Amply delicious.

Last Sunday, I spent a truly wonderful afternoon with my friend, Miya, and her adorable daughter, Emi. Emi turned three on Tuesday, and we decided that such an event deserved not only a special story time (we read a chapter of Little House In The Big Woods, part of the set of "big girl" books I gave Emi for her big day), but also a little stroll for something all three of us love: ice cream.

Miya lives in Prospect Heights, a few blocks from Ample Hills, a homegrown Brooklyn ice creamery, and one all of my Brooklynite friends have been bugging me about visiting for ages. I was thrilled to relent, and ordered a single scoop of the salted caramel with crack cookies.

Oh. Mah. Guh.

This is some seriously ridiculous ice cream. It's indulgently creamy, but without that horrid, too-fatty, mouth-coating after effect. It's blended with just enough air to go down easy, but not so much that it enters the dreaded frothy territory. And the flavor. My GOD the flavor. The salted caramel comes through strong and clear - unlike so many caramel-flavored things, this one actually retained the slightly bitter, almost burnt quality of good caramel, and the salt was wonderful against the sweet, buttery crack cookies (shortbread coated in dark chocolate).

Emi was kind of mad that I didn't give her a lick, and says I owe her two next time. We'll see about that.