Connecting Ice Cream, Famous People & Dyslexia

I've written before about famous people and ice cream such as Elvis Presley, Jackie Chan and others as well as a number of former US Presidents who enjoyed ice cream. It's an interesting connection but there are lots more connections that are just as fascinating. Such as famous people (including US Presidents) who have been/are dyslexic. Walt Disney suffered from dyslexia but it didn't stop him founding one of the biggest and best entertainment corporations the world has ever seen. Here is an interesting list of dyslexic famous people - it spans centuries from Da Vinci through to Tom Cruise.

I know several people personally who are dyslexic and one of them, David Allen who is a successful chartered accountant and businessman, was recently presented with a 'Businessman Of The Year' award in recognition of his energy and commitment within the local business and sporting communities. David is one of those people who is always coming up with new ideas, wanting to move forwards and make progress with everything he does.

He even writes an accountants blog where you can read about some incredibly diverse things .... the progress of the football club that he owns .... the fibreglass cows installed on the lawn outside his business premises ... and lots more. Of course David has also written about living with dyslexia on his blog. It's a great post and makes for inspiring reading.

I know that David likes ice cream too which made me wonder just how many successful people with dyslexia also enjoy ice cream. An interesting thought .... some research to be done there I think .... and another blog post for another day!

Green Tea Ice Cream

Green tea ice cream is not the first ice cream flavor that comes to mind but it's one of the more unusual ice cream recipes. It's also surprisingly popular and my green tea ice cream recipe is amongst the top 10 ice cream recipes viewed on my website.

Admittedly it's a rich recipe using cream and eggs but if you're looking for an indulgence to share with family and friends that's just that little bit different, it's certainly worth considering and that's probably the reason it's so popular.

The other reason for its popularity is possibly because more people are becoming aware of green tea's reported health giving properties. For example, green tea is totally unfermented - in fact it's steamed which gives it up to 60 per cent more polyphenols than most other teas. This is one reason why there's also a growing demand for green tea extract as a health supplement.

Green tea is a fascinating subject and if you'd like to read more I have a dedicated green tea web page.

Did you know that movie superstar and marshall arts expert Jackie Chan has put his name to a selection of green teas? I was surprised to learn this because he doesn't exactly need the advertising revenue! However, having read about Jackie Chan's life, career and wonderful charitable endeavours, it's clear he's a man with strong convictions. These include taking a pride in yourself, your health and the world around you. I remember once watching the outtakes from one of his earlier movies called 'Mr. Nice Guy' and after a street scene shot had been completed, Jackie was seen to bend down and start picking up litter from the gutter only to go and put it all in a street litter bin and then calmly walk off with no fuss back to continue filming.

Having just read about Jackie Chan's Tea I'm keen to try some out myself. If you want to do the same, it is now available online - in the green tea products section of the Ice Cream Recipes Online Store (in association with Amazon).

The Story Of The Long Distance Strasberries

Strasberry - no, it's not a misprint and yes it is a real fruit. I recently read about this unusual and rare variety of strawberry and jumped headlong into a 'quest' to find out more and, moreover, to get hold of some strasberries and use them in an ice cream recipe.

It took just under a week from the start of my 'quest' to having a strasberry ice cream batched in my ice cream maker. It was not the easiest of tasks. Here's why:

1. The only place to get strasberries currently in the UK is Waitrose in London.
2. Strasberries are only being sold by them at selected stores and for a limited period.
3. When I rang one of their London branches I was told they had sold out of strasberries.
4. Undaunted by this I enlisted the help of a close friend, a resident of central London, who kindly offered to pursue the matter further.
5. My friend, Mary, then managed to enlist the help of someone else - friendly Waitrose store assistant Neil who said that some more strasberries might be coming in and would reserve some for her to go in, buy and collect.
6. Having trekked down to the store and bought the strasberries, Mary then had to get them to me - via post!
7. They arrived by Special Delivery with our postman fully intrigued by what was in the box. It was leaking strasberry juice! He didn't seem to mind though - his comment was that the smell was wonderful!
8. I immediately unwrapped the strasberry juice-soaked package to find the strasberries still amazingly in tact and placed them in the refrigerator whilst I got ready to make ice cream.
9. Half an hour later, using my own strawberry ice cream recipe as a basis, I was busy making my own strasberry ice cream.
10. The result .... a truly delicious and unique ice cream.

I photographed every step of the ice cream making process so that I had evidence of what I'd done and how different the strasberries looked compared to normal strawberries and full details of my 'strasberry experience' are now live on ice-cream-recipes.com - see:

The Strasberry
My recipe for Strasberry Ice Cream
My Strasberry Photographs

All published and live today 7 April 2008. It's a date I can easily remember as it's Jackie Chan's birthday - one of my son's heroes (and one of mine too!). I've already written about Jackie enjoying chocolate ice cream so it couldn't be a better publishing date.

Having checked extensively on Google, it appears that mine is the very first strasberry ice cream recipe ever published on the Internet. A genuine 'World First'. I'm delighted!

Ice Cream In Movies

I have already written a section on my website about ice cream and famous people. Since then I've been thinking about just how many movies I've seen over the years which feature ice cream in some way or other.

Here's a list of just a few:

• "Charlie & Chocolate Factory" starring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton. The scene in question features the words "Never Melting Ice Cream" on a display board outside a shop with the sign "Fickelgruber Ice Cream"(Fickelgruber was supposedly a fierce competitor of Willy Wonka' s who had stolen his recipe for an ice cream that never melts even when left out in the sun on a hot day).
  
  
• "Hard Day's Night" the 1964 Beatles movie - Clang escapes in a "Mr. Whippy" van (British equivalent of the American Good Humor van)
  
  
• "The Medallion" starring Jackie Chan in 2002 - an outtake at the end of the movie shows Jackie with a serious face confronting the 'villain' and before he can deliver his line, an ice cream truck goes past playing its ice cream jingle. Jackie keeps a straight face and, realising they can't keep the take, says "I want ice cream!"
  
  
• "Borat" the 2006 hit movie in which Sacha Baron Cohen travels across the USA in an old ice cream van.

There's hundreds more! Makes you realise just how much ice cream is a part of our society.

Here's a great website if you're interested in researching movies imdb.com

Chocolate Ice Cream: Why It's So Good

Two of the most delicious foods of all time have to be CHOCOLATE and ICE CREAM. Each one in its own right is a treat almost second to none for many people and chocolate and ice cream in one combination .... well, that's hard to beat!

I've made lots of homemade ice cream and whenever I make chocolate ice cream I never seem to be able to get the first batch served or into the freezer without being able to resist a taste! And it seems I'm not the only one with a love for it - my chocolate ice cream recipe is one of the most popular on ice-cream-recipes.com, second only to vanilla ice cream in the number of daily page views.

Chocolate ... a few interesting facts

1. The melting point of chocolate is 34°C (just below human body temperature), hence that wonderful 'melt in the mouth' quality it has.


2. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine - a known mood enhancer, hence why so many people claim it makes them feel better when they eat chocolate.


3. Some of the oldest people on record claimed to be big chocolate eaters - one who lived to 119, the other to 122 and both of them women.
   
   Read more about chocolate

Two world famous faces reported to have a love for chocolate ice cream are Elvis Presley and Jackie Chan.
Read more about famous people and ice cream