Milkshakes offer a cool taste of nostalgia and luxury.
Milkshake mavens create new takes on good ol' shakes

IT'S SATURDAY afternoon at Fentons Creamery & Restaurant in Oakland, and the
old-fashioned ice cream parlor is packed, as always. A little girl in a
leotard celebrates with her family after a ballet recital. People of all
ages, groups large and small, feast on burgers and tuna melts, giant
milkshakes and decadent old-fashioned sundaes made with ice cream crafted on
the premises. Comfort food, with a side of memories.

No wonder when the going gets tough, one of the characters in Disney-Pixar's
film "Up" simply longs to hang out at Fentons again. In these challenging
times, ice cream shops continue to offer an opportunity to indulge in
affordable pleasures. On a hot summer day, it's hard to beat a thick, creamy
milkshake.

Scott Whidden, president and master blender of Fentons, says shakes are one
of the top-ordered items on hot summer days.

"I can talk about them until the cows come home," he says with a laugh. "I
think we're spinning somewhere in the vicinity of 600-700 milkshakes a week.
We're coming into our season, and if the weather stays with us on a great
week, it might be as many as 1,100."

All that blending takes a toll on their mixers. "We burn through probably
two of those multi-mixers for the summer."

He likens their mixers to cement mixers, because they literally take a solid
and turn it into a liquid. "We don't want to add very much milk in there,
because that's not going to make the milkshake

That, in turn, puts unavoidable strain on the motor. "Well, it is
avoidable," he adds, "if you want to make a thin milkshake, (but) that's
against the law of gravity of Fentons. You're supposed to be able to turn it
upside down and it stays."

He doesn't advise taking the shake to go, as it won't taste right. "That's
the beauty of a fresh milkshake. It's cold, it's fresh, all the texture is
right then and there."

A SHAKE OF NOSTALGIA

Kate Pryor, owner of Tucker's Supercreamed Ice Cream in Alameda, is also a
big fan of the old-fashioned milkshake.

"A lot of fast food places make milkshakes, but ours are real milkshakes,
made with real ice cream, in the can, and I think people appreciate the
difference," she says.

"I think it kind of takes you back to a simpler time, makes you feel good.
When you've got a milkshake in front of you, what can be wrong with the
world?"

The Alameda native bought the popular business in 1990 from Marshall Tucker
and his wife, Verda, who opened the original ice cream shop in 1941. "I grew
up on Tucker's," she says. "Mrs. Tucker said she always wanted to adopt me."

In 2000, Pryor moved the shop to its current location, housed in a larger
space adorned with Mediterranean architectural details. There's also seating
outside on a sweet little patio in the back, encased by pink ivy-covered
walls, where patrons can sit under a flowering jacaranda tree on a warm day.

Upstairs, there's a little room where they make the ice cream, five gallons
at a time, always early in the morning. Pryor shares that her favorite shake
features fresh banana, a little chocolate syrup and toasted almond ice
cream. "The banana has to be good and ripe," she adds. "We also make our own
whipped cream."

Asked about the ratio of ice cream to milk, she says, "There's only enough
milk to actually make it blend, so it's about 95 percent ice cream."

The milkshake is served in old-fashioned glasses with the overflow in the
classic steel cup, accompanied by pretty pink straws and long spoons. "To
me, ice cream needs to be chewed, as well as licked," she say, especially
when you're working on a milkshake made with nuts or chips that offer up a
pleasant little surprise at the end.

While nutritionists might not recommend making a habit of it, she says some
of her customers indulge in milkshakes as a meal. "I've got a couple of
people sitting here eating milkshakes for dinner tonight. It's a gorgeous
day, and they came here from the beach." Are they sharing? "No, they're not.
It's dinner!"

MASTER THE MILKSHAKE

Plenty of great ice cream parlors are willing to serve up a great shake -
Loard's, Baskin-Robbins, BurgerMeister in Alameda, Val's Burgers in
Hayward - but with a little creativity and a decent mixer, a thick, rich
shake also can be made at home.

Adam Ried, author of "Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes" ($24.95, W.W. Norton),
includes tons of advice on appliances and techniques, plus more than 100
inventive reinterpretations of the classic milkshake - often using sorbet
instead of syrup.

Ried, the kitchen equipment specialist on "America's Test Kitchen" and
"Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen" on PBS, says he's "always on
the prowl for the next idea.

"Basically the book, unfortunately, came out of bad habits, like too many
things in my life do," he says. "I was mauling my way through a pint of
Double Rainbow chocolate sorbet one night, and I don't know why it struck
me, but I've never made a milkshake with sorbet, let's give it a shot!"

He was pleased with the results. "Sorbet has so much more flavor, and is so
much more intense than syrup, which is what I'd always used my whole life
and I think most people use." He made a mocha milkshake with coffee ice
cream and chocolate sorbet, "and it rocked," he says. "It was really good."

The next day, he began experimenting with other sorbet flavors in
milkshakes, really liking those as well. Not only did he now have enough
material for his column, the ideas kept flowing.

His go-to shake is Mocha-Cardamom, which evolved when a friend was visiting
and taste testing the mocha shake for the newspaper column. Ried says he
hadn't put the spices away from baking something, and his friend grabbed the
bottle of cardamom and sprinkled some in his mocha shake. "He's spent time
in the Middle East, where coffee and cardamom is a really common
combination. Instantly, the column went from shakes with sorbet to shakes
with fun, easy flavor twists."

SHAKES WITH A TWIST

Another favorite shake is the Chocolate-Guinness. "I'm not much of a beer
drinker," he says, "but I love that combination. I've made it at friends'
houses, for desserts for brunches even, and for people coming over to watch
TV. And people really seem to like that."

He also really likes the Mexican Chocolate Shake with Chipotle and Almond,
and the Lemon-Buttermilk Shake.

Ried credits his sister, Amanda Hewell (who used to cook at Chez Panisse),
with helping to develop many recipes in the book.

Asked what the secret is to making great shakes at home, he offered this
advice.

"I can distill it down to two things," he says. "If you have thick, viscous
or solid ingredients that are going to flavor a shake, like Nutella or honey
or nut butters, put it in the blender with the liquid first and blend that
up to make sure the flavor gets broken down in the liquid so it will
disperse well once you put the ice cream in.

"No. 2 would be to soften the ice cream. That is key! I usually leave it out
on the counter for about 15 minutes. The ratio of liquid to ice cream is
tiny, so if the ice cream is too solid, it's a pain to blend them."

Ried says he began working on the book "before the economy went south," but
that milkshakes are "kind of well-suited to the new economic reality. You
get a lot of joy for a relatively modest investment.

"Milkshakes seem to strike this emotional note with people, and these are
fun because it's just the right balance of familiar and nostalgic and a
little bit new wave and exotic."

When asked what his next book might be about, he jokes, "My doctor suggested
maybe I'd like to write something about the wonders of lettuce with plain
lemon juice."

# Fentons Creamery & Restaurant is at 4226 Piedmont Ave., Oakland,
  510-658-7000, and other locations.
# Tucker's Supercreamed Ice Cream is at 1349 Park St., Alameda,
  510-522-4960.
# BurgerMeister is at 2319 Central Ave., Alameda, 510-865-3032, and other
  locations.
# Val's Burgers is at 2115 Kelly St., between B and Center streets, Hayward,
  510-889-8257.

... Cheese:  Milk's leap toward immortality
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