Ici, Uci, We Allci.......Great ice cream in Berkeley, at ICI.

A few weeks ago I was in Berkeley having dinner with my mother, aunt, and cousin. After dinner my aunt insisted that we head over to Ici, a relatively new ice cream shop right on college ave. My cousin and I were hesitant, as we both wanted to get back to the city, and there was a line out the freakin door for this place. LONG LINE. But, ice cream did sound good, and I had read about this place in daily candy, so we waited.

It was definitely worth the wait. Ici is housed in a small but stylish shop - the line was long because there was nowhere to stand inside. The service was good - people came from behind the counters to take orders and make the line go faster. You could also see people making ice cream in the back, which was fun. They had a great display case showing a few scoops of each ice cream, plus their ice cream sandwiches and cakes (they call them bombs). They also sell some cookies and things on the counter.

Ici prides themselves on using local ingredients to create their flavors. On the day that I was there, they had orange creamsicle, malted chocolate chip, basil, chocolate, chocolate peanut butter, and a couple of other strange flavors that I can't remember at this time. Oh, cherry - some really good cherry ice cream. I had a little taste of each of those and they were all good, but I settled on the malted chocolate chip. It was served in one of their hand rolled waffle cones - the smell of these things wafts out onto the street outside the restaurant. The cones have a little bit of melty chocolate in the bottom - yum, yum, yum. I thought the servings were good sized - I just had a kids scoop, which is one scoop. A small is two scoops, and so on. It was a nice sized scoop, much more and I wouldn't have finished it. The ice cream itself was deeeelicious - creamy, rich tasting, with these little chunks of malted chocolate all throughout it. The orange creamsicle was also really refreshing - that is one delicious flavor combination. If I had brought a cooler I would have taken home some ice cream, and I definitely want to go back and try a sandwich (they were pretty much out by the time we got there).

I'm not going to rate ici like we do our regular restaurants - but I will say that it was great ice cream, and not too expensive. Perfect to eat as you stroll past the shops on college. Go there, get ici-ed.

For yelp reviews of Ici, CLICK HERE!

Emilia

Chocolate Bar: Sending Me to Chocolate Rehab!

That barbecue sounds fabulous, Em!

I'm in NYC for the weekend, which presents many fun food opportunities. Today my boyfriend and I wandered around to the West Village and found ourselves at Chocolate Bar on 8th Ave. and 4th street. It's a cute, tidy little shop with funky decor including squares of fake grass sitting under the various chocolate products, and an orange and brown color scheme. They're known for their "Liquid Chocolate". It's basically an iced hot chocolate. Super rich. The first sip conjured up images of Augustus Gloop slurping on the chocolate river. It was divine. So rich that I almost fell into a chocolate coma after drinking a few big sips. Luckily we shared it, along with an "Elvis" chocolate-- a fluffy, painfully sweet homemade marshmallow laced with banana flavor, with a chunk of peanut butter in the center, all draped in delicious dark chocolate. It was ridiculously good. It was about three inches in diameter but even splitting it, I could only get a couple of bites down before I started feeling like I might have a chocolate overdose and be headed straight to chocolate rehab-- that and the Liquid Chocolate was just too much! Definitely a case where too much is just enough. I think the word I am looking for is decadent.

I was chatting with the ladies behind the counter about the Liquid Chocolate-- my suggestion to them was that they serve it in a shot glass. Less intimidating, and a smaller portion would really highlight the rich intensity of the stuff. I am a big fan of small portions in general because I find I savor the food much more that way. The ladies showed us a huge bucket of bittersweet chocolate slivers which they scoop into hot whole milk and allow to melt and mix. They then put that over ice, and there you have it, liquid chocolate.

Check it out at www.chocolatebarnyc.com. You can get a feel for it, but you'll have to come out to the city if you want a taste. It's a great alternative to the famous Magnolia Bakery when the line there is too long to bear.

;-p