Friday, July 9, 2010
TV Dinner Las Paletas Gets Its Licks In as Food Network Launches New Show
Posted by Dana Kopp Franklin on Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 8:12 AM
The Paz sisters' delightful Mexican-style frozen treats will be featured July 19 in the second week of a new Food Network show titled Kid in a Candy Store.
Hosted by Adam Gertler, a former contestant on The Next Food Network Star, the show documents Gertler's trips across the country to find sweet things to eat.
"He has a lot of energy," says Irma Paz Bernstein, who's coming up on nine years at Las Paletas. She says the segment was shot a couple of months ago, and it sounds something like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives with a focus on desserts.
"We go out and meet people — the bakers, the customers," Gertler, a former pastry chef, told the New York Daily News. "And we get hands-on. I'm very curious in general, and that curiosity in this setting brings out information. I want people to walk away from each episode feeling like they learned something."
The show launches this Monday, July 12, with back-to-back episodes at 7 and 7:30 p.m. But the fun part will be the following week. An episode titled "Brain Freeze," airing at 7 p.m. Monday, July 19, will explore chilly treats from across the South.
From the synopsis: "Find out how the people of New Orleans beat the heat with Snowballs — colorful shaved ice in wild flavors like Bananas Foster and strawberry cheesecake. Discover a gelato shop in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with a full bar that shakes and stirs gelato martinis. In Nashville, Tennessee, two sisters make Mexican ice pops in flavors you won't find in the frozen food aisle."
D'oh! How come their spin on Las Paletas sounds so bland? Oh, well. Irma and Norma Paz — and all their phantasmagorical paletas flavors — will surely brighten up the show.
I am curious about the last stop mentioned for the episode: "Visit the Dippin' Dots factory in Paducah, Kentucky, where they make billions of their famous ice cream beads with the help of liquid nitrogen." Though I've known about the Dots for decades I never realized that they're the Southern old-school version of molecular gastronomy.
Comments (7)
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Another tv spot for Las Paletas? That's great news!
I hate Dippin Dots. They are so unsatisfying.
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Maybe the publicity will convince them to stay open past 7pm in the summer time.
I wouldn't count on it. However, I bet Bob Bernstein's new place, Hot & Cold, which will sell Las Paletas ice pops, will stay open past 7 p.m. It's supposed to launch later this summer in Hillsboro Village where the Smoothie King used to be.
I had a cucumber chili paleta last weekend. Pretty much changed my life.
@Lesley -- I agree about Dippin' Dots. Little ice pellets. I would have thought more surface area meant more flavor, but that's not the case.
@Carrie -- try the jamaica and the tamarind for two more life-changing experiences. Oooo. I think we'll have to go today.
So happy to see them get more publicity! My favorite is still the Rice paleta- it's so satisfying and refreshing! Oh, and don't forget - they beat another Food Network personality, Bobby Flay, a few years ago on Throwdown. Go Las Paletas!!
i love the hibiscus paleta so much it's hard for me to try other flavors.
not that they need to cut deals, but it would be lovely if there were a dozen discount of some kind. i buy paletas on dry ice for gifts sometimes, and buying 12 or more gets pricy!
