I see hipster food trends all the time on the internet—there’s always a new fad documented in a Buzzfeed or Nifty video on my Facebook timeline. They look so interesting, and although they may be simply promotional material for a specific restaurant or store, I’m curious to try the food featured. When I went to New York over February break, I jumped at the opportunity to try one of these trendy treats: rolled ice cream.
This trend, also called stir-fried ice cream, originated in Thailand and became popular there, spreading to the rest of the world once videos demonstrating the creation of rolled ice cream went viral on websites like YouTube. To make these desserts, a liquid base flavor (usually some type of milk) is poured on an iced grill and mixed with toppings like fruit, nuts, and cookies, and the concoction solidifies and freezes on the frozen plate. The person creating the dessert uses two metal spatulas to combine the ingredients, and once it’s frozen, spreads the mixture on the plate to make a thin even layer before scraping the spatula to create the rolls. The rolls are served in a cup and often topped with more yummy treats like chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and fruit slices.
I went to Juicy Spot in Chinatown, a café that specializes in rolled ice cream and has a variety of flavors, so you can either order one of their specialties or make your own combination of flavors. I decided to try their Chocolate Chip Espresso: a vanilla base with espresso combined with chocolate chip cookies and espresso beans, and finished off with a topping of whipped cream, a whole cookie, and chocolate drizzled over it all. Pros: it was delicious, and watching it get made was a lot of fun.
The flavor combination was awesome, and I appreciated the visual aesthetic of the dessert.
They also played a bunch of songs from the movie, “The Greatest Showman.” Cons: it cost $6.50, plus tax. Of course, NYC is expensive, and as a person who lives in Delaware when not at school, I’m unused to paying sales tax. For NYC, the price was probably fairly reasonable, and I think the price was worth it to try the trend. However, would I get it again for the same price? Probably not. I would definitely recommend getting it at least once, but I’m not sure that I feel the need to pay more than $7 for a cup of ice cream, even if it’s very pretty ice cream in funky shapes. All in all, worth a try, but I don’t know that I’ll be getting it again, at least not at that price.
Main image from Yelp.