i’Pinguini – Hands down, our favorite in Aix. Their pistache and café are creamy & unbelievable. Love their chocolat noir, fraise, melon, cookies and cream with lovely cream, vanilla speculoos, caramel au beurre salé. Actually we have loved everything we’ve tasted! They have nice sized scoops as well as good cones.
The ice cream is made with local fruits from the region. They use as many local ingredients as possible and have Ecocert certification for the sorbets. The caramel au beurre salé is made with the PDO of Issigny cream (Protected Denomination of Origin). The flagship product is the 70% cocoa dark chocolate sorbet.
La Provence wrote an article about them on 16 September describing how the two friends from Eguilles, Enzo and Alex, trained with a master ice cream maker in Italy. They have been making ice cream in Eguilles for 7 years now, but just opened their first store in the center of Aix. We’ve probably been a half dozen times in the past month. Also last week they opened a larger laboratory in Eguilles where you can sit outside on a terrace and relax and eat your ice cream. You might have seen their cute 3-wheeled ice cream truck at the Journées des Plantes d’Albertas. Shoot. We have yet to try the soft serve ice cream they make. We’ll probably get that tomorrow after this article is posted.
—Leonard Parli – Although known for their calissons, they have a little cart outside of their shop on rue Gaston Saporta. They win for their unique flavors of ice cream used with ingredients from their confectioner: calisson d’Aix, chocolate with clementine confit, kirsch with fruit confit, biscotin d’Aix, nougat blanc, nougat noir, ispahan which is framboise sorbet with litchi. Scoops are small, cone was big and tasty, prices high.
—Philippe Faur – Stracchiatella and chocolate noir were very good. He is a Maître Artisan Glacière.
—Segond – They offer pre filled cups only – We had vanilla, chocolate and miel pignon. The vanilla with vanilla beans was very good, the milk chocolate was kind of old fashioned and I liked it. Perhaps they were not as fresh tasting from being pre-filled.
—Wiebel -From the cart outside the shop, they also offer cups only, but not pre-filled. Last year we liked their flavors but didn’t try them this year. I am dying to try their ice cream cakes, but not sure how to get one home! I suppose they offer dry ice or similar.
—Bechard – Didn’t get to them this year either, usually a line at the cart outside when we went by.
—Giovanni – A lot of tourists but decent ice cream. It’s nice to sit there on the Cours and watch the world go by.
Outside Aix:
—Le Quillé Glacier -We have been to both of them, the one at the top of the hill in Miramas with the lovely view,
Temptation at Le Quillé
and in La Roque d’Anthéron. La Roque is the one we went to with a friend recently. Sam and I split 6 boules: banane, rhum raisin, grand marnier, caramel beurre sale, pistache, chocolate noir, ouganda carmelized almonds. Guess who chose the flavors, ha! No vanilla for me! Our friend had 3 boules: vanilla, caramel au beurre sale and mint chocolate chip. They also have a huge menu of themed sundaes with chantilly and all sorts of things to go on top, or with alcohol in them. Nice outdoor seating with lots of space at both locations.
—L’art Glacier– Ansouis – Didn’t get to them this summer, but really liked it a few other times. Gorgeous view, outdoor seating, large menu with sundaes and chantilly, etc. like at Le Quillé.
Note: L’art Glacier and Le Quillé Glacier are both places where a family can go to celebrate birthdays, sit outside and can easily pay 100 euros for the ‘experience’.
—Maison Casalini – We love the one in Cassis and go every time we are there. Try the pistache from Sicily (which might be even better than iPinguini’s) or amarena. Their chocolate noir rocks. Sam had a different pistachiosso, which was vanilla with pistachio candy-ish crust on top. He also had stracchiatella and a cremino: a hazelnuty/chocolaty combination. There’s another Casalini in Fuveau (thanks, Dana from Tita for that tip!).
-Susan & Chef Sam
*Wikiquote says: “I have seen this quote attributed to Voltaire on several websites: the sentence does not exist in French (no reported written sources). It seems to be a English pseudo-quote, spreading from a fake/joke into the internet”
Addresses can be found on Facebook for all these shops. If you aren’t on Facebook, they’re all in the center of Aix, except for Casalini, Quillé and Art d’Glacier.
i’Pinguini -Place St. Honoré & Eguilles
Leonard Parli -rue Gaston Saporta
Philippe Faur -Cours Mirabeau -Note: they close at the end of October for the season.
Segond -top of Cours Mirabeau
Wiebel -Place Richelme
Bechard -Cours Mirabeau
Amorino -a few locations in Aix
Giovanni -Cours Mirabeau
Art d’ Glacier -Ansouis
Casalini -Cassis & Fuveau
Quillé – Miramas top of the hill & La Roque d’Antheron
aixcentric 
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