Blockheads Black sesame shaved ice with red bean, rice cakes, almond jelly, and condensed milk: Finally got to try this LA-based Taiwanese shaved ice chain. The black sesame ice cream had decent flavor but the texture was not as fluffy as I knew it could be given my recent experience at Powder in San Francisco. At Blockheads, they make their rice cakes in house, which are essentially tang yuan (the mochi-like glutinous rice dumplings that often accompany red bean soup). I expected their almond jelly to be almond jello, but it was more like the harder gelatin cubes often used in Asian bubble tea shops. Condensed milk helps provide some moisture to the ice cream, which isn't particularly creamy on its own. While it comes in a large bucket, it's actually a smaller portion than you might think since the ice cream is lightly packed. Overall, it was decent but not a dessert I would go out of my way to get. 3.0/5.0

dessert icecream asian losangeles shaved ice rice cakes almond jelly condensed milk 3.0 redbean blacksesame blockheads