SOUTH STREET SEAPORT — Now here's some ice cream worth screaming about.
New Amsterdam Market is holding its second annual Ice Cream Sunday this weekend, offering tastes of more than a dozen unusual flavors, from La Newyorkina's tomato sorbet to Early Bird Cookery's caramel corn ice cream.
"We're showcasing producers who are really dedicated to using local ingredients and local flavors," said Robert LaValva, president of New Amsterdam Market.
"This is your chance to sample flavors that may really excite you."
A $25 ticket buys tastes of eight different ice creams and sorbets, scooped into miniature sugar cones, while a $35 early admission ticket allows patrons to skip the lines and try 10 tastes.
Ten local ice cream producers will participate, including the West Village's Victory Garden, which will offer black currant and lavender honey ice creams, and Brooklyn's Marlow & Sons, which will have buffalo milk yogurt ice cream, along with flavors studded with Mast Brothers cocoa nibs, peaches, raspberries and limes.
Some of the ice cream chefs haven't decided on their flavors yet, because they're waiting to see which local ingredients they can find fresh over the next couple of days, LaValva said.
Gabrielle Carbone, owner of The Bent Spoon in Princeton, N.J., recently got a tip about beach plums growing in Cape May, N.J., so she is going down there this week to harvest them for one of her ice cream flavors, LaValva said.
Other participants include Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream, Blue Bottle Coffee and Otto Pizzeria.
Guest judges Gabrielle Langholtz of Edible Manhattan, Anne Saxelby of Saxelby Cheesemongers and Jeffrey Steingarten of Vogue will pick the most creative flavor.
The event is a fundraiser for New Amsterdam Market, which has become a weekly mainstay for fresh produce and locally produced foods for the neighborhoods near the South Street Seaport.
New Amsterdam Market is now running weekly with dozens of vendors, and LaValva still dreams of making the market a permanent feature of lower Manhattan, perhaps moving it indoors to one of the abandoned Fulton Fish Market buildings.
Other vendors at the market this Sunday include Luke's Lobster, People's Pops, Sour Puss Pickles, Taza Chocolate and Toigo Orchards.
New Amsterdam Market runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays at South and Beekman streets, rain or shine. For Ice Cream Sunday Aug. 21, early bird ticket holders ($35) can begin tasting ice cream at noon, while the general admission tasting ($25) will start at 1 p.m.
