The Palm Springs Date Shake

We found ourselves back in Palm Springs last week and after asking my Twitter followers what we missed last time, the consensus seemed to be: a date shake.

A date shake. Ok. I like dates. I like shakes. So after eating dinner at Wang's (which I wrote about in this week's newsletter), we found ourselves walking down the main drag of Palm Springs--there was a very cute street festival going on--and finding one of the more celebrated date shake destinations (according to a Google search): Palm Springs Fudge & Chocolates.

The place reminded me of something you'd see in Florida. In fact, on a recent trip to Florida we joined my brother and his wife Tali for ice cream at a place very much like this in Delray Beach. So I was familiar with the Fudge and Chocolates vibe.

A nice woman asked me what I wanted and I said, "Date shake."

As you can see, a date shake is $5.99 and they'll split it for you if you pay an extra $1.

The woman scooped up some French Vanilla ice cream:

That's the neon yellow stuff at the top center.

Then she added the good stuff: some cooked down date pulp.

Obviously, if you want to make a date shake at home, you're going to have to get a recipe for that date pulp. I bet there are lots of recipes online and a more thorough blogger than me might go search for some. But I'm not feeling like a thorough blogger today, so find your own date pulp!

[If you have a recipe for date pulp, please share it in the comments.]

The mixture gets blended very thoroughly in a milk-shake making machine which looks like a weapon from an 80s movie; like something that comes out of Christopher Lloyd's hand in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

When it's all done, you have this--a date shake:

It's not the most attractive thing to look at in the world, that's for sure. I won't mention the things it reminds me of visually.

So let's focus on the taste, a taste that was truly sublime.

Dates have a natural richness to them and a deep fruitiness that makes them a perfect pair for the blank canvass of vanilla ice cream. The resulting shake is really unlike anything I've experienced before, and a great idea for trying something different at home. (Assuming you get a date pulp recipe. Stop being so mad that I didn't get you one.)

So thank you Twitter followers who suggested I try a date shake. I'm glad I did!