Rant #3,624: Cream of the Crop

I am feeling a bit better, but I am not there yet.

I drove my son to his two job interviews; nothing yet, but at least he is speaking to people, and maybe something is forthcoming.

Maybe not, but at least he is being kept active.

During the past few days, with me not being in tip-top shape, I have reached to the past to keep myself busy and to keep my spirits up.

One thing that I rediscovered--in a great new way--is the egg cream, a truly New York/Jewish thing that everyone can enjoy.

I remember my grandfather taking me around the corner on Cortelyou Road in Brooklyn as a little kid to the sweet shop there.

It was very traditional, with the counter and the swivel chairs.

We would order egg creams, and it was like five minutes of heaven as you drank this down to the bottom.

Flash forward to now ... I don't know what possessed me to even think about an egg cream at this period in time, but honestly, I hadn't had one in decades, so the idea floated through my mind ... why not make one of my own?

For the uninformed, don't worry about the price of eggs when you make this, because no eggs go into an egg cream.

All that you need are the right measurements of milk, chocolate syrup and seltzer, and you have an egg cream.

But the real way to make it is to use the right amount of whole milk, original U-Bet Chocolate Syrup, and seltzer that comes out of those infamous bottles, where you squeeze the lever down and it shoots out into the glass (or if you are one of the Three Stooges, into.your face).

Well, I have not had whole milk in the house in years, with skim milk my go-to milk beverage.

I love U-Bet, but I can't have the real thing anymore, just the sugar-free kind.

(And yes, the syrup MUST BE U-Bet. You are cheating yourself if you use anything else.)

And for seltzer, I have to settle for whst Poland Spring offers.

So I figured I could use those ingredients to make myself an egg cream for the modern age.

I got the right glass--it has to be contouring out at the top; think of it as a glass with an hourglass figure.

There is some debate about whether you put the milk or the syrup in first. I chose to put the syrup in first, then the milk, but both must follow the "two-finger" principle: just two finger lengths as the amount for each one in the glass, so we are talking about maybe less than an inch of either one in the glass.

Do not mix the two ingredients together yet!

Then, finally, get a new bottle of Poland Spring Seltzer. Open it up, and pour it in the glass as high as it will go. Do not worry about spillage.

After you pour in the seltzer, then start mixing with a long spoon, and there you have it!

(And don't forget to clean up the mess you've made!)

I was skeptical whether my egg cream would taste that good, or if it was even drinkable, but let me tell you, it really is pretty good!

And the thing about a good egg cream is that it goes down smoothly, and my 2025 version of this delicacy does just that.

I don't use a straw to drink it, but you can. And I do remember some places gave you a pretzel with it, a long pretzel, but I don't need that.

I have vowed that I will have an egg cream every Friday evening, and I will stay to that vow as long as I can find U-Bet Sugar-Free Syrup, which is not very easy to find.

Again, while I was hacking and coughing and blowing my nose, egg creams came to my mind ... I have no idea why, but I am happy thst it did.

Now--

Anyone for skelly?