Few things inflame the passions of New Yorkers on a hot day quite like the subject of their favorite ice cream. Just ask the Platt girls. Daughter No. 1 (Jane, age 11) enjoys elegantly creamy European-style gelati served in long tapering cones. Daughter No. 2 (Penelope, age 8) eats vanilla soft-serve only, preferably encrusted in a thick layer of rainbow sprinkles, gummy bears, or both. Recently, we spent a contentious couple of weeks haggling over our favorite frozen treats. We slurped sundaes in old-fashioned ice-cream temples in Forest Hills, argued the merits of trendy artisanal toppings in the wilds of Brooklyn, and tasted countless varieties of fancy Manhattan gelati on hundreds of tiny plastic spoons. Here, the results of our labor, ranked in order of preference from one to sixteen. In the cases where the girls agreed to disagree, their weary, sugar-addled dad broke the tie.

Related:

• Archive: “Guides”
• Articles by Adam Platt
• Table of Contents: Jun 27, 2011 issue of New York | Subscribe!