has just opened its largest-ever restaurant -- in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Soaring two stories tall into the cloudless desert sky, the 7,500-square-foot DQ sports red awnings, brick trim, sleek pale columns, a jaunty "Grill & Chill" sign, and graceful patio seating. Open as of this week, it's one of three Riyadh DQs set to launch before the end of June. A franchise deal with the Al Safwa Food Group includes plans to open 32 DQs throughout Saudi Arabia by 2015, according to the
.
Up to 240 customers at once can fit into the gigantic Riyadh location, which serves the standard DQ menu -- including those signature soft-serve ice-cream treats that originally inspired the name of this fast-food chain, which opened in Illinois in 1940 and which, as part of the Berkshire Hathaway holdings, is now helmed by megabillionaire Warren Buffett.
Dairy Queen's founders -- John McCullough, his son Alex McCullough, and their partner Ronald Baker -- literally invented soft-serve, which is lower in milkfat than regular ice cream and is processed and stored at a warmer temperature. Soft-serve also owes its fluffiness to large quantities of air, which is added at freezing time and is known in the industry as "overrun."
It's hard to imagine a more brilliant comfort-food invention. Hmm, how to make ice cream even more comforting? Make it warmer! Smoother! And serve it in satiny, squirty swirls! True, soft-serve melts too quickly -- especially in Saudi Arabia. But if you're Zen enough to focus hyperintensely on every passing molecule that you spoon into your mouth during every passing nanosecond, then a DQ Dilly Bar or, say, a DQ Peanut Buster Parfait might be your gateway to enlightenment.
If you prefer your frozen treats slower, then consider
ice-cream-stuffed mochi,
rosewater- and orange-blossom-flavored Persian ice creams; and soon-to-be-released 100-percent vegan
nut-based gelato. This summer in San Francisco,
is serving a new ice-cream bar (pictured at left) comprising house-made strawberry-shortcake ice cream, pink-peppercorn shortbread, and strawberry caramel.
Capping last weekend's "Dirt Dinner" at eVe Restaurant in Berkeley -- part of a series incorporating organic produce from local community farms, with part of the proceeds going back to those farms -- was an extraordinary sour-cream sherbet (pictured below) studded with juicy summer strawberries, then topped with chocolate sauce, chopped pecans, and more fruit.
It seemed too creamy to be called sherbet, but chef/co-owner Veronica Laramie explained that if it contains dairy and eggs, it's ice cream; if it contains dairy and no eggs, it's sherbet. If it contains neither dairy nor eggs, it's sorbet.
I'm the proud owner of a
make-your-own-frozen-desserts device, which I bought at a yard sale for $1. Basically you add liquid, sweetener and flavorants, then spin the crank for ten minutes (five if you're Zen). I'm thinking: peanut-butter sherbet. I'll let you know how it goes.
Images courtesy of Baker & Banker Restaurant and Kristan Lawson
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