Strawberry, chocolate or vanilla?
After Little League baseball games or Boy Scouts, we would sometimes be chaperoned to the soda bars of the local drugstore or Woolworth’s five-and-dime. We were overwhelmed by the treats on offer: milkshakes, cherry cokes, root beer floats, hot fudge sundae’s…
The difficulty was choosing. But with a discerning adolescent palate we might turn-down a sundae for being too fancy and filling; decline a cherry Coke for being too tooth-curlingly sweet and dither over the messiness of a float. A milkshake, however, was nearly perfect – no spoons – not too rich – not too sweet – cold and refreshing. Shakes came in a trinity of flavours: strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla. You can tell much about a person’s character by the flavour of milkshake they choose. I know if I am out with my three boys they can safely order one of each flavour and satisfy each of their distinctive temperaments. One flavour variation was the malt – made by adding malted powdered-milk to the milkshake. It’s a powerfully rich and thick drink, almost impossible to suck through the straw.
Before American diners arrived on these shores the only way you could enjoy a shake was to make it at home. On hot summer days, we would clear the kitchen decks; get out the blender; raid the cupboards, fridge and freezer – and start mixing, blending, shaking and spilling…
Fast-food shakes of any description will not be the same as a classic soda bar or diner shake. Soda bars use real ice cream – not the pre-whipped streams of machined foam. These days we can reliably re-live our memories by ordering shakes from the many American diners dotted around London. They all make their shakes from real ice cream. Try the The Diner in Grafton Street Soho, Fat Boys Diner in Trinity Bouy Wharf and the Ed’s Easy Diner chain. You will get a great shake from these and other genuine diners. The Tinseltown chain with outlets in Farringdon and Bayswater seem to specialise in shakes and boast 45 different recipes. But, I’m reassured to see, shining-out at the bottom of their menu, three classic flavours: strawberry, chocolate and vanilla!