I had the best childhood. I loved life. I thought life was the most
wonderful thing ever created. For three cents, you could get a small egg
cream—they were called egg creams for some reason, there was never an
egg in it. For a nickel, you could get a regular—a Coke glass, a jumbo
glass. They put in a spoon of chocolate—Fox’s U-Bet from a jar. Then
they would put in a little bit of milk, still from a bottle of milk—it
was glass and cold from the icebox. Then they’d hit it from the fountain
with a thin, powerful, high stream of seltzer. Shhhhhhhh! It
would explode the chocolate syrup in the milk. It was not nonfat milk—it
was milk, real milk. And then the soft flow of seltzer to bring it to
the top, and a deep, long spoon stirred mightily until there was a
beautiful foam top of milk and chocolate bubbles. It was the nectar of
the gods. I compare it now to my Château Mouton Rothschild ’82.
Mel Brooks - Childhood in New York, NYMag
