My First Encounter with Spumoni

So I was paging through my Big Book of Stuff before going on the air and I noticed it was National Spumoni Day.

For those of you who have never had Spumoni, it's an Italian dessert consisting of layers of ice cream, whipped cream, candied fruits and nuts.

It's also typically made with three layers of flavors - chocolate, pistachio and cherry. Each layer is then mixed with fruits and nuts. Its very good.

To be honest with you though, I can't really tell the difference between Spumoni and regular ice cream.

In fact, I can't really tell a difference between Spumoni, Custard, Yogurt or Ice Cream. It all tastes the same to me.

The cool thing about Spumoni though is it's typically served as a slice. According to an Italian friend of mine, you NEVER scoop Spumoni.

I remember the first time I tasted Spumoni. We were visiting some friends of my grandparents and they served it for dessert.

At first glance all I could see were the nuts and candied fruits - YUCK! Like most young kids, nuts and fruits were not very high on my "Like List."

But after seeing how it was served - by the slice - I actually thought it was pretty cool. All I could think of was, "Wow, this must be how the rich people live."

Us poor people, we have to have our ice cream in a bowl. Rich people cut theirs like cake and serve it on a plate.

My mom jokes that for several weeks after that Sunday dinner I insisted on having my ice cream served on a plate.

After all, that's how the rich people do it. They eat their ice cream on a plate with a fork and mow their lawns diagonal - but that's a story for another day.

Happy National Spumoni Day.

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