Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Now That’s A Banana Split

While visiting my home town of Fairmont, WV last week, Bev and I went to dinner with a childhood classmate (Nancy) and her husband (Jim), seeing her for the first time in 47 years.  I asked her to select the restaurant and she chose Oliverio's, our favorite Italian place in the area, but I failed to take my camera – I believe we all thought our meals were very good.

When the meal was over, I wasn’t quite done visiting and asked if there was somewhere we could go for a cup of coffee or something and Jim suggested the Pokey Dot Restaurant – an old hangout from his Fairmont days.  Since it was pretty busy, I hated to take up a table just for coffee so I began looking at the dessert menu, as did Jim and Nancy.

As it turns out, Jim is a big fan of Ice cream and after reading the description for the “Humongous Banana Split” which starts out with “Mounds of delicious vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream….", he opted for one.  I was sitting such that I could see the girl making it and I watched her dip out several scoops of ice cream then form them into a softball sized ball – repeating for each flavor.  After getting one ball of each flavor – which was already a lot of ice cream – back down into the freezer she went to form more balls.

At this point I told Jim I thought he was about to get more than he bargained for and he went to ask if it was his - and it was.  When they brought it, it had nine 1# balls of ice cream with the usual assortment of toppings.  It was so big, the entire restaurant was smiling and one lady even crossed the room to ask if she take a picture of it.

Trust me, my shot doesn’t do it justice, but if you just imagine each scoop is the size of a softball or look at the standard sized banana split dish peaking out from under the chocolate, you’ll get the idea, and mounds of ice cream doesn’t begin to describe this beast.  And the most amazing part was that it carried the unbelievably low price of $7.99.  Talk about a great value, I checked in Walmart and nine pounds of the cheapest ice cream at costs about $9. 

Jim ended up boxing the top two tiers and eating about half the lower one before giving up.  I told him that seeing this creation and the look on his face was worth the 450 mile drive to WV regardless of how tomorrow's reunion went (more later on this).

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago:  Eggplant Parmesan

Two years ago: Blueberries, Maters, & Mayo

Larry

7/13/12 event date

19 comments:

  1. YUM!! My favorite food triangle...strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla!

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  2. It's like banana split heaven! I can honestly say that I've never seen that much ice cream in one serving before. I don't think I could even make a dent in it...but I sure would give it that old college try!!!

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  3. Larry... That "sundae" is humongous! Scary and even a bit nauseating. I like ice cream...sundaes too but while the price was definitely right, that creation boggles the mind! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  4. I had to laugh when I say this! I can't believe the price - looks like it would feed at least a dozen hungry people. Ha ha - can't wait for reunion photos!

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  5. oh. My. gosh. "Boxing up the ice cream to take home!" I can't even imagine. There used to be a place in the valley that served ice cream in something similar to a trough. However, it was definitely meant to be eaten by an entire table full of people!

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  6. Leaning towers! I haven't seen that much ice cream in one place unless it was in the container! I hope there were spoons all around.

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  7. Wow! I didn't know there was a place in WV that served a banana split that size! That looks really good! If I'm ever up that way I will have to stop in and give that a try!

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  8. I read your blogs daily, looks like that ice cream sundae could feed a good size lunch table at any grade school where I live..LOL....your blog is great, love your cooking/recipes and your hosting bbq's and parties, always read something good and love to try out your recipes...Just read in the other blog Big Daddy Dave whereby they charged him .50 cents for gravy that looked like just a tiny cup of the gravy, I am like him, I enjoy gravy with my chicken fried steak, guess because the place doesn't serve alcohol they have to make up for it in other ways...hmmm. They should put the extra charge on munues, in the state where I live it is illegal to do that, but out in the wild west we are different..keep up your great blog, it is wonderful to read and muse over my early morning coffee/tea before work each work day!Ciao!!!!!!!!1

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  9. I meant to say, It is illegal to charge extra for any food one does not specifically order on menues in this state Washington state. The customer has to know what they are ordering and actually paying for..tips are not included and if they are they must be annotated on any food menu here, just so the patron knows what is up..Keep up the great blogs, enjoy them a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  10. My daughter is reading over my shoulder and just whispered in my ear "that looks awesome". I think we both want a banana split now! YUM.

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  11. Amazing! That could feed our family and another. My kids would go crazy if something like that was served up. Looks like you all are having a great summer!

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  12. WOW! Ice cream is my favorite food and I could really put a dent in that banana split! Wish we had a place like that here!!!

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  13. That is way, way too much ice cream. You all should have grabbed spoons and worked on it together.
    Hey Larry, I got my chili powder in the mail today. Wow, does it smell good and it is a very generous supply. It actually smells like a bowl of chili. Can hardly wait to try it. Thank you!

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  14. Impressive! I'm not sure even Ryan could finish it, and you know that a 6'4", 240 pound 16 year old is a bottomless pit!

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  15. Good Grief!!!!!! Now that's a banana split! How fun that you ended up with such a photo pop for a food blogger.

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  16. WOW----what a huge banana split.... That is the type of dessert where you order one for about 4-6 people and get that many spoons... ha

    Glad you got to go back HOME... I'm sure you enjoyed it.
    Betsy

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  17. Humongous is the perfect name for that banana split...I would be staring if I was sitting at the next table.

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  18. Holy BLEEP! That looks like Mayfield Dairy blew up!!! That is a TON of ice cream.

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