The Louisiana Legislature may deprive residents from simultaneously snacking and boozing on alcohol-infused ice cream. The House voted 46-44 Monday (May 5) against legislation that would make it legal for licensed liquor vendors to sell the wine or other alcohol-infused treat to people 21 or older. The bill needed 53 votes to advance Senate. It passed without objection out of a House committee last month after being twice tabled and tightened. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Marcus Hunter, D-Monroe, can bring it back for reconsideration.  Alcoholic-infused ice cream is illegal under the Louisiana's "adulterated foods" statute that also sets out rules for food sanitation. Alcohol ice cream has become a growing trend across the country, but legislative action is required in Louisiana and other states to sell it. Mercer's and Buzz Bar, two companies that make alcohol-infused ice cream, hired lobbyists Lenny Kopowski and Ruth Mignerey, respectively, to promote legalization of the product in Louisiana.

Buzz Bar ice cream bars contain 2.81 percent alcohol, about a percent less than Bud Light. The move from the out-of-state companies suggests they are eager to supply flavors like Cherry Merlot, Chocolate Cabernet, Blitzed Berry and Vanilla Daze in the Pelican State.* Ice Cream Books, a cool literary group that pairs juicy reads with inventive new ice cream flavors, has teamed up with OddFellows to create a mulled red wine-flavored ice cream inspired by Stephanie Danler’s delicious novel “Sweetbitter.” On Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 6:30 p.m., at OddFellows in Williamsburg (175 Kent Ave., Brooklyn), Danler will read excerpts from her page-turner about a small town, 20-something who moves to New York City and lands a job at one of Manhattan’s most exclusive restaurants. The coming-of-age tale is peppered with food, sex, drugs, lust, heartbreak and the hustle that comes with working in the fast-paced industry. The scoops will be sold until Jan. 21. at both the Brooklyn location of OddFellows and the one at 75 East 4th St. in Manhattan.

* Here’s some food for thought. HoneyBrains, the buzzworthy new healthy food and juice eatery in NoHo (372 Lafayette St.) will debut the weekly series “Thursday Night Talks” on Jan. 19. Topics will focus on brain food, wellness, nutrition, sleep and, of course, honey. Hanoi House in St. Mark's Place. Hanoi House has an entire menu section devoted to stews and pho. * Travel through the flavors of Vietnam at Hanoi House (119 St. Mark’s Place). The newly opened, 45-seat space in the East Village is decked out with the kind of tropical foliage you’d see in the Vietnamese countryside. The restaurant is a visual homage to owners Sara Leveen and Ben Lowell’s travels through the country with antiques reminiscent of French Indochina scattered throughout the dining room. The menu features family-style feasts, like the Bun Cha: a dish of grilled pork, betel leaf-wrapped meatballs, pickled green papaya, crab spring rolls, rice vermicelli, chili and garlic. There’s also a variety of pho and stews.

* It’s all about wine and tapas at Lamano, a Spanish restaurant now open in Chelsea (265 W. 20th St.). Signature dishes include Berenjena, an eggplant spread with clover honey and rosemary; beer-poached octopus with fingerling potatoes; and roasted peaches with goat cheese mousse and candied pine nuts. Pair them with cocktails like the Bloody Sherry, a cocktail made with Amontillado sherry, fresh tomato juice, beets and lemon. Maman is holding French Fondue workshops.top selling wine in the usa * The cafe and bakery Maman is hosting a “Fondue Like the French Do” workshop series at its Soho and Greenpoint locations. wine and beer healthierDiners will get a spread of foods designed to be melted into a three-cheese fondue of classic varieties like comte, tomme de savoie and gruyere. best wine east coast

The first one will be on Jan 20 at their SoHo location.Making waves in the world right now is the news that Mercer’s Ice Cream from Boonville, New York have invented Wine Ice Cream, which is different than “Wine flavored Ice Cream”. The Wine Ice Cream has up to 5% ABV. They’ve been selling it since 2008, so we can only guess why it’s making the rounds on the internet currently (due to graphics like the one we’ve posted here?). Then again, we don’t understand much about the internet at all.best red wine 2012 uk This mention of this Wine Ice Cream brought us back to a flavor that we had from Vioko in Barcelona, which was called Sambayón. top wine of 2008Known by many names like Zabaione, Zabaglione, Sabajón, etc, Sambayón is one of those egg whites & sugar-type mediterranean desserts that, to me, are cousins or second cousins of Ice Cream & gelato. one hope wine australia

Maybe that doesn’t make sense to you, but it does to me. Sambayón is flavored with sweet wine, like Marsala in Italy, and has already been turned into a popular Ice Cream flavor in South America. What sets apart Wine Ice Cream from Sambayon or other “wine flavored Ice Creams” is the 5% ABV. Likely the Sambayón Ice Cream we tasted had some nominal amount of alcohol in it. And most Ice Creams have some small alcohol content anyways when you consider the fact that most natural and artificial flavor extracts are diluted with neutral ethyl alcohol. But any such nominal alcohol content isn’t a feature of the overall flavor, nor the marketing of the flavor for these Ice Creams containing nominal amounts of alcohol. It’s a featured component of Wine Ice Cream by law and likely by design, judging by people’s reactions which basically amount to: “OMG I can finally get drunk on Ice Cream!” For those people, it probably brings you back to something like the loss of innocence during that first sip of beer when you were underage.