Brown bread ice cream: a delicious use for stale bread

I often think of the first time I ate brown bread ice cream. I know how that sounds: it’s the exact sort of pretentious nonsense a food writer would say if they were about to press a recipe for brown bread ice cream on you. But it was long before I became a food bore, and it’s true. I really do think about that first time a lot.

I had just moved to London to study law after university, and was about to train as a barrister. I was living in a small flat and surviving on pesto pasta, bowls of cereal and crisps. At that point, going out for dinner probably meant a McDonald’s at the end of a night out. I knew next to nothing about food. But an unlikely set of circumstances meant that I found myself going to dinner with a food writer at a fancy Soho restaurant.

Too excited, too keen, I arrived first by some margin, and realised I was out of my depth. The extensive wine list I was handed was a complete mystery to me; I couldn’t work out which of the many words that followed each wine was its actual name. Now I wouldn’t think twice about just pointing at what I wanted, or asking for advice. But back then I thought it would mark me out as a rube, so I nursed a glass of tap water until my dining companion arrived.

When it came to actually ordering, I was extremely happy to be led. I’d never heard of brown bread ice cream before; it sounded parsimonious and old-fashioned. But it was what my friend ordered and, as with the previous two courses (and wine), I deferred to his experience.