Part of my advancing age involves being willing, even wanting, to eat a dish of vanilla ice cream. I still like rocky road and love Cherry Garcia, and I eagerly buy feijoa gelato in season and will sample all the rest of the flavors. But on a given weekday, a little vanilla after dinner is just fine. I am my own grandpa.

But it’s become increasingly hard to find hard ice cream here in NZ. When I was growing up, I got in trouble more than once for bending spoons trying to scoop ice cream. In my Consumer Reports phase, I pored over ice cream scoop comparisons… you had to get a good one.

But most of what we can buy here is just way less dense than that. You can scoop it with a regular spoon no problem. In your mouth, it instantly turns to foam. Blech.

While I was in Pittsburgh, Lee stayed in Houston with her family and got to catch up on many of the silly things you miss when you’re an expat. Including her old favorite Blue Bell ice cream.

And yes, it’s just as hard as it’s supposed to be. So… at least now I know that it’s a Kiwi problem rather than a worldwide ice cream enshittification.