After our third and most decadent stop at Patria's Zoom-Thru, only one question remained for this merry band led by Liz Valdez, Her Real Name? Would Lady Listicle, Pocket Gourmet, her husband The Unpretentious Handyman and I, Mr. Bites, have any room for dessert? The answer to this question was a resounding, albeit food-coma-experiencing, yes.
However, as into each life some rain must fall, apparently into each Hispanic Cultural Food tour, a cop must stop you. As we were pulling into our dessert destination, Liz Valdez, Her Real Name's luxury SUV was pulled over by a very handsome, very polite and very dutiful officer of the law (please remember this kind description when I'm making that illegal left turn out of my building that saves me four minutes and a U-turn). After a few nervous moments, it turns out, the license plate holder of the Tacomobile had a blue light focused on the plate when only white lights are allowed. Cool. Thank you for letting me share this story in order to kiss up to Naples' Finest. Go Blue.
With our legal woes behind us, we pulled into a large strip mall at 4981 Golden Gate Parkway where a clean, well-lighted ice cream shop called Antojito's y Mas awaited us.
Ice cream is a special thing to me. There is probably no more pure form of deliciousness that brings more joy to more generations than ice cream. I love ice cream so much that I put all sweet treats (except hard candies in the freezer and eat them frozen. Chocolate bars, moon pies, that amazing coconut layer cake from Pepperidge Farm all are eaten out of the freezer in my house. To prove I'm not insane for doing this, as soon as we buy some sort of sweet treat, Boogs runs into the kitchen and tosses it in the freezer. Kid's got great taste.
Antojito's was packed full of bright and smiling families enjoying Friday night dessert after a long work week. The place offers a wide variety of Mexican ice cream and treats, which i would have LOVED to have tried, but apparently even though the rest of our Blogger Bloodhound Gang was ok with strawberry shortcake ice cream, or dulce du leche, Liz Valdez, Her Real Name insisted I try something called a Mangonada.
So, here's the deal. I love pretty much all fruit save raspberries. I eat a LOT of fruit. I have blueberries every morning. Pineapples are a frequently carved item. I find having a fruit bowl in the middle of your dining room table to be some sort of totem. And I love mangos..but I do not like mango-flavored sorbet...But LV,HRN insisted and unlike the other cool kids, I was not allowed to veer away from her intended frozen target.
So mangonada it was...and...it...was...pure deliciousness. It reminded me that if someone insists on something that's the specialty of the house, you try it.
The mangonada is sort of like a sorbet sundae. It has fresh mango on top of Mexican mango sorbet. Sounds simple right? Except then they top the whole thing with some sort of sweet citrus juice and the mango is rolled in that delicious Tajin again. It was pretty spectacular and fresh and despite several brain freezes, I managed to finish the massive one in front of me. I repeat, if something is a specialty of the house, you always try it. While those other suckers were enjoy simple yet delicious ice cream, I was on a cultural mouth adventure full of savory and salty and sweet and tangy.
So at long last we have come to the end of this Odyssean journey into the heart of the Hispanic food culture of Southwest Florida. The trip started with strangers and ended with friends, who I haven't heard from since this trip even though they promised to keep in touch..wait a second...
THE END (or is it..? No..it's definitely the end, I think a four part series on a four hour eating tour is probably enough).
Comments