Photo by GarySe7en via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr COOL OFF AT GRIFFITH PARK Summer may be over but the temperature is still high, that's why you should attend The Great Los Angeles Ice Cream Party. Meet at the old merry-go-round at 2 p.m. for free ice cream and fun for all ages. Optional donations go to LA Commons, a non-profit organization bringing public art to LA neighborhoods. JUMP ON THE APATOW......

Blueberry Ice cream with Strawberry in the background | Photo by Snack Behrens/LAist After all the salt consumed by eating tons of deep fried foods like avocado and Oreos and a huge brick of cheese fries leaves one desiring sugar. The easy answer is Dr. Bob's in the farming area of the fair. When National Geographic released their 10 Best of Everything guide for travelers, Dr. Bob's Handcrafted Ice Creams came out at number......

Photo by Snack Behrens/LAist Have you ever made homemade vanilla ice cream? The ingredients are pretty basic: cream, milk, sugar, egg yolks and natural vanilla flavor. But if you want that same taste without having to make it yourself, we've found that Trader Joe's version tastes like homemade versions. In fact, it has all the same ingredients plus two preservatives and that's it -- no long list of unpronounceable colorings and chemicals. So with......

Submitted and Written By Dan Collins For ice cream lovers, Scoops is the frozen jewel in the Heliotrope Corridor crown (also called the Bicycle Districk and Hel-Mel), just around the corner from the legendary punk rock pavilion on Melrose known as the Ukrainian Center. Today’s urban sophisticate finds that nothing cools one down after a midnight bike ride’s next day sun-soaked hangover more than gourmet ice cream at bargain prices. And Scoops has all the......

For better or worse, we looked at the nutrition values of two of LAist's favorite food groups: Oreos and ice cream. / Photo by mihoda via flickr. As we learned earlier, July is National Ice Cream Month, a legacy left to us by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. According to the International Ice Cream Association, “He recognized ice cream as a fun and nutritious food that is enjoyed by a full 90% of the......

What's that sound? Could it be the ubiquitous tinkling tones of the neighborhood ice cream truck? (Or in some cases, Satan's Ice Cream Truck...) Go ahead, you know you want to get one. And why not? It's National Ice Cream Month! Or, if you're one to concentrate your efforts, save all your love for the weekend, because this Sunday is National Ice Cream Day. So really, you have no excuse. But you might have a......

Total cost: 5 bucks and some change | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist In the earlier days of the frozen yogurt craze, Yogurtland sprung up in Fullerton in February 2006. It was a success and so more stores opened in Hollywood, Long Beach, Little Tokyo, Sherman Oaks and many other Southern California locations and one in Cupertino up north. They even opened a location in Greenwich Village in New York City with plans for Vegas,......

Time for a little more cuisine of the obvious. For a couple of years now, each summer has a Ben & Jerry's flavor I like best. 2006 was Oatmeal chocolate chunk with cinnamon ice cream, chunks of oatmeal cookies and dark chocolate. Last summer, it was brownie batter. The brownie batter made the chocolate deepen the chocolate flavor. This year, I surprised myself. A friend gave me the idea of peaches and ice cream--went to......

Can we call it summer yet? Despite the rampant bouts of June Gloom as of late, our afternoons have been pretty close to picture-perfect weather wise, and with this month seeing school out, backyard parties galore, and beach days, we may as well add that hot-weather favorite to the mix. Oh, yes... ICE CREAM! Pinkberry Shminkberry. Forget your Fro-Yo and go for the real deal. LAist Featured Photos contributor woolennium shared this shot of some......

To help educate the public on the drastic decline of the honeybee population due to colony collapse disorder, Häagen-Dazs is giving away free samples of their Vanilla Bee Honey Flavor today from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. They have also set up an informative site called helpthehoneybees.com to explain their concern. "We rely on honey bees for one-third of our our food supply, so when honey bees are in danger, we're all in danger," the company......

LAist Featured Photos contributor pink_fish13 visited Joan's On Third (between La Cienega Blvd. and Fairfax Ave) earlier this week and took some beautiful and healthy food porn photos. Submit your Eye Nosh food 'porn' photos and mini-reviews to LAist via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr.......

"you date a girl and find out later/she smells just like a percolator"* I hope that Trader Joe's hasn't done one of their nasty things again, like they did with the amazing salt caramels. If their new Coffee Ice Cream is another seasonal-only addiction that will have me again begging TJ's to make it a year-round staple, I'm not ready. Let me backtrack by saying that I've got a third generation black belt in......

No, this isn't Care Bear Puke, but that would be pretty cool (in a strange way). This is the peppermint ice cream cookie sandwich ($4.25) at Disney's Soda Fountain and Studio Store, attached to the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. People go nuts over Diddy Reese's cheap ice cream sandwiches ($1.50). And those snacks are definitely not to miss when in Westwood Village or hanging around UCLA's campus. However, and as cheesy as it is......

This week's Sepulveda Blvd explosion took the life of firefighter Brent A. Lovrien, and as the LAFD mourns the loss along with Lovrien's friends and family and the city at large, the sacrifice so often made by our firefighters is on many minds. Prior to this week's tragedy, a fundraising event to benefit Fire Family Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that provides "financial assistance to Firefighters, their families and charities that support the fire......

Photograph of investigation at Times Square recruiting center by kerfuffle & zeitgeist on Flickr Gothamist found that an explosive set off outside the Times Square army recruiting center may be similar to five past bombings in New York City.Seattlest worried when severed right feet and bottles of rat poison started washing up on local beaches.Shanghaiist was surprised by Bjork's rooting for Tibetan independence at her concert (see video), and the political fallout has only......

When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "recommend" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities for us. So here's this week's top posts, as endorsed by you via the recommend feature, or as indicated by the level......

I swear to God I did not pose someone in a creepy frock in front of the truck. They were standing there when I got there. Goths eat ice cream too, you know. Especially when summoned by the music of the dark overlord | photo by Elise Thompson for LAist digg_url = 'http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Satan_s_Ice_Cream_Truck'; I heard it for the first time a week after moving into my new house -- the jangly strains of the......

Have you had enough of $5 coffee? $99 burgers? $125 martinis? I know I am -- doesn't anybody in this city want to find the cheapest drinks, meals, and booze? Los Angeles Magazine comes through this month with a feature on great deals and bargain finds on everything from martinis to furniture to underpants. We went straight for the food section, of course -- and here are our top food bargain picks from the......

The Tough Cookies' Venus d'Maulr / All photos by Kelly C. Gallamore for LAist While much of LA stayed home watching movies Saturday night, the real action was in Historic Filipinotown, where a sold out crowd of 2,000+ ventured out into a meteorological maelstrom to watch the L.A. Derby Dolls season-opening bout. The Tough Cookies dominated each quarter to knock off the Fight Crew 35-28 in the new Doll Factory, a converted 30,000 sq.......

What could be better than grotesque pink salmon molds? When cooking went psychedelic, of course. There was a point where hippies influenced the mainstream style, converging with mom's Valium habit to birth some craaaazy foods. Moms had to show the family they were still groovy, didn't they? Some of these ideas look like Betty Crocker on acid. Bad acid. The brown acid. These cupcakes give me nightmares. Bad Gumby nightmares. Could they make them look......

Father Dollar Bill (a.k.a. Reverend Maurice Chase) was at it again yesterday, handing out money on Skid Row. While he often hands out money to downtown residents in need, Christmas is his no-holds-barred attempt to spread a little more love in the form of Christmas cash. Skid row residents have lined up every year for 24 years to see what luck might come their way from Father Dollar Bill on Christmas Day. Reverend Chase gives......

Cardinal Roger Mahoney revealed that he had been assaulted in July outside of Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral; the attacker was "enraged by the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal within days of a record settlement with hundreds of victims." Karl Dorrell will not be coaching UCLA in its upcoming Las Vegas Bowl game. Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker will coach in the interim. If the world weren't already all shook up by Jakob Lodwick's departure......

One of the things that sports fans in Southern California should be grateful for as they warm up last night's left overs is the fact that ESPN.com's Eric Neel moved to LA this year from Northern Cal because now his excellent writing is being more focused on our teams. Yesterday he posted a glowing feature on the USC football head coach who appears every bit the Golden Boy that he looks in photos. In......

If you weren't at The Echo last night, then you missed out on an overdue Modular People extravaganza. Aussie one-man band Muscles and London's own New Young Pony Club rocked the house with their dance-laden equations. With Halloween costumes in full effect and drinks a flowin', the sold out house was full of bopping NYPC-a-holics intent on getting their fix. Well, I believe that we all got more than we bargained for. Muscles opened......

As firefighters sought to contain the smoldering remains of California, officials are keying in on how the fires started. One of the largest fires, the Santiago fire that burned 22,000 acres was, reportedly set by an arsonist. President Bush toured parts of California and declared, "We're not going to forget you in Washington D.C." I guess he didn't visit any poor children. There's at least one good story to come out of this tragedy.......

October is my favorite month of the year. Pumpkin Pie ice cream finally shows up. The weather is not too hot. It's not too cold. It's just right. Of course, the best part of October is Halloween. It may seem a little early to be thinking about it, but it's good to get a jump on things if you are going to order anything off of the internet. Here are a few once-a-year favorites to......

Your pets want the house to themselves today. Some of yesterday's festivals like Detour, NoHo Scene and the Eagle Rock Music Festival are over with. Yet Sunday, here in Los Angeles, is still a busy day. Events continuing from yesterday's Weekend Festival Guide: Brewery Art Walk and TarFest Jazz at Drew 10:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.: In it's 17th year, the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science's popular music and charity event......

Orlando, Florida's Walt Disney World is quite a different ride than our local Anaheim day-tripping Disneyland. For one, the Florida theme park is all about kids and family, family and kids and some more kids, kids, kids (so there is Pleasure Island, but the name is just sort of weird to start with). So other than never growing up, what else is there to remember about a few days at the massive theme park? Food.......

For me, it started in high school; not because my friends and I were into partying, but because we were the dorks who put on the school plays, or who went religiously to showings of Rocky Horror. We'd be set loose into the night with our babysitting money in our pockets, hungry for some grub at places that didn't mind booths full of boisterous people with cravings for foodstuffs comprised mostly of batter and......

Feeling lucky punk? Well, are ya? LAist hopes you are: Win a pair of VIP passes to LA Weekly's Detour Festival on October 6 and a pair of tickets for The Crystal Method at The Roxy next Tuesday. Good luck! Prosecutors plan to refile charges against Phil Spector. Jeez, what's a murderer brutha gotta do to walk free? Britney Spears "dined" at Acapulco in Burbank last night and the paparazzo’s freaked. It's like they'd......