Guerrilla Ice Cream

Ice cream inspired by political uprisings isn't one of those ideas that make you sit up and say, 'Wow, why didn't I think of that?' But Ethan Frisch and Ori Zohar, the two guys behind the Guerrilla Ice Cream cart, pull it off. They're successful for three reasons: 1. They use 100% of their profits to support marginalized populations, which helps the ickiness of ordering a "Red Corridor" or "8888 Uprising" go away. 2. They're really nice guys, happy to give out endless samples and talk food and politics in equal measure. 3. Most importantly, the ice cream is terrific, so good and so wildly inventive that you can't help but smile as you eat it. (And here's a gratis idea, guys: a mint ice cream for Iran's Green Revolution. You can pay us in free cups.)

At the Hester Street Fair, we enjoyed a tart little confection called the Istiqlal ("independence" in Arabic), a tip of the spoon to the Lebanese Democratic Left Movement, that consisted of a yoghurt sorbet with halwa and pomegranate molasses. But if we were going to rally around one banner, it would be the Velvet Revolution (above), a lemon poppy seed ice cream with crumbled spice cookies and freshly shaved lemon zest. It's smooth, creamy, spicy, and citrusy all at once, and tastes unlike any other ice cream we could recall having.