


German ice cream parlors are seeing a resurgence of a unique frozen treat — an ice cream sundae disguised as spaghetti.
Dubbed Spaghettieis — eis is the German word for ice cream — the dessert consists of vanilla ice cream that is passed through a spaetzle press, a device for cutting dough, to give it the appearance of noodles, the BBC reported.
The ice cream “noodles” are then topped with strawberry sauce, to resemble tomato sauce, and grated white chocolate that looks like sprinkled Parmigiano cheese.
The confection was invented in 1969 at Eis Fontanella Eismanufaktur Mannheim, an ice cream shop in Mannheim, Germany, by the eatery’s second-generation owner Dario Fontanella.
Fontanella got the idea after eating a French dessert called “Mont Blanc,” consisting of strand-like chestnuts, while in Northern Italy.
The sweet treat eventually spread around Germany.
“This new specialty must have first become known by word-of-mouth,” Fontanella told the outlet. “At that time there was no social media, it just got around among colleagues [in the ice cream world].”
However, it began disappearing as dessert houses opted for trendier flavors.
“It was very popular when I was a young child. But then for 10 or 15 years, it was completely gone,” said Tanja Rylewicz, owner of Meine Kleine Eiszeit, a Berlin ice cream cart.
Over the past five years, it re-emerged — and is available at iconic spots throughout Germany like Sarcletti, Munich’s oldest ice cream parlor.
Today, 40 million servings of Spaghettieis are sold annually in Germany, according to Fontanella.
Rylewicz said it’s as popular as ever among her German clientele.
“The Americans are totally confused because they don’t know Spaghettieis at all,” she said.