The idea is not to make a mess. And this is how you do it. The red ice is hibiscus-ginger-turmeric tea and the yellow layer is frozen dole pineapple chunks (from the can), and I will bring all these flavors together tart-sweet-spicy with grapefruit juice fresh squeezed with agave syrup which you pour into your "popsicle" glass before "licking." Yes, you will drink this ice cream, and I daresay it's a "slow food" treat time-released and perfect for a sweltering and steamy September weekend on the island. And it won't stain your shirt. Watching NHK the other night, a food feature was about parfaits in Tokyo that goes above and beyond the usual mix and milk, adding to it design elements fancifying the dessert, of course this is natural to the stylish Japanese ethos of form and function transcending culinary boundaries. The episode showed a green melon parfait with pistachios and chocolate mint sticks bursting out of a champagne glass - impressive, to say the least. My take today is simple, on the other hand. I don't have accoutrements except colors to play with - and that's the idea, too, heeding the pastry chef in the trendy district of Roppongi finishing up his parfait. Taste is crucial to me to balance with colors and temperature and delight to your need of refreshment on a hot day. I think the ginger goes well with the pineapples and the grapefruit will give it the spritz. Your popsicle will decrease in volume in the glass in the heat of the day - and that's the purpose of containing it there in the enclosure to melt. An icy shot you don't have to suck. The fruits will have a granita quality to it crystalized breaking its substance on your tongue like snowmelt. I have a treat today that will serve me happy like a kid with a fruity popsicle in hand. The experience will be the same for this grown up. And mom will be proud she won't have to clean up. (She's not around anymore, and I have missed her so much.) I have a grandnephew now (my niece's youngster) and he reminds me of me when I was four (his age now) as being doted by mom as my niece is to him and the salve for crying or pain or just being a child is the mighty delicious popsicle, and I see in all these generations lost and renewed the continuity of family matters and the legacy of mama's love carrying on from one child to the next across the same vein. Sometimes people ask me what my blog is all about, is it about food or is it about poetry, and I say it's both, or better I say, I talk about food but I'm really writing about poetry. Poetry uncomplicates things for me, makes life beautiful living it, and I have an ice cream with that, too.
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