The Cone-fusing Cone-Ception of a Cold Cone-fection
I assume you’ve pretty well finalized your celebration plans for Sept. 22? You know, Italo Marchioni Appreciation Day!
Ah, Italo Marchioni, beloved by lactose tolerant persons worldwide as the inventor of (cue angelic music) the ice cream cone!
And Sept. 22, according to lots of goofy “This Day in History” Web sites, is the hallowed date of the cone’s birth.
Of course, Italo’s story may not be THE authentic cone creation legend. Over the years, lots of people have claimed to be the first to cone-ceive a portable pastry cone-tainer, making the actual truth almost impossible to cone-firm.
The thing is, no one else has evidence like Italo Marchioni’s: Actual official government paperwork, in the form of a patent application he submitted Sept. 22, 1903, for a machine to produce edible ice cream cups.
Plus, Italo always maintained that he served chilled refreshments in cones waaaaay before 1903. (Of course, if that’s true, why isn’t the birthdate of the cone’s invention waaaaay before 1903? Well, rumor has it that Italo’s pre-1903 cones never caught on because he filled them with a weird soy-noodle-and-dairy concoction he invented, called “Marchioni and Cheese.”)
Italo’s cone machine patent, which he received in December 1903, remains un-cone-vincing to most Highly-Trained Ice Cream Cone Historians, who cone-tinue to pursue the real truth.
Thanks to their efforts, millions today believe the cone was “invented” at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, held in St. Louis and commonly known as The World’s Fair. This gi-normous event featured modern marvels such as airplanes, radios, silent movies, and a sculpture of President Teddy Roosevelt made entirely of butter. It also featured really hot weather, which not only led to a run on cold treats, but also partially melted the buttery Roosevelt into the exact shape of Millard Fillmore.
From this fair sprang numerous tales from folks claiming THEY got the scoop on inventing the ice cream cone. One of these was Ernest Hamwi, a Syrian-born seller of Zalabia, a crisp pastry cooked on a waffle iron. Supposedly, the ice cream vendor next to Hamwi's stand ran out of dishes, so to help him out, Hamwi swiftly rolled a Zalabia into a cone shape. Once the cone hardened, the ice cream, Oreo cookies and ginseng infusions were quickly smooshed in, and voila, the first ice cream cone was served. To a kid who promptly spilled it all over himself.
But wait! There’s also the story of Charles Menches, who always said that he was that ice cream seller next to Hamwi, and that it was HIS idea, not Hamwi’s, to create a Zalabia-and-ice-cream cone-bination.
The cone-fusion had only begun. Because the same essential story—the fair, the ice cream guy with no dishes, the pastry-maker from a Middle Eastern country—was told by scads of others, such as Arnold Fornachou, Nick Kabbaz, Abe Doumar and Forrest Gump.
(Interestingly, almost the exact same cone-troversy surrounds the origins of the ice cream sundae. Among the many cities claiming to be the birthplace of the “Coronary-In-A-Cup” are Buffalo, N.Y., Manitowac, Wisc., and Ithaca, N.Y. I tend to prefer Buffalo as the World’s Sundae Capital, for two reasons: (1) my wife is from Buffalo, and she told me to tend to prefer it; and (2) with no disrespect to my Native American readers or the beauty of their ancient languages, “Manitowoc” and “Ithaca” each sound like something a mama bird regurgitates and feeds to her chicks.)
Boy, has all this talk of ice cream made you yearn for a cone? Nowadays, ice cream cone eaters seem to fall into two main camps: Those who prefer the pointy-ended waffle (or “sugar”) cone, and those who go for the flat-bottomed “cake” cone. I’d really like to know which kind you readers prefer. Just write me at the e-mail address below. Or better yet, mail me your favorite type of cone. (Remember, I love Oreo cookies and ginseng infusions smooshed in!)
For the record, I slightly prefer the cake cone, for two reasons: (1) a pointy ended-waffle cone often springs a leak in the bottom, spilling ice cream all over your clothes which, by the time you get around to washing them, smell like Ithaca; and (2) the cake cone’s flat bottom kind of resembles mine.
TakeFiveT5@yahoo.com
Ah, Italo Marchioni, beloved by lactose tolerant persons worldwide as the inventor of (cue angelic music) the ice cream cone!
And Sept. 22, according to lots of goofy “This Day in History” Web sites, is the hallowed date of the cone’s birth.
Of course, Italo’s story may not be THE authentic cone creation legend. Over the years, lots of people have claimed to be the first to cone-ceive a portable pastry cone-tainer, making the actual truth almost impossible to cone-firm.
The thing is, no one else has evidence like Italo Marchioni’s: Actual official government paperwork, in the form of a patent application he submitted Sept. 22, 1903, for a machine to produce edible ice cream cups.
Plus, Italo always maintained that he served chilled refreshments in cones waaaaay before 1903. (Of course, if that’s true, why isn’t the birthdate of the cone’s invention waaaaay before 1903? Well, rumor has it that Italo’s pre-1903 cones never caught on because he filled them with a weird soy-noodle-and-dairy concoction he invented, called “Marchioni and Cheese.”)
Italo’s cone machine patent, which he received in December 1903, remains un-cone-vincing to most Highly-Trained Ice Cream Cone Historians, who cone-tinue to pursue the real truth.
Thanks to their efforts, millions today believe the cone was “invented” at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, held in St. Louis and commonly known as The World’s Fair. This gi-normous event featured modern marvels such as airplanes, radios, silent movies, and a sculpture of President Teddy Roosevelt made entirely of butter. It also featured really hot weather, which not only led to a run on cold treats, but also partially melted the buttery Roosevelt into the exact shape of Millard Fillmore.
From this fair sprang numerous tales from folks claiming THEY got the scoop on inventing the ice cream cone. One of these was Ernest Hamwi, a Syrian-born seller of Zalabia, a crisp pastry cooked on a waffle iron. Supposedly, the ice cream vendor next to Hamwi's stand ran out of dishes, so to help him out, Hamwi swiftly rolled a Zalabia into a cone shape. Once the cone hardened, the ice cream, Oreo cookies and ginseng infusions were quickly smooshed in, and voila, the first ice cream cone was served. To a kid who promptly spilled it all over himself.
But wait! There’s also the story of Charles Menches, who always said that he was that ice cream seller next to Hamwi, and that it was HIS idea, not Hamwi’s, to create a Zalabia-and-ice-cream cone-bination.
The cone-fusion had only begun. Because the same essential story—the fair, the ice cream guy with no dishes, the pastry-maker from a Middle Eastern country—was told by scads of others, such as Arnold Fornachou, Nick Kabbaz, Abe Doumar and Forrest Gump.
(Interestingly, almost the exact same cone-troversy surrounds the origins of the ice cream sundae. Among the many cities claiming to be the birthplace of the “Coronary-In-A-Cup” are Buffalo, N.Y., Manitowac, Wisc., and Ithaca, N.Y. I tend to prefer Buffalo as the World’s Sundae Capital, for two reasons: (1) my wife is from Buffalo, and she told me to tend to prefer it; and (2) with no disrespect to my Native American readers or the beauty of their ancient languages, “Manitowoc” and “Ithaca” each sound like something a mama bird regurgitates and feeds to her chicks.)
Boy, has all this talk of ice cream made you yearn for a cone? Nowadays, ice cream cone eaters seem to fall into two main camps: Those who prefer the pointy-ended waffle (or “sugar”) cone, and those who go for the flat-bottomed “cake” cone. I’d really like to know which kind you readers prefer. Just write me at the e-mail address below. Or better yet, mail me your favorite type of cone. (Remember, I love Oreo cookies and ginseng infusions smooshed in!)
For the record, I slightly prefer the cake cone, for two reasons: (1) a pointy ended-waffle cone often springs a leak in the bottom, spilling ice cream all over your clothes which, by the time you get around to washing them, smell like Ithaca; and (2) the cake cone’s flat bottom kind of resembles mine.
# # #
TakeFiveT5@yahoo.com
posted by Don Stuart at 2:37 PM
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