I scream, you scream for ... ICE CREAM

Okay, here goes, I come from a family of Icecrem eaters. And boy, did we take our icecream seriously.
As far back as my memory goes, a walk at night meant a paan for the elders and an icecream cone or chocbar for the tots.
We lived in Banglore Town (Main Shahra-e-Faisal), and would walk to Mohammad Ali Totiety (I used to say Society like that when I was a tot) and have tikan tikka (thats chicken tikka) and then Ice-cream from KayBees.
The cone machine man would take a cone and drip oodles of icecream in six different flavors (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, mango, blueberry, coffe) if you asked for a mix cone and then you'd have sticky hands and face and clothes in no time at all. It was never an issue as by the time we'd be home, we had to have a bath at night and change clothes anyways.
Then we moved away to another neighborhood and we'd have to sneak out in the afternoons to the local grocery store and have Jetsport (the orange Icelolly) from Polka. Somehow we'd always get caught with it, because of the orange toungue.
If we were lucky, we'd have the Kulfiwala coming once in a blue moon, and we'd have kulfi with khopra (desiccated coconut) or malai (cream) on top. I never ever believed that the kulfi wala would have cooked a lizard in the kulfi, as we were told so as to discourage us from buying kulfi that way. So many times, we'd hear the sound of "Kulfi walaaaaaaaaaaaaaa", only to rush out and find it was the Kabari asking for the unwanted junk or old newspapers.
And who can forget the gola gunda (the desi version of shaved ice with different flavor sherbet poured on it), again the water comes from a gunda nullah (dirty ditch) story never made me think twice before buying gola gunda and then asking for the sweetened milk topping on it. Dhoraji's gola is a must have. Now there are newer modern versions, claiming they use Mineral water to make their shaved ice, but who knows and who cares. I still prefer the gola over the shaved ices.
Then was faluda, which is the sweetened spaghetti shaped things eaten with kulfi or put in some milkshake and topped with fruit, jelly and nuts. Karachi's best Kulfi faluda is found in Liaquatabad. Or if you prefer the newer version, try the one at Sony Sweets.
Coming back to Icecream, I dont remember a time when we didnt have icecream. My brother and I would fight over the last one, and would always keep a tab on who ate how many cups or cones or lollies or scoops or sticks or whatever form the icecream took.
Being young, my mother also made kulfi at home and they were frozen in the moulds and then we could have them once they had frozen, but who could wait till they froze. My mother had metal moulds and sometimes in our hurry, the toungue would stick to the mould, oooooooooo that hurt, but kulfi inside the mould would soon take care of it.
The best time was when we had Eidi from relatives during Eid time, so much manna and only so much icecream to spend it on.
We didnt get regular pocket money to spend, so whatever or whenever we had money, we just had to spend some part of it on icecream.
During the summer vacations, we got to visit our grandparents, and there we'd get some money to spend. There was a local store there that sold imlee, chooran, and home made frozen lollies. I once bought all that store had and put it in the freezer, well hidden behind the stuff there. Alas, someone spotted the colorful ices and I only had one from the whole stash. I hated my cousins and brothers for that.
Whereever we went, I made it a point to sample the chocolate icecream. If I was lucky, Id find chocolate chip and coffee and if I was really lucky, Id stumble upon Mint Chocolate chip. My mother had triple chocolate ice-cream bar in Disney land while we went on the rollercoaster, and I think that was the best triple chocolate ever.
An icecream store opened up called Carvel 36, and that was my first discovery of an icecream parlor. It was pretty close to our house, so we'd drive by there sometimes and have our favorite flavors. I'd only have chocolate, coffee and mint. These were the flavors my family didnt like much, so I was always getting away with eating it all.
Then Movenpick came to town, and I remember having 6 flavors of Swizz Chocolate, White Chocolate, Apple, Caramel, Strawberry and Pistachew all in a tray, going from one relative to the other serving them ice-cream of their choice. That occassion was my father's birthday in the early 90s. A family event which is fondly remembered.
Even when I passed the admission test and got into FAST, I took ice-cream home for the family to celebrate.
After getting married, the icecream episodes werent as frequent, but I was happy to see that most of my in-laws shared my love of ice-cream, be it kulfi, gola, kaybees or chocolate fudge.
One Ice-cream that I have my reservations against is the locally made ice-cream, which tends to stick to the roof of the mouth. Im forgetting the name.
One place outside Karachi whose Ice-cream I would recommend is Hot Spot in Islamabad. I've had ice-cream there in sweltering heat(inside) and in freezing cold weather(outside).
there is always homemade icecream and sorbets.
In saudia, there was a shop Gelato, owned by a pakistani, it was a shame that he moved his shop someplace else. His ice-creams and sorbets were amazing.
There is one in Karachi by the name of Gelato Affair which serves unique flavors like Kiwi for instance.
I only started eating flavors other than chocolate after I got married, and I like blueberry also now, followed by Caramel Crush, raspberry cheesecake, and anything with Mocha in it.
Now Im glad, I got to taste so many varieties and flavors. I got an ice-cream maker maybe last year that I have yet to open.
Now that the summer is coming, Lets see what ice-cream or sorbets Im going to make.
I got 5 flavors of ice-cream choc bars yesterday, you know the mini ones, with one to two bites each... its a pity my husband doesnt like icecream, my children love ice-cream, but on the bright side, I get to eat his share too :D ... so much for small pleasures in life!