Shore Eats- Battle of the Banana Split
She Said – Cool trio of delight!
“Eat around the banana, dad! It’s just empty vitamins” – Bart Simpson. I like fruit. It’s manna from heaven, yada yada… I’m not sure I want it on my ice cream though. I prefer my ice cream to mingle with the cocoa bean. So you can imagine my trepidation when I walked into Johnny B Goode on 14th Street intent on ordering a traditional banana split. In case you haven’t “split” recently or are an alien invader, a traditional has a halved banana with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream topped with pineapple, strawberry and chocolate sauce. It’s then covered in whipped cream and finished with a cherry. A simple dessert, really.
As I approached the girls working and asked them for the split, they said back, “what ice cream would you like?”
And bam…. Mind. Blown.
Since my entire ice cream world was flipped on its head, it took me a few seconds to get my equilibrium back and order. My cool trio was fudge brownie, chocolate chip, and coconut mounds topped with peanuts, peanut butter sauce, and hot fudge (yes, you can pick your toppings too!) It was rich, creamy and cool… and eating it felt like a decade of decadence. Yes, I did eat some of the banana and no, I didn’t share.
He Said – A split decision!
All I wanted was a traditional banana split, but I took one of my children along and well, that meant what I wanted no longer mattered. All y’all parents feel me I know. Luckily the folks at Prep’s Pizzeria and Dairy Bar are patient and have a super selection of yummy ice cream so it all worked out fabulously. In case you didn’t know, a traditional banana split is vanilla, chocolate and strawberry topped with pineapple sauce, strawberry sauce, hot fudge, whipped cream and a cherry on top. But my son Finn came along and he wanted in on the action. Here’s what we came up with; vanilla, chocolate chip cookie dough and salted caramel ice cream with hot fudge, marshmallow and gummy bears with whipped cream and rainbow jimmies. Sometimes you have to compromise in life. Finn and I laughed as we tried to come up with flavors we could both live with, and Prep’s always serves quality ice cream – good flavor and good texture. Believe me, low-quality ice cream is noticeable at the first taste so I know Prep’s serves good stuff. The split was delicious! Lots of it wound up on our chins and on our shirts because we ate it like we’d never seen ice cream before.