Mission accomplished!

Ever since I have arrived here, my landlady (LL) has been looking for a real ice-cream soda--not a float, but a soda. She has made this a mission of hers whenever we go out anywhere. Apparently, that's gotten a lot harder to find than it used to be--I wouldn't know, being a chocolate ice-cream cone aficionada, myself.

We've been to a diner where the menu offered both sodas and floats, but served only floats, no matter which you ordered, and the waiter argued with LL that sodas and floats really are the same thing (ooo-kay, but why two menu items, then?). An ice-cream store owner, on the other hand, knew what they were but couldn't help us, as apparently they require some sorts of specialized equipment of the type seen in Three Stooges movies' seltzer fights. She did refer us to a place in Penn's Landing with all the accoutrements, but which--as it caters to tourists--apparently charges something like $8 for a sundae. LL's desire for an ice-cream soda is exceeded only by her thrift, so it seemed as though that soda was forever going to elude her.

Until I got home from work today to find her smiling like the cat who swallowed the (egg) cream.

Ray's Diner & Malt Shop (14 E. Germantown Pike, Valley Forge, PA [Germantown Pike at 202]) makes them, and they are quite delicious, according to LL, who was very pleased with her find. If you're in the metro Philadelphia area, and you like ice-cream sodas, give it a try. (Plus they support Habitat for Humanity, another reason to throw some business their way.)