Friday, June 6, 2008

Real Homemade Italian Water Ice






I'm back in Philly. Yesterday, I had my summer's first Italian Water Ice, lemon, of course. If you have never had one, don't confuse the real thing with what you see in frozen food sections with the same name. Or the old 7-11 Slurpee. Or Slushee. It's more like southern, homemade lemonade, but frozen, like a daiquiri. As I was enjoying the water ice yesterday I thought about the simple ingredients: lemons, water, and sugar. On a hot day it's just about the most enjoyable iced drink one can have. As a boy, we would buy them from the front-step, row home vendors in the Italian neighborhood. Somewhere halfway through you started looking for a lemon peel. Now, they are purchased from more respectable companies, but the product is the same, and I still look for a lemon peel.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Somewhere here in Texas I have had a "frozen lemonade", which sounds similar. And, being on a lemon kick at the moment... I WANT ONE!

Francis Shivone said...

I've never had anything like it outside of the Philly area, except in Italy. I'm sure all the major northeastern big cities have it. In the days before A/C it sure went down well. Thanks.

Johnson Blog said...

We love Italian Ice. There are lots of places in Chicago that sell it. My favorite is mango.