Please, Mister Softee, Don't Become TikTokified

What we lose when we plan eating out. Plus, some appetizing recommendations.

“Sometimes you need a Mister Softee on a medical level,” says Jake Cornell in this TikTok on his discovery that the ubiquitous New York ice cream truck has an app.

He’s being satirical but the first time I had ice cream from a Mister Softee truck, it felt like a medical necessity. I was 24 and visiting New York for a few days in the summer to find an apartment before starting school at the end of August. To my frosted Canadian bones, the heat and humidity was unbearable. I ambitiously over-scheduled my few days with apartment viewings from as far north as Harlem to as far south as Park Slope. Being new to the city, I was overwhelmed navigating the subway system for the first time and unaware that many of the non-air-conditioned trains double as saunas in the summer. I had found what would become my apartment in Clinton Hill, but the broker told me I had less than 24 hours to get him the rental application, including a cashier’s cheque worth six month’s rent. I ran to the nearest bank …