Admitting defeat in the challenge of the cornet
That’s it: I’m waving my white paper napkin in surrender.
The Challenge of the Cornet has gotten the best of me. Eating ice cream every day is harder than you think, especially when oozing chocolat fondant and succulent fig tarts are fighting for that coveted position of my dessert.
However, even if I was defeated by the Challenge of the Cornet, that doesn’t mean it didn’t serve a purpose. For a girl who always finds something she likes and sticks to it, this challenge was more about being willing to open up to the possibility of finding something better.
I’ll admit that I didn’t try the really weird ones, like tomato basil, or the ones that I knew I would hate, like licorice. If I had more time, I certainly would have gotten around to them. But until this point, I tried ones that I genuinely craved, that I truly thought I might love. For the most part, I did—out of all 8493 flavors I tried, there were only two that I wouldn’t have again.
If I hadn’t committed myself to this challenge, I likely would have stuck to four to five flavors all summer—I would have stuck to what I knew, just like I always get a mint-chocolate chip shake at Vic’s at home or a scoop of Pralines ‘n Cream at Baskin Robbins. If nothing else, I’ve learned this summer that you lose nothing by taking big risks—so, why not?
This certainly doesn’t mean I’m going to stop eating ice cream or try a few new flavors whenever I return to Nice. But I officially admit defeat to the challenge of the cornet.
Baileys: It tastes dead-on like Baileys Irish Cream on ice: basically, it’s very, very smooth. Perfectly creamy and without an alcohol aftertaste, it’s the perfect after-dinner dessert to warm you up.
Tiramisu: I’m not usually a huge tiramisu fan, but I’m definitely a fan of this flavor. My biggest general complaint with tiramisu is the taste of alcohol in the dessert, but there was no lingering hint of alcohol in the ice cream. I do think that you miss a bit of the fun of tiramisu when you take out the layered element, but it was delicious just the same.
Tourte de blette: Any ice cream that’s green (other than mint chocolate chip) is a bit weird to me. Tourte de blette, a traditional Niçoise dessert, features a spinach or chard filling in a pastry: it can be either sweet or savoury, but the sweet option is most popular for dessert. Thus, not surprisingly, the ice cream flavor tasted like sweet spinach. Not bad if you like spinach, as I do, but still, it’s a rather odd taste for dessert.
Riz de lait/ Rice pudding: I adore a good homemade rice pudding, especially when it’s still warm from the stovetop. Since this was (obviously) very cold, the taste and texture were much different from what I’m used to. Very creamy without being too sweet, and had the bits of rice that make rice pudding so good. Yum!
Flavors tried: 33
Flavors left to try: 60
