Cultural Spelunking

Yes, that’s right. On the way to a mom and pop Lower East Side paint store, the lovely Amanda Baker and I stumbled upon a classic looking little coffee shop, called the Classic Coffee Shop. Before our room painting adventure, we decided to stop into the little nook for a refreshing beverage. 

“Egg Creams” we said, in a puzzled manner after reading the sign. “What the hell are they?” Baker, being a Queens native and a smart cookie in general, is my go to for such information about little New York fun facts like this. When she said she didn’t know either, we decided to buy one. 

The result was a delicious, fizzy, light drink which we best summarized as the taste equivalent of “carbonated Nesquick, but in a good way.” Also, puzzlingly, there was no egg involved whatsoever.  We decided to come home and look it up for our own knowledge and found this enlightening Wiki article  which informed us that the history of the Egg cream’s name is a great mystery, however it is widely agreed the the origin of the drink is New York. Our favorite explanation for the name is that “it grew out of a request for “chocolat et crème” from someone who had experienced a similar drink in Paris, which name morphed phonetically into the current version.”

It’s rare that I say this literally, but what a delicious finding. 

Also, check out Amanda’s movie-going wisdom and quick wit at her blog.