Sliced ice cream
Summertime in Finland is all about ice cream. I remember ice cream in Russia being more of a year-round thing (or if anything, more of a wintertime activity), but here, there are ice cream stands everywhere you look during the summer months. However, while convenient and delicious, these ice cream stands charge too much (in my opinion) for a cone for us to justify it - it's €3 for a basic cone. But of course when it's our whole family, that's not a €3 expenditure - it's a €15 expenditure.
Fortunately, there are small grocery stores all over the place. There, you can raid their ice cream freezers (often located conveniently close to the check-out) and find varieties for as little as €0.30. Store-brand single ice cream cones are around €0.50; name-brand ones are about €1. This is what we usually end up doing to get our summer ice cream fix.
Miriam's favorite:
Magdalena's favorite:
Sterling's favorite:
My favorite (though I also like mint; Sterling also likes this kind - very Finnish of him!):
But if you're at home and don't need a portable form of ice cream, the best way to go is to buy a carton of it. Right now, vanilla ice cream is €1.50 for a liter. And my favorite part is that you slice it into servings.
No more scooping deep into a container and hitting rock-hard ice cream, getting your knuckles and wrists all sticky! No more having to even use an ice cream scoop! No more siblings squabbling about who got more! No more standing there scooping and scooping while other people are already enjoying theirs! You just slice it into equal, individual portions and serve it. DONE.
I remember Lucerne brand ice cream having this kind of carton when I was a kid (but I'm sure it was 2L, not 1L size). But I don't remember ever serving it/eating it this way. But it makes so much sense! My recollection the last time I was in America was that most ice cream brands are not sold in cartons like this anymore (or never were) - the fancy cylinder format seems to be preferred. And you can't slice a cylinder (at least not the fancy kind).
So hooray for sliced ice cream!
