Silumtaneous Cool + Heat

God it’s hot outside. How hot? So hot the frigid, frostbite-inducing blasts of restaurant air conditioning actually feel good. Now is the perfect time for ice cream — oh no, wait. Sorry. The perfect time for ice cream actually begins next Wednesday, June 24th, which coincidentally coincides with the return of Rosa Mexicano’s annual Festival de Helados — also known as the Spicy Summer Ice Cream Festival. The Mary Brickell Village restaurant will be featuring boldly flavored Mexican-style ice creams, like the sort sold from street carts in that country. Get a load of these flavors:

Coco con Cáscara de Limón Cristalizada (coconut & candied lime zest); Crema de Cacahuete y Chocolate de Oaxaca (peanut butter and Oaxacan chocolate); Aguacate (salted avocado and butter); Comote y Pasas en Ron (sweet potato and rum raisin); Camino Rocoso (Mexican Rocky Road with white coffee ice cream, Mexican chocolate chips, chocolate marshmallow swirl, and toasted almonds); poblano pepper; prickly pear/blueberries; pineapple/cinnamon. Oh yeah — vanilla, too. Choice of 3 will go for $8.50, but I’d recommend 6. That’s what I meant by “get a load”.

Other new summer desserts include Guacamole de Postre (in photo), prepared tableside with salted avocado-and-butter ice cream served in a frozen molcajete mixed with fresh strawberries, white chocolate shavings, Mexican wedding cookie crunch and chopped mint leaves — plus chocolate-dusted sweet tortilla chips and sweet tomatillo sauce ($12.00 for 2 people).

Now try telling me you wouldn’t commit some unspeakable act in exchange, right now, for a big bowl piled high with scoops of these ice creams. Me too, but I suppose we won’t have to if we wait for Wednesday. The Festival runs until July 19th.

Wed., June 24, 2009