Ice Cream Truck In The Western County -- Go Now For Handmade Cups And Sweet Sandwiches

Local ice cream at the Scoop & Paddle food truck

People often ask me where to find homemade ice cream in Howard County, and now I need to tell you to buy it on the road.

From a VW bus, that is.  From a new food truck working the western county selling cups and ice cream sandwiches filled with their own rich, creamy ice cream.

Mrs. HowChow saw the sign for Scoop & Paddle at their summer home, River Hill Garden Center in Clarksville.  It's a spectacularly outfitted VW bus where they offer about a dozen flavors from chocolates to fruits to an experimental "coffee and doughnuts."

Ice cream outdoors just tastes better.  It's an event to go for a drive.  It's more delicious to spoon ice cream while you're watching traffic and feeling the weather outside.

Scoop & Paddle does a high-end update on cafeteria ice cream.  The $3.50 cups are white paper circles with white paper tops.  You grab a wooden paddle to use as your spoon.  The ice cream inside goes way beyond a cafeteria.  They make their own ice cream, apparently with a bunch of seasonal fruits at the front of the menu.

Lil' Chow went chocolate.  He loves salted caramel that we buy at Harris Teeter, but he has ordered chocolate when we're out.  He squatted happily on the River Hill parking lot and shared his chocolate.  I thought it was excellent.  Deep flavor.  Creamy, rich ice cream.  Mrs. HowChow went "coffee and doughnuts."  Again, an excellent ice cream.  She could have taken even stronger coffee flavor, and we're already thinking about when we can go back to try a $5.50 ice cream sandwich with house-made ice cream between house-made cookies.

You need to go get try Scoop & Paddle this week.  Go tonight.  Go this weekend.  You're reading a Howard County food blog.  How could you not want local ice cream from a refit VW bus?  Go on a date.  Take your kids.  Do whatever you need to soak up an ice cream experience while the days are still warm enough to warrant a frozen dessert.

Since late July, Scoop & Paddle has been parking at the garden center on Thursday to Saturday evenings.  They're switching soon to a fall schedule, and you'll be able to catch them at the Western Regional Park in Cooksville or a few options in Clarksville, including at River Hill football games.

Find Scoop & Paddle's schedule on their Twitter page or Facebook page.  Clarksville is an easy run from Fulton, Columbia and most of the western county.

Ice cream is a rough business because winter comes for so much of our year.  Many people have asked for shops that make their own ice cream.  I recommend a bunch of great frozen experiences, but I think they mostly sell chain ice cream like Hershey's or Baltimore brands like Taharka Brothers at Scoop Ah Dee Doo in Ellicott City.  Does anyone else know someone selling local ice cream like Scoop & Paddle?

The only thing missing from Scoop & Paddle is a few chairs.  The cups, sandwiches and $10.50 pints lend themselves to carrying away, and leaning against a car works fine if you don't have a toddler  But a few chairs -- think cheap and modern -- could help create a little scene outside the bus.

Trolling: Tim Finds Sushi At Katana In Clarksville, Nudges Me To Find Nicki's Foster's Country Store

Tim's sushi at Katana in Clarksville

Urbanspoon lead Tim to Katana in Clarksville, and I get a "trolling" post out of the fun.

Trolling on Tuesday is my attempt at a series where readers share three things with other HowChow readers -- favorite restaurant dishes, food to buy, food experiences, etc.  Click here for all the Trolling posts.  Click here for the explanation and the rules.  Anyone can submit.

This is a great way for people to hear about places where we have not eaten.  We eat out way less than the blog seems to make people think.  We hadn't been to Katana, so I appreciated Tim's report on Katana and on Maiwand Kabob -- along with reports on the new restaurants coming to Turf Valley and his nudge that lead me to discover another new place Nicki's Foster's Country Store in Ellicott City opens over the next two weeks.

But first, Tim on sushi in the western county:

We stumbled upon Katana in Clarksville, and I have to say we were impressed with the sushi.   Was not very impressed with the Pad Thai from the Thai menu, so next time we will try the Drunken Noodles.  We have still not made it to Sushi Sono, but it's high on the -- list, just not as convenient to get to from Western HoCo. 

At Katana, we started with a Negimaki Beef. One of my Japanese favorites, theirs was barely average. Then we shared a pad thai and three rolls; 8 piece Tim Rolll (from the special board), six-piece Hot Summer Roll and I think an eight-piece Sweet Heart Roll.  All three rolls were excellent.  Pad Thai was just okay. 

We have been really digging the Afghan pumpkin appetizer at Maiwand Kabob, in Columbia.  That is pan fried baby pumpkin topped with yogurt sauce and ground beef. Many Afghan places have this dish but it's truly amazing at Maiwand. 

We are anxiously awaiting the opening of Red Parrot and Mimi's Kabob at Turf valley, they both look really close to opening. I will say I was sad to hear that Mimi's will not be offering pizza at the Turf Valley location, according to someone at the Clarksville location, hopefully that will change. 

I mentioned to you last summer about the old Foster's country store on Rte 144.  They have been doing a lot of work on the inside, looks practically finished to me.  Maybe someone else knows something?

I didn't know anything about the new country store, but Google did.  I found a Facebook page for Nicki's Foster's Country Store on Rte 144 in western Ellicott City.  I can't tell the details there, but there is chatter about homemade donuts and fountain drinks.  Tim says they put a sign outside Monday that says: Quiet Opening, February 19; Grand Opening, March 1.

Western Howard County -- A First Step In Restaurants, Markets And More West of Rte 32

South Mountain Creamery

The Howard County of Columbia and Ellicott City may be sprawling compared to big cities, but they're the big time compares to Howard County west of Rte 32.  Out in the western county, there are fewer options, but that doesn't mean you need to settle at all.

I'm not an expert on the western county, but people have joined in before with comments that collect places like J&Y Tokyo Market in Eldersburg and Town Grill in Lisbon.  Babs dropped her list on a post next month.  Now Annie of the AnnieRie Unplugged blog has offered up an entire guest post of joints for locals to try.  Annie posts regularly about food, especially local sourcing, and she has started an entire series about living out in the western county.

For HowChow, she stepped in with a primer on food in the west county -- where to eat, where to shop: 

We ate out quite a bit more when we lived in Columbia and commuted to DC, than we do now that we live in west county, mainly because it is less convenient to go out. More of that is from being retired. We may run around all day so lunch is usually the time we eat out, and if we are home all day, we don't feel like getting all dolled up (in other words, changing out of our farmer jeans with dirt, grease or whatever on the knees) and fighting rush hour traffic to get to a restaurant.