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Snack Situation 073: Lindy's Italian (Water) Ice
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Matt and Marlene try five flavors of store-bought Italian ice, also known as water ice, to see if it can possibly measure up to what you can get at Rita's and other spots.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
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Introduction to 'Snack Situation'
00:00:29
Speaker
Hello hungry people and welcome to Snack Situation. This is the show where I, Matt Wilson, hello hungry people and welcome to snack situation this is the show where i matt wilson And I'm Marlene Thompson. She's balancing a spoon on her nose right now. I actually didn't know I could do that. You're it's're doing a great job. Thank you.
00:00:55
Speaker
I think my nose, I think my little Roman nose is just really helpful. Really works real well. We try snacks and bring the information, our judgments, are expert opinions to you, the listener.
00:01:13
Speaker
And it's July. It's hot out there. yeah Yeah, it's July. It's hot out there. Okay.
Exploring Lindy's Homemade Italian Ice
00:01:23
Speaker
So what better than some frozen refreshment to try Snack Situation this month in July?
00:01:31
Speaker
and What are we trying? Well, I was at the supermarket and I saw these in the freezer section and I was like... That's fascinating. got to know what Marlene.
00:01:42
Speaker
Was it fascinating? That's fascinating. I got to know what Marlene thinks of these. Okay. This is five flavors of Lindy's homemade Italian ice. Water ice.
00:01:55
Speaker
Which in the Philadelphia region but is referred to as water water ice You know, you know what's ah what i I realize that people don't understand what a gelati is.
00:02:07
Speaker
They know what gelato is. they've never of. They know what Italian ice is, but they've never heard of a gelati unless you've been to a Rita's water ice or you've been in the Philly area. gelati is custard or soft serve ice cream, usually vanilla, ah water ice in between, and then like ice cream slash custard on top.
00:02:27
Speaker
Right. It's not even gelato. It's custard. No, it's so good. It's so good, man. Vanilla ice cream, Rita's strawberry water ice. Can't go wrong.
00:02:38
Speaker
So here's here's the thing about this. I want to judge this on two different levels. Okay. One is going to be flavor, obviously. Yeah. So we have five different flavors. There are actually 12 flavors of Lindy's. That's too many.
00:02:53
Speaker
Homemade water ice, but this is homemade Italian ice. Water ice. But...
Taste-testing Begins: Lemon Flavor
00:02:58
Speaker
Just buying these five flavors took up so much space in our freezer. Yeah, it did. Because we have, well, what is it? There are three boxes, right? There are three boxes. One box is all lemon.
00:03:11
Speaker
All lemon. And then there's a box that's cherry and blue raspberry. And then there's a box that's strawberry and watermelon. so But there' there's an orange flavor. There's like combination flavors. There's like flavors like they combined like strawberry and watermelon. oh um I mean, we could do that right now. you do that right now, yeah.
00:03:33
Speaker
And then there's like like sweet non-fruit flavors. There's like coconut and... Well, I guess coconut's still a fruit. That's Harrison. That's Harrison.
00:03:46
Speaker
um But like, I think there was like a chocolate one. Yeah. Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. I don't want chocolate water ice. Okay, but we're going to try these, and i wanted to I want to judge them on flavor and texture.
00:03:58
Speaker
I want to know if this is what you if this is correct for you as far as the texture of water ice. Yeah. Another thing I've got to point out before we get started. Oh, my God.
00:04:10
Speaker
Okay, never mind. No, tell me. I tried one of these. Because i was like... What the fuck, Matt? Yeah, I know. Real problem.
00:04:21
Speaker
No, I tried a lemon one. And... What I discovered was that if you keep these in the freezer... They get, like, absolutely rock solid frozen. i mean they get rock hard? They get rock hard in the freezer. They get... They they are very, like... it They're just frozen into, like, solid ice.
00:04:44
Speaker
And so... That is not anyway a preferable way to eat this. No. It's not like a popsicle. So like we let these kind of soften up and melt a little bit in the refrigerator before we started this.
00:05:00
Speaker
And if you're going to try these yourself, do not try to eat them right out of the freezer because they are going to be yeah just totally frozen solid. yeah um Since I've already tried a lemon, do you want to try lemon first? Sure.
00:05:14
Speaker
This is also the one we have the most of. Great. Because there was a box just of women. Oh, you know we could do? could make a little, like, frozen drink situation these. We could, yeah.
00:05:27
Speaker
Okay, they're still a little more frozen than maybe want them to be.
00:05:34
Speaker
hold on. it to me. That's Are you loving these sounds, listener? Chopping the ice.
00:05:40
Speaker
Hold. Please. All ready. I get the lemon.
00:05:48
Speaker
It's not bad. It's really icy. It's very icy. It's a subtle flavor, which I like. Yeah. It's good. It's definitely too icy.
00:06:01
Speaker
Well, I think that's as much a problem with, you know, it like if you're going to make like a grocery store...
00:06:13
Speaker
yeah you Italian ice. Water ice. It's... Like, that's just kind of like an unfortunate reality, I feel like. It's pretty good. it tastes like it should be... tastes like frozen... Like a frozen lemonade to me.
00:06:29
Speaker
Yeah, that is kind of what it tastes like. Yeah. But in the best way. i mean, it's very refreshing. Like, to eat this on a hot day, that would be... i think it it... That's tasty. If it melted just a little bit more, it would...
00:06:44
Speaker
The texture. we know where Lindy's is based? I'm going to look it up in just a second. It's not actually on these cups, but I bet it's on the box. Okay. so we Should we go and look at it I can go look at it right now Yeah.
00:06:58
Speaker
Should we pause it? No. you Fill time. Okay. ah So, listeners. Matt, here's the thing. He's going to want to get detailed about everything. And some of you might might really like that. Not me. You know why?
00:07:14
Speaker
Because I like to say yes or no. Yay? Yay, this is good. I'll tell you if it's good. If it's not, I'll tell you it's not. And Matt will tell you why.
00:07:25
Speaker
And I'll just be like, it's not good. Okay, this is funny. It's based in Charlotte. charlotte
00:07:33
Speaker
but
00:07:36
Speaker
okay Well, don't know. Okay. Lemon's pretty good. Now I want to try... Strawberry. Strawberry because it's my favorite...
Strawberry and Watermelon Flavors
00:07:44
Speaker
That's um that's the one you always get at Rita's. Yeah. Well, it's my favorite flavor of water ice.
00:07:49
Speaker
That or cherry. Cherry is also a good flavor. Unfortunately... Now this has more of a kind of... Ooh. Ooh, this is very... The texture this is already better. yeah This is a lot better. Wow. Okay. What is it about the lemon that makes it like... Hmm.
00:08:03
Speaker
Ooh. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty good. That's just like not creamy strawberry ice cream.
00:08:16
Speaker
You could make such a good alcoholic drink with this. Am I wrong, though? like it It has the flavor of strawberry ice cream. Well, I mean, it's strawberry. Just not the creaminess.
00:08:27
Speaker
It's strawberry. Strawberry's going to taste like strawberry. But like i'm I'm saying and like that specific strawberry ice cream. Flavor. Like... Fake? Which doesn't... Sort of fake.
00:08:38
Speaker
No, you know tastes like to me? It tastes more like a strawberry candy. Oh, you think so? Mm-hmm. Um... It's really good. I like it. It's definitely, like... Why is the texture so much better for this than for the lemon one?
00:08:55
Speaker
I don't know. I couldn't tell you. that's That's interesting to me. Mm-hmm. Um... This is much more scoopable with spoon. It is. And here's what I'll say.
00:09:09
Speaker
You can definitely just tell that it's like flavored water ice, right? Yeah. But, so like i I like more of like a dense. What I liked about Rita's, and I will say like Rita's is pretty like.
00:09:24
Speaker
It's popular a lot of places now, not just in Southeast Pennsylvania. But when i was a kid and it was just in the Philly area, they would put like real fruit in it. And it was so fucking good. it was so good.
00:09:38
Speaker
Like we would go during the summertime and just get like quarts of it and have it in the house. Do you think that is pretty well in line with the texture of, I feel like that's more or less the texture of Rita's.
00:09:50
Speaker
It's a little icier. Well, that's because it's been in the freezer, I think. Yeah, but I mean, it's ice. It's it's water ice. the Ice. Everything is going to be ice, Matt. I know, but what I'm saying is like that's how it gets the kind of like more crystallized... Yeah.
00:10:06
Speaker
I mean, it's pretty like...
00:10:10
Speaker
don't know. It's not bad. I like it. Alright, we want to do water i a lot yeah let's do watermo all right
00:10:19
Speaker
Ooh. No, this is less. This is like the lemon ones. Not so much. Maybe somewhere in between what the strawberry and the lemon were.
00:10:36
Speaker
Ooh, this tastes like a watermelon candy. And it makes me just want watermelon. Yeah. Already, immediately. and it Yes, it tastes so much... it's it's It's close enough to real watermelon flavor. Yeah, but it tastes like a candy. That it makes you just want to eat real watermelon. I just want a real watermelon. It's good, though, but I just want... I mean, if i've been if it's the summertime and there's watermelon, I'm going to eat watermelon. Like the fruit. That's interesting. I'm not bad.
00:11:09
Speaker
Again, would make a great frozen drink. It seems like... It should be sweeter. You remember that watermelon margarita I got that tasted like a Jolly Rancher? Yes. Yeah.
00:11:20
Speaker
I feel like this should taste like that. I think so, too. This tastes almost... Like a Jolly Rancher. Well, but it's not as sweet as that. No, but it takes but it has... But the flavor of watermelon tastes like it should be the flavor of a Jolly Rancher. Yeah, but this like this is like...
00:11:37
Speaker
It's like they're trying to mimic real watermelon flavor. Yeah. and And to my tongue, for something like this, I'm like, that should be sweeter. To my tongue, it should be sweeter. Yeah.
00:11:50
Speaker
but Okay, that was watermelon. Let's
Blue Raspberry and Cherry Flavors
00:11:54
Speaker
try the blue raspberry. Blue raspberry. We'll save cherry for last. Cherry is good. The blue raspberry looks looks good. The blue raspberry feels like the strawberry. Yes, it's got the that nice textural. And it's blue.
00:12:09
Speaker
Ooh. This tastes like, you know what? This tastes exactly, this is really good. I actually really like this. This tastes just like when I would go to Ocean City in the summertime or Wildwood and you get water ice.
00:12:26
Speaker
It was really good. I like that one. That is the most like authentic like flavor for me for water ice. You know how you would get if you ever like had like the ice cream truck come through your neighborhood when you were a kid and they had the like rocket pops.
00:12:46
Speaker
That were like... It was like red, blue, red, white, and blue. yeah. yeah and And one of them was, one of the flavors was the raspberry. That's what it tastes like.
00:12:57
Speaker
It tastes like cho on it it yeah that's the blue raspberry part of a popsicle. I'm going to try this with the strawberry like right now. Because here's the thing. You can get two water ice flavors in one if you really want. You want to be fucking wild about it.
00:13:12
Speaker
I do have bad news for you as far as Ria's. Those are good tickets are good together. okay with What, are they a Trump organization? No, no, no, no. I don't know i don't know about anything like that.
00:13:24
Speaker
The one that was close to us is gone. God damn it. That was like the... I hate that. There was a Rita's in a shopping center across from a Pan-Asian restaurant that we would go to sometimes.
00:13:46
Speaker
um and And across from Favila's, which is a really good pizza place. It was right beside Favelas. Oh, yeah, well. Across the side, whatever. Yeah. That Rita's became a bagel shop. I don't even know when that happened or how. Oh.
00:14:01
Speaker
and But now that bagel shop is also closed, so like there's nothing in there. There are other Rita's in town, though, that we can still go to. These, um that tastes like... That's good. I want to go to the shore now.
00:14:16
Speaker
Okay. Last one is Cherry. All right, Cherry. How do you feel about cherry as a flavor? Love it. Love it. Okay. Love cherry. I love cherry as well. Cherry is increasingly becoming my favorite flavor for things. It's a pretty good texture.
00:14:37
Speaker
Ooh. Ooh. Yeah. That one hits. That's good. Yeah, that's really good.
00:14:47
Speaker
It tastes like...
00:14:50
Speaker
I'm trying to think what it tastes like. i mean, other than just like cherry water ice, but like it reminds me of something and I can't put my finger on it.
00:15:00
Speaker
Like a freeze pop. It kind tastes like a free. Here's the thing. These taste like they should be freeze pops, but they're much better than freeze pops.
00:15:10
Speaker
i even when i was a kid because it was cut cause it's flavored water yeah that's frozen you you mean like the freeze pops that are like in like a tube of plastic where you cut your mouth on the sides of yeah yeah yeah yeah i remember like feeling like i was supposed to like those when i was a kid and i hated them really yeah i did not like them ever i really liked them I guess I'm just a fan of flavored water.
00:15:37
Speaker
Flavored frozen water. Flavored water ice. the Those are usually... People don't understand when you say water ice because it's contradictory, right?
00:15:50
Speaker
Because it's both of water. they're both It's two different states water. two different states of water. yeah But it just makes this always made sense to me. Even though I am Italian and Italian ice should make more sense to me, I guess.
00:16:06
Speaker
I don't know. I'll just always call water ice. The thing about those freezer pops, I would just let them melt. And then just kind of drink. Drink the juice?
00:16:19
Speaker
Like fruit flavored sugar water instead of eating it as a po That was a preferable way of eating those for me for whatever reason. I really like... im Okay.
00:16:31
Speaker
let frozen Let's... Okay. Okay, so let's go back and forth from bottom to top. So what's your number five?
00:16:44
Speaker
Probably watermelon. My number five is also watermelon. It's interesting, but I hesitate to call it good. I'm going to put blue raspberry and cherry together.
00:16:58
Speaker
got see how that works out. Now that tastes like the shore. That tastes like, okay, I got to try that then. Yep. Yes.
00:17:08
Speaker
Mmm. Mmm. I fucking love water ice. Oh, that's good. I fucking love water ice. Okay. Watermelon number five for both of us. Number four.
00:17:21
Speaker
to I mean, just because the texture, I'd probably put lemon. Yeah, unfortunately. But I love... Oh, it it is a little softer now.
00:17:33
Speaker
It has softened up little bit. Maybe I've heard we were talking about it. Mmm. See, it tastes like a frozen lemonade to me, and I really like that. Yeah.
00:17:44
Speaker
If we were to go by flavor alone, I'd probably put it at But... but Actually, yeah. You know what? I love strawberry, but I don't. They're all, besides the watermelon, they're all really good.
00:17:57
Speaker
Yeah. I think I would put strawberry fourth. Funny enough, because I'm i'm a i'm a we're a lemon documented lemon lover.
00:18:10
Speaker
You're a lemon guy. I'm a lemon guy. um i so I think I'm still going to put say that and it sounds like you're wearing like a Sears t-shirt Sears button up I'm a lemon guy I still think I'm putting lemon number four Because that lemon flavor Is very dull It's like It's missing the kind of like Sour kick that you want from lemon See I think I like that I like this kind of flavor of lemon more It tastes like a lemonade to me
00:18:41
Speaker
i I would like it to have a little more kind of like that sourness. okay so So that's going to be a number four for me. what are you putting at three? What did you say was number three? My three was lemon. My number four was strawberry. All right. I'll go number three, strawberry. Okay.
00:18:56
Speaker
So we just switched. Number two? Number two, think, is going to be blue raspberry. raspberry. And number one for both of those is cherry. Yep. That cherry's good. a che The cherry and blue raspberry, very good. So those two go together.
00:19:09
Speaker
I think they're in the same box.
Comparing Frozen Treats
00:19:11
Speaker
Great. That's good to know. Let me verify. But I think they're in the same box. Yeah. Hang on. Pill time. Okay. I'm just going to keep eating this. And when I say this tastes like the shore, it tastes like when you would ah you're 18 and you go on your first senior week, and or your only senior week, I guess, um and you get somebody to illegally buy you Jack Daniels, you ride...
00:19:36
Speaker
ah Some kind of ride at the shore. And then you go get water ice after. what were you talking about? Blue blue raspberry and cherry are in the same box. Great.
00:19:47
Speaker
Those are very good. Yeah, that's good. Damn. ebra I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it. Cherry's like very similar to the flavor of a cherry starburst.
00:20:01
Speaker
Maybe that's why like it. But I think I'm trying to place it as like don't know.
00:20:08
Speaker
It's like, you know what? It's the flavors of a snow cone. But this ah this is not like snow cone texture. No, no, no, no. no Snow cones, I actually don't really like snow cones, but think they're too icy. I was never a big fan of snow cones for that reason as well, but the crystals of ice are too good. Yeah, don't like it.
00:20:31
Speaker
These two, you know? That blue raspberry is really good.
00:20:37
Speaker
Okay. Okay. All right. That's it. We're just going to eat water rice. We have five open containers water rice here. I wonder what would happen. Ooh, let's do a mix of them all together. let's see what that would taste like.
00:20:51
Speaker
Hold. Hold, please. Hold, please. Look that. Look at that pretty. look up Look at it. this It's quite a rainbow.
00:21:02
Speaker
the The cherry and the watermelon are exactly the same color.
00:21:06
Speaker
The strawberry's a little lighter. you know, putting them all together is pretty good. Okay. I like them.
00:21:16
Speaker
Next to ice cream, i think water ice is my second favorite frozen treat. Because what other frozen treats are there? I mean, custard is my number one. Wow. I love custard.
00:21:29
Speaker
Custard is too... to Rich. Rich. I like it. No, I'm not saying it's not as bad. I'm just saying it's too rich. I can't usually finish, like, a whole thing. But if you give me one of those, like, swirly little, like, chocolate vanilla thing and you cover it in, like, chocolate-covered, well, they call them jimmies, but in Philly, but sprinkles. Yeah. You eat it get the fuck out of here Get out of here. It's so good.
00:21:59
Speaker
Yeah, what are the other frozen treats? I mean, gelato. Oh, gelato might be number one. Gelato is really good. Let's see. What else? What else we got?
00:22:11
Speaker
Let us know what other. Yogurt. That's not a treat. Thumbs down. That's a breakfast. Frozen yogurt. Oh, frozen yogurt. Oh, no. Frozen yogurt. Thumbs down. No, not not good. That just tastes like flavored sweet and white. It's just less good ice cream. Mm-hmm.
00:22:28
Speaker
It's sweet and low ice cream.
00:22:32
Speaker
Or Splenda. that That whole trend for a while of, like, all those places you could go and get, like, a bowl of frozen yogurt and you paid they paid for it by the weight and they had all these, like, toppings and stuff you could get. So bad. Such a scam.
00:22:46
Speaker
Like,
00:22:50
Speaker
bad time for treats. Mm-mm.
00:22:54
Speaker
Just bring me to a stone cold. Get out of here. You know how I said stone cold? I'm not a cold stone.
00:23:02
Speaker
i'm going to call it a stone cold. I've always called it stone cold. Creamery. You were so fucking cool all the time, weren't you?
00:23:13
Speaker
Oh my god. Have some humility, Matt. This is back when it wasn't cool. I did it when it wasn't cool. Alright. That's it. That's it. Thanks for listening.
00:23:24
Speaker
um I don't even
Wrap-up and Listener Engagement
00:23:26
Speaker
know... Now that I know that these are made in Charlotte, I don't even know if they're available outside of our region. Well, go get some water ice, guys. But I guess grocery store water ice is increasingly a thing.
00:23:39
Speaker
I guess. Interesting. Like, I would say this this texture is not quite as good as... Like knock if you went to Rita's or somewhere? Or another water ice stand. Yeah.
00:23:51
Speaker
like Because there are some places not just Rita's, but just like ice cream that have ice cream and water ice in there. Those are really good. But for like grocery store, for frozen aisle, in a plastic cup, water ice, Italian ice.
00:24:09
Speaker
Pretty good. wait We talked for 23 minutes about water ice.
00:24:15
Speaker
Podcasting. ah Let's end it. It's over. If you want to support our podcasting, us talking for 20 plus minutes about water ice, ah you can go to patreon.com slash warrocketajax and kick in as little as a dollar a month to make sure that we keep doing Snack Situation as well as Movie Fighters.
00:24:35
Speaker
the weekly War Rocket Ajax show, Every Story Ever monthly for that show, and Comics Catch-Up. Those are all shows supported by that Patreon, so go do that. You can also ah join the War Rocket Ajax Discord to talk about this show and others.
00:24:53
Speaker
ay You have to be invited to be a member of that Discord, but... Ooh, exclusive. Send us... Just get in touch with us and we will provide you with an invitation.
00:25:05
Speaker
um if you have an idea for a snack you would like for us to try, email us yeah movie fighters cast at at gmail.com. Wait, that's a different podcast. This is a spinoff of that podcast. up clear I'm kidding.
00:25:19
Speaker
ah What else? ah You can follow me on Instagram at Marlene I. Thompson. You can also follow me on TikTok at Mar Thompson. And you can find me and all of my stuff by going to mattdwilson.net.
00:25:34
Speaker
It has links to all my things. Yep. Bye, everybody. Bye. Stay hungry. Bye.