Junk Food Nation, come March, I’ll be headed to Vegas for my buddy Mike’s bachelor party.  Besides the obvious appeal of Vegas (Blackjack, women of questionable moral character, and endless crab leg buffets), I’m excited for a few OTHER reasons.  First, open container laws.  Let’s give it up for being able to walk around with tall yards of beer in the sweltering heat, am I right?  Second, St. Patrick’s Day is the same weekend.  So…tall yards of green beer.  Third, little guys slapping cards with half naked women on them.  I love getting accosted by these freaks while I’m walking around with my tall yards of beer (wait, no I don’t.  Get away from me, weirdos.)

But really, the MAIN reason I’m excited for Vegas in March: we’ll be headed out there for the first round of March Madness.  That’s right, four days straight of college basketball, afternoon to evening.  I’m excited to bet on each and every single game, to plant my ass in the sports book, and to watch as my wallet increases (hopefully).  This begs the question: do I have a gambling problem?

In my office, I am constantly looking for action. I run the office fantasy football league. I run the Superbowl Squares.  I do the March Madness pool. I commish the survivor league. I take action on individual basketball games.  I bet football.  Golf. Baseball. X Games. Bowling.  And you know what? I LOVE IT.  Love it love it love it.

I think I know the answer to my question: I CLEARLY have a problem. And I cannot wait for Vegas.  No risk, no reward, right? (And if you think I’m NOT buying a ticket to the $325 million Powerball tonight…you really don’t know me 😉 )

Today’s junk food: Haagen-Dazs Limited Edition Coconut Macaroon Ice Cream!

The Money Shot

Haagen-Dazs Limited Editions, you always get me.  I see the purple container in the freezer aisle, and I literally stop in my tracks and do the backwards walk back to the freezer case.  It’s like a movie scene; you’d see my side profile pushing a cart walking into and then out of the frame…and then you’d see me backpedal back into the frame, stop mid screen, and turn towards the camera.  No doubt.

Fluffy Fluffy Macaroons!

Coconut Macaroon Ice Cream?? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? First of all, I love coconut. Not everyone loves coconut, but ever since I had this amazing coconut meringue/cream pie at my friend Nate’s house that his mom made for his birthday when I was in 9th grade, I’ve been hooked.

Purple nurple

And I absolutely LOVE macaroons.  One of my favorite cookies/confections.  That soft chewy coconutty flavor with a little bit of burnt sugar edging…amazing. Stoked for this ice cream.  The little shreds of coconut on the lid were a nice touch too.

Folded coconut ice cream sounds delectable

Droooool.

All natural...sort of

Ooooo coconut ice cream?  Good to know – I was concerned this was just going to be some vanilla or similarly sweet creamy ice cream with macaroon pieces within, but I guess I shoulda known Haagen-Dazs has higher standards.

Yeesh

Ignore the calories ignore the calories ignore the calories ignore the calories ignore the calories ignore the calories ignore the calories ignore the calories ignore the calories.

Time to crack the package…

Coconut moon risin'

Smooth silky surface look….let’s dig deeper.

Bits of macaroon

Very soft, very easy to push my spoon into.  The little bits of macaroon had me worried – were they TOO small?  I wanted some nice big pieces of coconut macaroon, and I didn’t see any.

Plant spoon into mouth, and…

Meringue-like

WOW.  Haagen-Dazs Limited Edition Coconut Macaroon Ice Cream, you have moved up in the rankings in my head.  I am completely shocked (in a good way) with the way this ice cream tastes!

First, the ice cream.  Very buttery, very sweet, and FULL of coconut flavor!  It was like I had just dug into a frozen meringue.  Light, fluffy and packed with coconut taste – if the tub of ice cream was just this, alone, I would’ve been happy.

But of course, the ice cream was not ONLY the ice cream, it was also these coconut macaroon cookie pieces!  And even though they looked tiny in the photo, I believe the pieces were actually bigger than I thought.  I think the color of the beige macaroon just blended in with the ice cream, because each and every bite of this ice cream appeared to be loaded with macaroon cookie bits!  There wasn’t a single spoonful that passed that didn’t have plenty of macaroon in it.

For anyone who, like me, also enjoys that cake/ice cream texture combo, you’ll enjoy this too.  The macaroon pieces were soft and chewy with coconut and loaded with that burnt sugar flavor.

All in all, a FANTASTIC ice cream, and another masterpiece by Haagen-Dazs.

Thoughts? Tell me in the comments below or hit me on Twitter @junkfoodguy or on my Facebook Page.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy