cool and simple.

sometimes it isn't necessary to find a balance of flavours nor nuances nor complements. sometimes all you need is to beat the heat and get some caffeine in you. for this i recommend a scoop of coffee ice cream in a glass, topped with shaved ice, drowned in iced coffee (with or without milk) and then crowned with a heaping pile of coffee jelly. you know you want it.

wow, can't think of a title for this.

do you remember the days before the internezz when most information was word-of-mouth and you never bothered to check the facts? wait. sounds like the internet age anyway!

**

a cousin told me about gelatissimo; said something about this new gelato shop in greenbelt 5 in makati that was really, really good, and had all sorts of amazing flavours. and! the kicker was that it originated in cebu, which is like, a sort of beachy, sleepy town in the visayas, and how it was like, the best thing to ever come out of there since like, kenneth cobonpue ("who?", you say? well, g'wan, click on the link!) . i was all, "right on!" i could get behind a new filipino company especially if it was good. we decided to check it out after dinner.

when we got to the shop, i admit i was expecting something nice, but it was more posh than i had imagined. schmantzy sign, lots of product attractively displayed in refrigerated cases, intimate but adequate seating area. wow, sooo not beachy, baby.

and then i went to peruse the flavour selection and was really surprised--not only were there the standard flavours but semi-wacky ones like honey, toffee and malt, black sesame, cinnamon donut, teddy graham cracker biscuits, profiterole. which, you know, sound super sexy and less fattening in italian: miele, caramello e malto, sesamo nero, ciambellina di cannella...uh, teddy cracker di farina di frumento and erm, profiterole. i went with the cinnamon donut gelato which kinda blew me away--it actually tasted like a cinnamon donut, not just cinnamon, but also baked and cakey, too. but all in a spoonful of creamy, cool, smooth milky confection. bella scoperta! who whudda thunkit? not i said the fly.

i was really impressed with the product--not only was it some of the best gelato i'd had in the city, but anywhere outside of italy. i was told that it was so good that they had they opened up a shop in florence, italy. pardon my sopranos' italian but oogatz, they got some stugats to breeng this stuff to eeataly, youknowwhaimsayin'? but from what i sampled, i thought "yeah, okay! awesome. meravigliosa."

in the next few days i tried a few more flavours--the green apple sorbet, dark chocolate sorbet (pictured at the top of the post), pineapple, and rum raisin--all of them very, very good. the chocolate sorbet was actually quite welcome on a hot, humid and oppressive day--it was rich and dark like black coffee without the acidic bite, a little bit fruity and very, very light in texture, despite the strong flavour. the "weirdest" flavour i tried was a buttered caramel popcorn, which i don't know if i could recommend. it tasted exactly like lightly buttered, lightly caramelized popcorn, like something you'd get in a movie theatre. it also tasted sort of stale. like something you'd get in a movie theatre. at least it was authentic.

**

so. i was excited by this new discovery of mine, i was all blah blah blah love it! gotta try it! gotta tell everyone about it! so i thought i'd email a friend. while i was writing the email, i thought i'd check online if they had a website. and duh--i mean sí, certamente of course there is a website. which of course tells the REAL story, which is that it's a big ole australian chain and it's everywhere, and of course it's awesome, fool. i smacked my head, thought of some nasty things in italian to call my cousin the next time i saw him. then i thought "hm, i wonder what new flavour is out today?"


gelatissimo,
worldwide. but also
greenbelt 5, space 2-045, second floor
ayala center, makati.

cool you

i've blogged about it before but i love this stuff. guinomis, a tasty (vegan!) treat of tapioca pearls, agar gelatin, palm sugar syrup, coconut milk, toasted pinipig rice flakes, and lots of shaved ice. just a little something to cool you down and fill you up. deliciously.

beat the heat.

gaaaah. it's 86˚F here on island, but the 68% humidity is making it feel like 93˚F. i am leth. ar. gic. with a capital arrrrrrrrrrg, so i'm probably going to head out to one of my two favourite refuges from this icky weather.

my mom 'n' pops choice would be mt. lam lam sno n ice cream shop. it's along a main highway, but it is a village stand (albeit indoors) with just a few benches to sit upon, manned by teenagers whose tips go towards their college fund. love that. this is very much a family and village affair, where the kids in the neighbourhood go to pick up a shave ice to eat on the way home, or a softball team will celebrate with sundaes eaten outside on the stoop or sitting in the back of pickup truck in the parking lot.

the menu is small; besides the shave ice/snow cone offerings, you can get your choice of (foremost brand?) ice cream in cone, cup or aga sundae (their version of a banana split), a couple of drink options, and a decent, slightly-above-basic halo-halo, the filipino confection of shaved ice, preserved fruits, and milk.

my other favourite is the shave ice surprise, which you can get in any flavour of the rainbow (except li hing mui, the preserved plum flavouring from hawaii. it's just not a guam thing, drats.). what makes it a surprise? well, if i told you then it wouldn't be a surprise then, would it?

ironically, mt. lam lam is nowhere near the actual mount lamlam, the tallest mountain on island, and purported to be one of the tallest mountains in the world, as its base is somewhere deep in the marianas trench. no, this mt. lamlam is easier to get to in barrigada, and a much less daunting place.

mt. lamlam sno n ice cream
route 8, near the other house of liberty
barrigada
671.734.4765.

**

a little closer to home is dolce frutti, a six-month old gelateria in the turista zone of tumon. the housemade gelati and sorbets are made on the premise using as fresh as possible ingredients, without emusifiers or preservatives. although the prices are high, the portions are large, the ingredients are good. and while it's not the best gelato i've had, it's nowhere near the worst. my only gripe is that don't particularly care for dolce frutti's version of my favourites--pistachio, vanilla, and fig--but it does pretty good versions of everything else, in particular, anything with a chocolate involved. i recommend stracciatella, its version of mint chocolate chip, or mecroche, which is hazelnut, milk chocolate and crispy bits, like this particular product.

the gelati and sorbets flavours change frequently, but the most popular flavours are almost always available. dolce frutti also does the full complement of coffee drinks, and boasts a decent amount of indoor and outdoor seating. be prepared for a wait, however; it's a perfect spot for people watching, and within walking distance of at least 30 restaurants. also, sometimes it just takes a girl a little while to pick exactly what she wants. :)

dolce frutti

the plaza, on the end closest to sandcastle,
tumon.
671.649.9886.

merry, bright.

the simplest of ice cream recipes, as brought to you by the man, made slightly more festive with the addition of milk chocolate covered rice crispy bits. the chocolate coating helps keep the puffy rice crispy, and adds a lovely bit of light texture in this velvety rich ice cream.

if you don't have the powdered milk, you can leave it out. if you don't have an ice cream maker, just pour the mix into a zippered freezer bag, then place in the freezer; squish it about every half hour or so until it has a soft-serve like consistency. to make the chocolate rice crispies, melt a bar of milk chocolate (i find leaving it on my car dashboard to be the most effective method--if that's not in your plans, try one of these methods), add approximately one cup of puffed rice cereal to the slightly cooled chocolate, mixing gently until coated well. spread out onto wax paper or silpat sheet to cool, then fold into the prepared ice cream.

the ice cream and brioche bonus.

if you were to buy an ice cream sandwich from one of the many street vendors selling ice cream from pushcarts in the philippines, you would not get what most people would expect, ice cream in between two cookies. rather, you would literally get a scoop of ice cream in a bread bun, sometimes the ubiquitous pandesal, but more often the sweeter, milkier monay (moh-nigh); after all, it is a sandwich--why shouldn't it be on bread? i have always preferred this type of ice cream sandwich over the cookie variety; cookies can be too sweet, and most importantly, with our tropical weather, the fast-melting ice cream is soaked up easily by the bread, with a minimum of fuss or mess.

of course, the dirty ice cream variety is a cheap and cheerful street food that is mostly enjoyed by children, but it can easily be elevated into something more elegant with the choice of bread and quality of ice cream. oh, you know it's coming--yes, yes, i had some leftover brioche from my recent foray into brioche making, so you know i had to try it.

if the brioche is fresh, there really isn't any need to do anything but split it in half and scoop up your favourite ice cream for the filling. currently my favourite is häagen-dazs' summer berries and cream flavour, which is beyond smooth--like slipping between cool silk sheets, i tell you--and has a lovely balanced berry flavour, with a ribbon of tart raspberry sauce throughout. it is mercifully not too sweet (okay, it's a little sweet, but it's not cloying at all). this, combined with the rich brioche is like a decadent cream tea treat reinvented for the summer heat. lovely.

one of the great things about an ice cream sandwich is the portability factor--convenient to store, convenient to eat. a little toasting of some brioche rounds lightly buttered and lightly sprinkled with sugar created the perfect base for some vanilla bean gelato (also store bought), and a sprinkling of semi-sweet mini-chocolate chips. the brioche toasts were crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and the intermittent nuggets of dark, rich chocolate were a wonderful foil for the heavily perfumed sweetness of the chilly vanilla cream. elegant in some ways, but still delightful for children of any age.

icy treats.

it is no wonder that ice-based treats are popular in the philippines--the average yearly temperature is 26.5°C (79.7°F), and 85% humidity is not uncommon. whether you are in the city or in the provinces, for the most part (unless you're lucky to live high in the mountains), you take a shower in the morning and step out immediately feeling like you need to take another shower. you are pretty well aware that you live in the tropics.

the most popular of the ice-based treats is probably halo-halo (literally "mix-mix"), a non-specific but fairly colourful mix of preserved fruits and beans, milk , and ice served in a tall glass. the name comes not only from the array of ingredients, but also from the idea that you mix everything together so you get a milky, sludgy, icy drink. (a note about the milk in halo-halo: evaporated milk is typically used because it is rich without being too creamy, and can be used sparingly; also, when it is mixed with the ice it dilutes to a regular milk consistency and flavour.) it is often served as merienda, but equally as popular as a dessert. or, a dessert at merienda :)

i've just come to learn about guinomis, another icy confection, which i'm told is a popular lenten repast, probably because it has less ingredients than halo-halo, and is also dairy-free. why, why, whyyyyy hadn't i known this before?! the creamy white expanse you see is from coconut milk, which covers a combination of nata de coco (a fermented but non-alcoholic coconut water gel), sago or tapioca pearls, pinipig (toasted rice flakes--the older sibling of duman), and a palm sugar syrup. the whole thing is served in a tall glass as well, covered by a tiny mountain of shaved ice. i absolutely love the non-dairyness of this; the coconut milk is creamy, but not über-thick with actual cream. it is not overloaded with too many flavours so you can really taste the caramel of the palm sugar syrup and the toasty rice flavour of the pinipig, which permeates the liquid. the nata de coco and sago/tapioca provide a nice, chewy texture against the flurry of quick melting ice flakes.

in fact, the ice that is used in these desserts is quite important--the finer the better. it is much finer than crushed ice, or even snow cone ice; japanese kakigori, malaysian/singaporean ice kachang, the southeast asian cendol and hawaiian shave ice have the same consistency. there are machines that can produce this fine ice, but for my money, i usually turn to a hand-held ice shaver. it works like a wood plane--the bottom has a long blade that is run across the surface of a block of ice; the resulting ice shavings are collected within, like a tiny bank of snow.

it usually takes about two of these little caches for one serving of halo-halo or guinomis, which really takes no time at all, once you get a rhythm going. it also seems to be more satisfying than just pressing a button or swirling around a handle on a machine; perhaps it's that little extra effort that makes it all the more sweeter. this particular type of shaver is still quite popular in the philippines, and is still made there; we've had ours for thirty years now, and it hasn't failed yet. if you are stateside and looking for one, this mainland company sells a similar one.

also quite fashionable these days is a specialty of our family province of pampanga: white halo-halo. it is basically the same as regular halo-halo , only it contains monochromatic ingredients. the most famous example of this is from a restaurant in the town of guagua called razón's; they use only leche flan (a baked milky custard), and saba bananas boiled in a palm sugar syrup. another popular variation has little milky candies in it--pastillas de leche or yemas--and not much else. i prefer the razón's version, which i make at home, with the addition of (colour-free) nata de coco or kaong (sugared date palm nuts) for a little texture.

winter wonderland in a glass.



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