noshing

Vietnam Restaurant shakes Alia and Aria olive oil Edamame Lemonades of Specialty

In Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law, there’s a classic scene in which the hapless main characters, going stir-crazy in a tiny jail cell, march around chanting " I scream! You scream! We all scream for ice cream! " for a maddeningly long time. We Bostonians can relate, stuck in the purgatory that is this city in early April. But we’ve already got some ice cream for the occasion: a variety of liquor-spiked frozen treats ($2.45 per scoop; $3.95 per pint) from J.P. Licks to warm our spirits and cool our spring fever in one fell swoop. Now on tap: a Myers’s Rum raisin true to the name — fruit-laden and smacking of molasses; Kahlúa, an enduring favorite according to mixmaster Don Hernstrom — coffee-smooth, but with a telltale edgy aftertaste; and Wild Turkey, a ringer for, of all things, peppermint-candy ice cream. Sure, come summer Don and owner Vincent Petryk will whip up the breeziest batch of ice-cream flavors, from banana daiquiri and piña colada to cranberry-and-vodka Cape Cod; there’s even a sangria in the works. But for my money there’s nothing so refreshing as a pint of Sam Adams Cream Stout on a late winter’s eve — the ice cream, I mean. Just go easy on the stuff: " I slur, you slur " doesn’t rhyme.