By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

A friend and I differ in our tastes in ice cream. As much as I like chocolate (her usual pick), I also love the fruit-flavored ones, for example, blueberry, key lime pie and banana cream pie. She thinks ice cream and fruit should not mix. While she sticks to her usual choice, I also like to try different flavors just for the fun of it – sometimes the more exotic the better.

However, I’m not sure I would have tried the flavors Salt and Straw offered when its new stores opened recently in New York City. Well, two of the flavors – chocolate babka with hazelnut fudge, and cinnamon raisin bagels and schmear – didn’t sound that bad. But I’m not sure I would ever want to try pastrami-on-rye flavored ice cream. I eat ice cream because it’s sweet. If I want something savory, I’ll get a deli sandwich. But I do understand offering outlandish flavors to generate attention. That obviously succeeded or I wouldn’t be writing about it. (FYI: the flavors were on a limited time offer and are no longer available.)

Thinking about this made me wonder if there are other Jewish flavors. That is, in addition to the periodic jokey ones like gefilte fish ice cream. (At least, I hope that was a joke.) There actually is a Ben and Jerry’s charoset flavored ice cream, but it was only available in Israel last year during Passover. However, search the Internet for “charoset ice cream” and you’ll find several recipes for how to make your own from scratch. For those looking for a short cut, I suppose you could buy a good vanilla ice cream, make the charoset of your choice and then mix the two. 

The next question is, of course, what makes a food Jewish, something we could debate for hours, if not years. Is concord grape ice cream Jewish? How about ice cream made with figs, dates or halvah? Hmm, is an olive oil ice cream Jewish? Maybe anything made with the seven species (the agricultural products considered sacred in the Bible) would work, although I’m not sure I would want a wheat ice cream. I would be willing to try a pomegranate one, though. 
A bigger question is whether ice cream season – at least, eating ice cream outdoors – ends in November. A great number of ice cream stores close for the winter, although there are some that stay open all year. But that’s really a question for a different column.