Beat the Heat

When I was younger, we didn’t have air conditioning at home. Back then, you had to think creatively to beat the heat. Growing up in Brooklyn, my brother and I joined our friends by the open fire hydrant or walked over to Tony’s Pizza around the corner for Italian ices.

We loved rainbow flavor ices but couldn’t have them all the time. Mom yelled at us when we bought anything other than lemon flavor because that was the only “natural” flavor (a.k.a. no food coloring). Nevertheless, rainbow has remained a favorite of mine over the years.

On a 90-plus degree day such as today, I still think of a rainbow ice as the only way to cool down. Ices are more substantial than a cold glass of water but not heavy enough to weigh you down like ice cream or yogurt.

Since it was only a short drive away, we decided to try Ralph’s Famous Italian Ices on Park Blvd in Massapequa Park. They had numerous sizes from small all the way up to pint and quart sized containers. I usually like to eat ices the old school way by pushing them out of small paper cups. However, this time, I have to forgive myself for ordering the larger size Styrofoam container and eating with a spoon given that a heat wave is going on.

Ralph’s serves water ice flavors such as cherry, lemon, cotton candy and, of course, rainbow. The rainbow flavor tastes a little sweeter than the pizzeria ices, but it’s still good and refreshing. They also have cream ice flavors such as coconut, vanilla chip, spumoni and cremalata which I haven’t tried yet but plan to. It would be nice to have a good spumoni ice without having to drive to all the way to Brooklyn!