If you had asked me, oh, eight or nine years ago, I would have said green tea was my favorite ice cream. That was back toward the beginning of my love affair with Asian flavors. They were still a little exotic to me, and I was a bit naïve. I hadn't yet met a iberry.
I dream about iberry from distant lands. Iberry, the ultimate in Thai ice cream, produces more than 100 homemade flavors, using seasonal ingredients and creative concoctions that, as far as I can tell, have no rival. Bangkokians know this. So do ice cream lovers across the region. So deep is this passion for iberry, one popular Kuala Lumpur food blogger posted a letter to the company, begging on cyber hands and knees for a new branch in her city.
I remember my first cup of black sesame. I was hooked by the first teenie-weenie plastic spoonful. When I was a kid, cookies'n cream did the trick, with all those crunchy little cookie flecks embedded in the smooth, creamy scoop. Black sesame is a bit like that, but far more sophisticated, with a rich and nutty flavor that isn't overpowering on the sugar.
And then we have paradise tea, the vibrant yellowish color of a monk's robe; ginger sorbet, light and airy, with gentle herbal undertones; blueberry-mango sorbet, a freight train of flavor, as tart and punchy as the mixture's intense color. So many flavors—gooseberry, tamarind, longan, durian, banana-cheese, Nutella, Horlicks, Ovaltine. How can I choose? The pomelo is such a pretty pink. But I've always been a sucker for taro.
And then I tried guava-salted plum sorbet. How can I explain the complexity of sweetness and saltiness in this frozen treat? Fruit and salt go hand in hand in Thailand; I've even taken to salting my orange juice. But this sorbet transcends. It puckers the mouth, cools the tongue, quenches the thirst and satisfies the sweet tooth, all at once.
Yep. Guava-salted plum. It may be my all-time favorite.
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