Summer, sunshine, and Spaghettieis. These are three magical ingredients that never fail to make Germans happy (also vacationing on Mallorca). If you are wondering what exactly Spaghettieis is, why this summer treat has achieved cult status in Germany, and where you can get some ASAP, then read on!
It is no secret that Germans love Italian food. Maybe it has something to do with almost sharing a southern geographical border with Italy or Germany’s general vacation obsession with the land of la dolce vita; (West) Germans cannot get enough of pizza and pasta. For example, where I live in a city of around 50,000 inhabitants, there are an overwhelming amount of Italian restaurants and pizza delivery services to choose from and an extremely disappointing amount of good places to get falafel (currently, zero). Although, due to a sizeable Korean community, we can get some good Bibimbap.
Anyways, back in the 1960s, when the wall was up and a large number of Italian workers were living in Germany due to the country’s post-World War II economic boom, an Italian ice cream shop owner by the name of Dario Fontanella first created Spaghettieis in Mannheim, inspired by the dessert mount blanc (sweetened chestnut puree formed like vermicelli noodles and topped with whipped cream). As Fontanella recalls, his first attempt at creating Spaghettieis with Italian flag colors was rather unimpressive, but after he used vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce and white chocolate shavings that resembled grated parmesan, his ice cream creation looked so much like actual spaghetti that children were brought to tears because they were (understandably) under the impression that they would be served ice cream and not a plate of noodles.
Fast forward many years later, and Spaghettieis is a staple at basically every ice cream shop in Germany. Although, it should be noted, Spaghettieis mostly achieved cult status in West Germany, which could be because most of the Italian laborers immigrated to the west German states to work in the mining, construction and manufacturing industries. Two of my coworkers who grew up in East Germany informed me that East Germans are not as hyped up on Italian food and Spaghettieis as the West Germans; although, I am positive you could find Spaghettieis in Berlin (but make it vegan and order in English).
Inspired by Herr Fontanella and his novel idea that forever changed how Germans eat ice cream, I myself have a few suggestions for ice cream creations based on popular German foods. (A special thank you to my husband and CoPilot for creating these images - what kind of world did we live in before mass AI?)
Sauerkrauteis
In some circles abroad, Germans are known as Krauts. I, for one, have always liked sauerkraut and therefore, it was a no-brainer to turn this delicious German food into ice cream.
Käsespätzleeis
The vanilla ice cream used to make Spaghettieis is actually run through a Spätzle press or potato ricer to resemble spaghetti noodles, so why not just make actual Käsespätzleeis?
Wursteis
Yesterday, at the dentist, when asked what he drinks, my three-year-old replied “Wurstwasser” (sausage water). Although I have yet to see my son eat an actual Wurst, this Wurst ice cream sundae looks a lot more appetizing to me than Wurstwasser.
Rollbrateneis
Germans like to eat their meat, and in my humble opinion, one of the tastiest ways of preparing said meat is in the form of a good Rollbraten. Equally tasty would be Rollbrateneis, with, instead of a gravy sauce, chocolate sauce oozing out of the cone.
Hopefully, these ideas will catch on and one day, we will all be able to enjoy not only Spaghettieis during the summer, but delicious German food-inspired ice cream treats, as well.
This is so funny and how could I have missed it! My kids love wurst and they love ice cream... so you know which of you creation they'll pounce on!