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Ice cream and politics don’t mix: Just look at the strange case of Staten Island Land Fill, a new flavor sold in stores by 5 Boroughs Ice Cream, and the source of a major hassle on the other side of the Verrazano. Things came to a head last Friday when Staten Island borough president Jimmy Molinaro urged an all-borough ban of 5 Boroughs Ice Cream. “Initially, we considered changing the name,” says Kim Myles, 5 Boroughs’ co-owner, “but then we realized we didn’t get into this to take direction from everybody else. And it’s our number-one seller!” What the two did not count on was what a very sore toothache the dump has become to most Islanders, long weary of being the Abbott to the-rest-of-NYC’s Costello.

Fresh Kills’ 2,200 acres shut down six years ago, and the Department of City Planning is well on its way to turning the former blight into a park, part of the reason Myles and her husband, Scott, thought borough residents would laugh it off. But so far, the controversy over the year-old flavor has been a big, drippy mess. “As a native Staten Islander and proud resident of the borough, I won’t buy any of the company’s products until they change the name,” says Staten Island Advance food critic Pamela Silvestri. Myles, however, who’s got Staten Island Cherry slotted as the next Island flavor to come off the conveyor belt, seems to get what a big nerve 5 Boroughs has irritated: “It’s really a sociological mirror. We got a funny e-mail from one Islander saying Staten Island should be glad we made a flavor for them and then suggesting a new one called Fake Tan Pecan. But I don’t think we’re going to use that one.” —Amy Zavatto

Ice cream leaving bad taste in mouths [Staten Island Advance]