Junk Food Nation! What’s. Up. For those on the East Coast, how’s the weather out there? Has the salt done its job on the roads? And why the hell can’t the buildings next to me shovel their damn sidewalks? IT’S THE LAW, MORONS.

Anyways, yesterday was a snow day here in DC, and of course I spent way too many hours of it watching food shows on Travel and Food Network. And it got me thinking about a question I posed to my co-workers recently: all things being equal, what’s better – French Fries or Onion Rings?

I feel like the easy answer is French Fries. Most people grow up eating French Fries first, and it’s clearly listed as the FIRST side item over any Onion Rings which are usually pushed to a corner of the menu along with baked vegetables or mashed potatoes. Plus, McDonald’s French Fries are damn good. BK’s too.

But then you think….man, how many times have you had BAD French Fries? To me, French Fries are NOT like pizza – it is NOT always good. I’m sorry, Shake Shack, BUT I HATE CRINKLE CUT FRIES. What am I, in grade school? Plus, getting waterlogged, oil-soaked fries is disappointing (I’m looking at you, Five Guys. Sometimes you’re awesome, sometimes you’re an oil bomb. DECIDE WHAT YOU ARE.)

As you get older, you might slip into an Onion Ring phase. Onions, in general, have more flavor than potatoes. Restaurants add more seasoning to the onion ring batter. A Bloomin’ Onion at Outback may be something like 4000 calories, but who cares when it’s drenched in seasoned dip? Plus, onion rings have that awesome crunch of breading that you don’t get with french fries.

But how many times have you had BAD onion rings?? Those are the worst. Breading falling off or not fully cooked. Onion cut too thick.  Oil bomb, again.

Still, I think the argument is closer we all think. And it’s tough for me – there’s nothing I like more than a salty potato – but a breaded onion??? C’mon, that’s pretty awesome too.

Or maybe I’m crazy to think the argument is close. So tell me in the comments below, JFNation – what’s better, onion rings or french fries? Where do your favorite of each come from (which place, etc.?) And give me good arguments – maybe I’ll be swayed. Great, now I’m starving.

Meanwhile…

So, JFNation, as you might have heard from our recent Nosh Show episode, Häagen-Dazs has come out with a new line of ice cream for 2015, pairing with local bakery/food artisans to create awesome new flavors. At my local Target, I found these:

New Häagen-Dazs Artisan Collection Chocolate Caramelized Oat Ice Cream and New Häagen-Dazs Artisan Collection Tres Leches Brigadeiro Ice Cream were the first two flavors I spotted. I mean, they just look awesome.  On Second Scoop has a good review of the Tres Leches one already – sounds BALLER.

The next two flavors of the New Häagen-Dazs Artisan Collection Ice Cream I spotted were the Spiced Pecan Turtle Ice Cream and the Ginger Molasses Cookie Ice Cream. I said on the show, and I’ll say it again – the Ginger Molasses Cookie Ice Cream was the one I wanted most of all. How would it compare to the long gone Festivus Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream? We’ll see.

(PS: No sign of the Banana Rum Jam Variety. BOOO. I blame Dubba at On Second Scoop.)

Anyways, like I said in my Turkey Hill Gelato review, I usually just head over to On Second Scoop for my ice cream reviews, and I’m sure he will be hitting up all these flavors, but I couldn’t let these go by without at least trying ONE. So, without further delay…

Today’s junk food: New Häagen-Dazs Artisan Collection Ginger Molasses Cookie Ice Cream!!

New Häagen-Dazs Artisan Collection Ginger Molasses Cookie Ice Cream is made with cookies from The Good Batch, a Brooklyn based bakery started by Ms. Anna Gordon. And she grew up in Silver Spring, MD!  HOLLA DMV REGION.

The Good Batch Ginger Molasses Cookies used as part of this New Häagen-Dazs Artisan Collection Ginger Molasses Cookie Ice Cream can be bought off the Good Batch site – one dozen for $16. That’s pricey, but nothing compared to the price of a Starbucks cookie. HOW IS THE PRICE OF A FROSTED SNOWMAN COOKIE $2.25 STARBUCKS??? HOW. Gimme Good Batch any day of the week.

New Häagen-Dazs Artisan Collection Ginger Molasses Cookie Ice Cream is made by mixing these cookies with vanilla cinnamon ice cream. Festivus Ice Cream had both brown sugar ice cream and a ginger caramel swirl…mmmm caramel swirl. Just from the description, this H-D ice cream seems like it is a bit more refined/restrained than the B&J ice cream. Not sure if that’s a good thing yet.

New Häagen-Dazs Artisan Collection Ginger Molasses Cookie Ice Cream has 280 calories per 1/2 cup (oof)…

…but contains just some good natural ingredients. Cloves? Nutmeg? BUTTER? I can get down with that.

I opened up this New Häagen-Dazs Artisan Collection Ginger Molasses Cookie Ice Cream, and sniffed. A Nice light vanilla aroma with good notes of cinnamon came wafting out. I wasn’t hard to smell the spice on this ice cream – the nutmeg and cinnamon aroma muddled together, but you get the point.

I scraped the top with my spoon, and tasted the ice cream by itself. Sweet, creamy, almost like a French vanilla (not a vanilla bean flavor). The cinnamon added good flavor, and was noticeable. The ice cream, quite frankly, was sort of like a light snickerdoodle ice cream. It was lovely – not over the top, but not too subtle.

I needed to dig just slightly deeper before the cookies in this New Häagen-Dazs Artisan Collection Ginger Molasses Cookie Ice Cream began popping out everywhere. There was a decent amount of cookies in here – not as voluminous as, say, Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream, but I’d say each spoonful I had contained maybe one small cookie bit, and some spoonfuls had three or four. Decent coverage.

The flavor of the ginger molasses cookies were truly the star in this New Häagen-Dazs Artisan Collection Ginger Molasses Cookie Ice Cream. The cookies, small and rounded, were SUPER light and crunched surprisingly in my mouth. Like, they felt so fresh and crunchy that it almost felt like the cookies POPPED in my mouth. And the flavor was, at times, SUPER strong – a nice snap of ginger with LOTS of spicy feeling on my tongue. At other times, the cookie was just nice, sweet, and gingery. But yeah – the moments when the cookie crunched, popped, and blasted me with ginger? Those were the highlight bites.

All in all, a VERY VERY good ice cream. I missed the ginger caramel swirl of Festivus, but this was a tasty, more refined ice cream. The cookies and the snickerdoodle-ish ice cream blended very well. Might be one of my favorites of late, only because it’s the only gingerbread-like ice cream that exists right now that actually popped me with bits of ginger. Nice job, Good Batch. Good on ya.

If you liked Festivus, this doesn’t go quite as far – but it’s still very tasty. I’d recommend it.

PURCHASED AT: Target, Germantown, MD

COST: $4.04 

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy