Letters of Recommendation: 'Indian Butterscotch Ice Cream'

Of course, I hadn’t come back to India just to eat ice cream, but it was something I could count on wherever my reporting took me. From Delhi, I went first to Haridwar, a sacred Hindu city; then to Amritsar, where Sikhs worship at the Golden Temple; then to the Muslim city Srinagar in Kashmir; and finally to Leh, a Buddhist city in the Himalayas. Across cultures and climates, I found the same cones everywhere. A paper wrapper identified the brand, like Amul, Creambell and Kwality Wall’s, but there was little difference between them. The waffle cone was usually chewy and lined with chocolate; the ice cream was pale yellow, like churned butter, and topped with more chocolate and crumbled nuts.