A Pair of Cabinets

Tips: A “cabinet” is a New England term for what most people call a “milkshake”. When my sisters and I were kids, my parents used to take us back and forth to Massachusetts from our home in New Jersey on a fairly frequent basis. We almost always stopped at a restaurant called “Eileen Darling’s”. It wasn’t fancy and didn’t serve upscale food, but it was family-friendly long before anyone had ever heard of that term. Cabinets were a standard item on the menu, and we must have polished off a good many of them over the years. Funny thing is, I think the restaurant still exists, though not in the location I remember (too bad; if you sat in the right place in the original location, you got a great view of “The Bughaus”, a Volkswagen repair shop with an enormous concrete beetle upside down on the roof). In any case, this upscale version of a cabinet is named in honor of Eileen Darling’s. The Mocha-Caramel Cabinet has some thickness to it, but if you like it thicker I’d use only 1/2 cup water, though if you do so you may have to play with the amounts of coffee and chocolate syrup. If the cabinet is too thick for your blender with only 1/2 cup water, add a little more, “pulsing” the machine on-and-off, until your blender can handle the thickness. Vary the amount of chocolate syrup according to your preference. The only Dulce de Leche ice cream I can find regularly is made by Haagen-Dazs. They have excellent distribution throughout the US, at least. If you know of any other good examples of this ice cream flavor, I’d appreciate finding out about them. Use any good chocolate ice cream for the Brandy-Cappuccino Cabinet.