Habeas has been a little quiet lately. You can blame travel, work, and a slight cold. On the upside, the travel took me to L.A. for a wedding over Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend — and allowed me to try a couple new ice cream flavors.

First, I had a fun expedition to Grand Central Market, which has changed a lot since I last went in 2013. There’s an outpost of Santa Barbara’s McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams there, an outfit I hadn’t heard of. I ordered a split* of Cardamom Gingersnap and Eureka Lemon & Marionberries (see below). The texture was good, but I liked the former more than the latter — the lemon wasn’t really working for me.

I hope you guys like ice cream shot with Dutch tilts, because you’d better get used to it.

At the wedding itself I was pleasantly surprised that instead of a cake, we were going to get donuts and ice cream. Thanks Sasha and Charlie! The ice cream was from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, which I had tried before — but not since an unfortunate listeria scare last year. When I had it last time (and this time), I had a sneaking suspicion that there was some chemical wizardry afoot. The nearly chewy texture of the ice cream reeked of stabilizers, which, for a hipster purist like me, is verboten.

Late night wedding ice cream is the best.

But Jeni’s prides itself on not using artificial ingredients, so I was wrong. The flavors I had (another split of Wildberry Lavender and Brambleberry Crisp) were good, but the texture just doesn’t work for me. It’s not objectively bad, but it has a strange sort of semi-solidity even when it’s sitting in your mouth. I applaud Jeni’s for creating it, but it’s not my thing. Although now I’m curious as to how they do it!

Next time, we’ll have an actual ice cream recipe, inspired by one of the Bay Area’s most beloved shops, Bi-Rite.

* I almost always order a split just because I like getting exposed to different flavors and because I can’t commit to anything in life.