Hot blistering days are here and ahead and you do not need an excuse to indulge in ice creams. Try living on them for an entire day and you won’t regret it, vouch ice cream lovers because ice creams are no longer just desserts. They can even be the meal that fills your stomach and yet keeps you craving more.
The desi varieties are a cheap and street-smart option. Be it the evergreen kala khattas (crushed ice with colourful multi-flavoured essence) or the local kuchi ice and paal ice, they offer an earthy experience that’s both easy on the pocket and worthy of taste. Come summer and one can spot these cycle-carts run by a man wearing a cap, striking the bell and calling out to the people. Once upon a time when ice creams were rare and a weekly luxury in many families, these ice cream wallahs were much awaited vendors. The best option for school goers was the kuchi ice that could be bought with the small pocket money.
Nowadays, there are ice cream outlets in practically every street. Run by Arun or Amul, they bring the flavours hard to resist. Many of them of course are the familiar flavours we grew up with. For instance, Vanilla that is still synonymous with ice creams; chocolate that is so much a part of everybody's childhood; Strawberry invariably the choice on first dates; Pistachio and butterscotch the special flavours of any function and; Blackcurrant to mend a bad mood.
But these standard flavours are no more the only ice creams. Brands like Arun have come up with innovative choices for the season. An exclusive range for kids includes multi-layered ice creams that also have fascinating names. So you have, the ‘Jolly Train’ (cubes of chocolate and pistachio fused together), the ‘Spiral’ (rings of mango and litchi) and the ‘Twins’ (an exciting combo of strawberry and blackcurrant flavours).
“Not just children even adults are lapping up our new flavours,” says Nawaz, who runs an Arun outlet in Tirupalai and adds, “because even the die-hard lovers of vanilla and chocolate want to try out something new once in a while.”
Manikandan, the sales person at the Ibaco in Narayanapuram, is happy to recommend the newly introduced tender coconut, plum chime and Arabica coffee to his customers. “We have also launched fresh fruit crushes as toppings,” he says. Dried cranberry and blueberry, crushed mango and orange chunks are some options. “Missisipi Mudpie, an American flavour that was launched a month ago has become an instant hit among ice cream lovers,” he adds. With over 30 flavours of ice creams and 15 varieties of toppings, the Ibaco ice creams can be had in waffle cones too.
Ice cream cakes from Ibaco also rake in good business. These cakes come in 10 flavours and are refrigerated at -20 degrees Celsius and can remain fresh for a month if maintained at the same temperature. According to the Ibaco staff, customers’ preferred choice is the ice cream cake sold at Rs.500 for a 600 gm cake and those weighing one kg cost Rs.1000.
Flavours such as Rum Punch, Cotton Candy and Mint Milk chocolate are the cool favourites at Baskin and Robins outlets in the city malls. The Scoop shop in the food court of Vishal De Mal, offers 25 ice-cream bowls called ‘Scoops of Pride’. “These are mixed on a cold stone that is kept at freezing temperature. It is a popular concept in metro cities,” says Radhakrishnan, while blending scoops of Kulfi, vanilla and butterscotch flavours.
He kneads the scoops with a pair of ladles and beats them the way a kothu parotta is thumped. The gooey homogenous ice cream is then placed in a waffle bowl topped with whipped cream, sugar balls, coconut crunches, badam and pistachio shavings, cherries, chocolate cookies and roasted cashews. Ice creams these days come in different flavours and combos that are all loaded with the goodness of nuts and fruits, the richness of milk solids, and of course an enormous amount of calories!
But when it comes to relishing ice creams, who cares about the calories? Do you?
