ice cream is my favourite.

a few weeks back, the kid and i thought it would be a good idea to roadtest the coppa di gelati at brunetti, a sundae for two to share. it was only on for the summer, and the summer was fast tumbling to its end. i wonder if many coppe had crossed the pass in three months — it had been spruiked on the brunetti facebook page, but the only onsite publicity was a small placard on the counter, turned halfway to the wall. even the countergirl was momentarily confused when we ordered one.

but she seemed excited, and asked us to sit while she prepared it. “it will be a few minutes,” she said. so we sat and waited, and watched — amused — as she walked back and forth between the gelato outpost and the main cafe section to fetch the necessary ingredients: a special dish, a couple punnets of fresh berries… at one point, even the guy from the drinks station was summoned with his siphon of whipped cream. we’d picked the berry coppa (there were two others to choose from, on the themes of “chocolate” and “nuts”).

the kid was excited as well, dancing before the counter to watch the scooping of gelato and the assemblage of… well, you shall see. after quite a few minutes, the countergirl walked slowly to our table, bearing a silver tray. she seemed at once reverent, and proud. she’d done a great job! we may even have applauded.

so. here we have five scoops of ice cream and sorbet: raspberry, strawberry, berry cheesecake and vanilla. whipped cream, berries, coulis, wafers. maraschino cherries. we ate it so quickly, matching each other spoonful for spoonful. in the glow of late afternoon sunshine, it was gone much too soon.

it’s a crazy notion, of course, that a sundae should be just a summer fling. surely a judicious curation of stewed fruit, crumbled cookie crumbs and warm sauces in a coppa would see us safely through the winter.