This week I reached out for a vanilla soft serve (chocolate would be better, but good luck finding it) served in a new, freshly made, chocolate-coated waffle cone at Dairy Queen, America's roadside dessert palace, with 5,600 restaurants coast to coast and around the world. Regular sugar cones are sooo for losers.

Here's the blueprint: a freshly poured, cooked and rolled waffle cone, dipped in chocolate and filled with DQ's iconic soft ice cream.

Total calories: 550. Fat grams: 22. Dietary fiber: 1 gram. Carbs: 79 grams. Manufacturer's suggested retail price: $2.60 (your mileage many vary).

By introducing freshly made waffle cones and bowls, Dairy Queen is stepping into the boxing ring with big-money ice-cream parlors like Marble Slab and Cold Stone Creamery -- but without the big-money price tags. Last week, I ordered a Swiss chocolate cone with walnuts and chocolate chips in a waffle cone at Marble Slab and they asked me what my credit score was before they'd make it.

Dairy Queen began rolling out its rolled cones May 1. Freshly made waffle cones taste, smell and look great. I have no evidence to prove this, but I think you get more ice cream in a waffle cone than in a regular cone -- it's a bigger hole to fill. You know my motto when it comes to fast food: Bigger is better.

Waffle cones also make the store smell inviting -- like Subway when they've got bread baking. That puts me in the mood to do some serious eating. Or buy the building.

Waffle cones also make the store look busier. Workers are pouring batter on hot griddles, peeling them off and rolling them into cones. Then they're either dipping them into chocolate coating or rolling them in crushed nuts or sprinkles. It's a show.

More important than the nasal and visual benefits, though, waffle cones taste better than those cold, hard, crumbly cones that have been sitting in a big cardboard box in the back room. I love the last few bites of a waffle cone, when it's soggy from soaking up ice cream. Wet-Nap, please.

Dairy Queen also is making waffle bowls for three new sundaes: Chocolate Covered Strawberries, Turtle and -- buckle yourself in for this one -- Fab Fudge.

Waffle bowls are made from the same batter as waffle cones, except they're in the shape of a bowl. Instead of a drab paper bowl that ends up in a landfill, you eat every last crumb of a waffle bowl. It's the same principle as eating clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, which is one of the greatest culinary treats on earth.

A Dairy Queen sundae served in an edible bowlfi It's environmentally friendly, and it tastes great. It's an idea that Al Gore can love -- and it looks like he has.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B2.