| No one knows who made the first ice cream. Some people think that water ices and milk ices may have been made by the Chinese between three thousand and a thousand years ago. In that time, the dish reached India. The Indians, in turn, many have passed on the secret to the Arabs and Persians. Marco Polo, an Italian who travelled widely in the thirteenth century, noted that he found the Chinese had long been making ices out of fruit juices and milk. From the fourteenth century on, ices became popular first in Venice and then throughout Italy. At first ice cream was a luxury (奢侈品) in France. Only rich people had the money to buy it. Then, in 1660, a young man from Sicily, Francisco Procopio, arrived in Paris. He opened a shop that sold ice cream at prices people could afford. Then his ice cream became so popular that other shops were opened. About 1640, King Charles introduced ice cream to England and soon ice cream quickly became popular in England too. American now eat more ice cream than any other people in the world. But they are not the only ones who are fond of it. Greeks are also very fond of ice cream. In the large cities of Germany there are many small shops that sell only ice cream. Ice cream shops are not as common as in England, although large London stores do have soda fountains (冷饮部). Ice cream sodas first became popular sometime in the 1880s in the United States. In fact they soon became too popular to suit some of the good people of Evanston, Illinois. They thought it was not proper to drink soda on Sunday. A city law was passed to stop the ice cream soda on Sundays. To keep within the law, it is said that one man served ice cream with syrup (糖水). Throughout its long history, ice cream has been a favorite dish. But only in this century has it been made with so many different tastes. People today can select from more than 240 flavors.
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