Just two weeks ago, I lamented that this possibly-magical product wasn’t available near my Los Angeles home. It still isn’t, but it was in lovely Tilton, New Hampshire. Below is a video review.
Posts Tagged: Banana Split Watch
20
Aug 09
DO. WANT. (Can’t. Have.)
Retail price is about a buck, if you can find one.
This is amazing. Banana Split in a Kit, and from Blue Bunny, the maker of ice cream novelties like the Bomb Pop and Power Puff Girls bars.
Awesomeness.
And this is even more amazing - you use the pre-packaged work of genius as raw material for an even more splendid creation:
The official name for this product is the “Personals Banana Split.” Blue Bunny is a midwestern brand, mostly, though we get their fantastic ice cream sandwiches on the west coast (see the note, below.) But when I did a search for retailers offering this unbelievably exciting item – my radius was 100 miles – I got this heartbreaking message:
I guess 387 miles is not considered "a store near you."
I’m sad. In fact, the locator indicates that there’s not a single store selling this product in the entire state of California. I checked Nevada, too. I didn’t get lucky until Utah, where Blue Bunny has a manufacturing plant.
Now, that note: I applaud Blue Bunny’s innovation one zillion percent, but I have a question concerning the three-flavored and strangely-spelled “Neapolitan” variety of their ice-cream sandwiches. What on earth made you guys put strawberry as one of the outside flavors? This is nuts, and here’s why. Strawberry ice cream sucks. Only your weird uncle likes it. Chocolate (which appears on the BB sandwich’s other flank) and vanilla (the middle flavor) are rightly preferred. The issue is one of sequence. With the hated, not-fruit fruit on the exterior, the consumer is stripped of a crucial choice: whether or not to eat their favorite flavor first or last! If you like vanilla, you’ve got to eat it first. If you like chocolate, you’ve got to eat it last. But if strawberry were at the sandwich’s center, where it should be, you could decide, and as a bonus, you’d have the remaining “good” flavor left as a finale to wipe out the residual strawberry yuck. Am I wrong?)
But really, I don’t want to be seen as ragging on the Blue Bunny. I just wish I could get one of those Personal Banana Splits somewhere less than a day’s drive away.
27
Jul 09
Gourmet banana splits are possible.
Unlike the last native-New Yorker banana split I reviewed, this one actually looks unbelievably, beautifully, completely awesome (though being a native New Yorker myself, I still prefer Carvel.) Still, you pay NYC prices for this masterpiece: $14.95. The scoop – har – on this (as well as the picture) came from the serious eats website.
Sugar Rush: Banana Split at Blue Ribbon Bakery | Serious Eats : New York.
13
May 09
No ice cream? NOT a banana split!
The New York Times has been very kind to me, but one has to say that a banana split where:
- There’s no strawberry, pineapple, or chocolate sauce.
- There’s something called “ganache.”
- There are no nuts.
- The dish is not “boat” shaped.
- AND ICE CREAM IS FREAKIN’ OPTIONAL!!!!
has to be a bunch of hooey and snobbery. Get it together. Really.
Here’s NYT’s “banana split,” which is suitable only for fellows like the gentleman pictured below.
.
Snob.
Here’s the real deal at BananasWeb, and the kind of fella who’d enjoy such a treat.
Baby Gorilla. Not snob.
14
Sep 08
The Banana Splits: A Freaktastic Television Show Returns
Photo: PR Newswire
Readers from other countries, you’ll just have to take my word for it: “The Banana Splits” was one of the strangest things ever presented to children as entertainment. It was an NBC show with costumes created by Sid and Marty Kroft, who might best be described as Walt Disney, split into two by genetic mutation, dropped into a vat of ergot, and unleashed onto the world with at least temporary carte blanche to produce television for adolescents and potheads. Since I was the former, and the grownups in my house were the latter, I have warm memories of Saturday morning gatherings to watch this program.
Four costumed creatures made up “The Banana Splits” (the name came from the rock band they formed; their jingle – also known as the ‘Tra La La’ song – was so genuinely catchy that it was appropriated as the hook for Bob Marley’s “Buffalo Soldiers.”) The quartet are Fleegle the Dog, Drooper the Lion, Bingo the Gorilla, and Snorky the Elephant. They live in a Banana Pad and drive in their Banana Buggy, which is more than most people in the banana world can say.
In a press release, Warner Bros. executive Jordan Sollitto, promised that the new version of the program would stay true to the original: “Everything that made The Banana Splits hugely popular in the ’60s is back,” he said. I believe this, especially since medical marijuana can be purchased by just about anybody who’s willing to say they have a hangnail in California, where the show is produced. Definitely replenish your stash prior to visiting the show’s website, whose accompanying soundtrack and multimedia you will find either completely hypnotic or very, very upsetting – just as the original show was.
Also, you can join a club and get an awesome membership card:
Read the hilariously titled press release: “Warner Bros. Serves Up Four Scoops of Hilarity With Relaunch.”
UPDATE: The BBC sort of debunks the Bob Marley/Banana Splits song similarity. Audio from both is included, so listen for yourself and decide.
4
Feb 08
Banana Splits of the World
DAIRY QUEEN: “Delicious DQ soft serve covered in luscious strawberry, pineapple, and chocolate toppings, with whipped topping and nestled between a sweet banana.” DQ’s advantage is that it is ubiquitous; her highness has outposts in nearly every U.S. state, and internationally, too (I ate at one in Beijing.)The ice cream is special – no other soft-serve tastes like DQ – and that makes the split nearly perfect. Price: $3.00. Rating: four of five. Royal hint: go for the banana split blizzard instead – all the ingredients, mixed into a cup. Locations: Almost 6,000.
CARVEL’S “BANANA BARGE”: No official description. But the picture speaks for itself. The best quality soft-serve in the bunch, but just two scoops/swirls. Unconventional name, unconventional presentation, but it works. Price: $6.00. OW! Stars: Five of five. Locations: 500 (recently opened several stores in Los Angeles.)
BASKIN-ROBBINS: “Delight in a traditional treat with your favorite ice cream flavors, two banana slices, crowned with chopped almonds, whipped cream and three cherries.” About as close to the classic banana split as you can get. But traditional hard ice cream suffers in the age of Haagen-Dazs. Rating: two and a half of five. Price: about $5.00.
TASTEE-FREEZ: Claims to have invented soft-serve. I’m not so sure. But this is high-quality stuff – almost as creamy as Carvel. R ating: four of five. Price: $3.00 About 100 locations, with the most in California, Texas, and Illinois. One in Alaska.
FOSTER’S FREEZE: Weird, yucky, yellow ice milk. This California chain has passed its glory days, though you can find them in – and this is kind of yucky, too – hybridized “El Pollo Loco” stores. Plus, the picture is BOGUS: look at the glass dish. Price: $3.00 Rating: one of five. Locations: About 40.
CULVER’S: This midwestern chain features not ice cream, but creamier frozen custard (whole milk, egg yolks.) Don’t forget to eat ten or so of the chain’s “Butter Burgers,” which taste exactly the way they sound: smooth as meat. Rating: SIX (!!!!) of five. Price: $4.00. Locations: 350.
SONIC DRIVE IN: Another middle-of-America chain. Best known for 1950s-style car hop service, the ice cream is pretty undistinguished (note that the regal sundae is positioned behind some DQ Blizzard-like treat in the picture.) Some stores sell deep-fried pickles. Rating: two of five (add two points if you’re pregnant.) Prices: $3.00. Locations: 3,000.
