This Shit is Banana

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

My mother, who is a self confessed ice cream lover, announced the demise of her favourite treat- the decadent Triple Sundae.

I don't know a lot of traditional sit-down restaurants who have an extensive ice-cream menu in the "Desserts" section of their deconstructed menu card/iPad. These joints tend to start and end with a Brownie and Ice Cream or maybe extend it to Gourmet ice cream (the uppercase "g" to appease to the sentiments of food writers around the country). North Indian restaurants will offer you from a variety of kheer, gulab jamun, even ras malai and end with ice cream scoop listing. No effort whatsoever to scoop in the classics, in their existing dog-eared menus.

However, could my mother's declaration be a forewarning into the dying art of doing ice cream right?

Mother describes her perfect All American Banana Split, a second to Triple Sundae as, "...a long, serving bowl with three scoops of ice cream in the centre, surrounded by two bananas split in half on either side. The scoop of ice cream to be adorned with whipped cream and cherry on the top (in the centre) and a careful, delicate drizzle of chocolate sauce... The other two scoops of ice cream to have a wafer on the top..."



Knowing mother, I'm assuming, the ice cream scooped out should not be chocolate (always a fruit flavour) and the bananas should not be too ripe.

To be completely honest, I don't share her love or passion for ice cream. The closest I come to sharing that sentiment is with my understanding of fries, even that is very critical.

Mother's love is pure, unadulterated.

Last couple of times when she was at Nirula's, she returned her dessert and wrote a nasty feedback. Not one fuck was given by the restaurant. Which is a pity, because what she says about people serving this dessert is entirely true. Everyone's doing this as a programmed task, not out of love. You can't cook a storm with programmed code. Mechanical fingers don't do justice to assembling a Sundae or a Split.

Much like the bleak future of time tested desserts. In a city full of cake jars and sweet waffles, we have forgotten the humble ice cream, and the potential it holds.

Last Sunday, I found myself at a popular South Indian restaurant for Drunch. On their Specials menu, they'd listed her favourite. Triple Sundae in all its glory in the middle of Pesarattu and Guava Juice.

I stuck to my Fresh Orange Juice and a Tiffin Thali.

Shamelessly, I told her about it. In response, she nodded her head in disapproval. "Can anyone hate ice creams? That too my child?", her inner monologue conveyed.

Maybe, it's people like me who are the reason why Triple Sundae is dead.


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