Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous Cookies and Cream Ice Cream: An all-too-familiar story: San Francisco ice cream shop with a 15 minute line, wrapping around the corner. Organic Strauss milk and cream sign. $16 bag of peanut brittle, $9 bag of chocolate malt balls at the register. $5.50 for a single scoop. Really creamy but otherwise unremarkable set of everyday ice cream classics (I ordered the cookies and cream - other flavors on the day I went included chocolate chip, sweet cream, burnt sugar, e.g., flavors you can easily find in the grocery aisl... (read more) 2.5/5.0
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Nanaya Aoyama Matcha (7) and Roasted Rice Tea Ice Cream: Nanaya Aoyama is a small ice cream shop near Omote-Sando in Tokyo and had been on my checklist of places to try for Tasty Snacking since before I arrived in Japan. Its menu features matcha ice cream at different levels of concentration, from 1-7, with 7 being the most potent (they claim it's the strongest in the world). On display, you see how matcha ice cream 1-7 goes from a light shamrock color to a dark forest green (though there isn't too much difference visually between #5-7). The ice... (read more) 4.5/5.0
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New City Microcreamery Fennel and pistachio ice cream: At a little over $4, this kiddie scoop from Cambridge ice cream shop New City Microcreamery was fairly micro-sized, but large enough to get a good sense of the quality. The ice cream, made with liquid nitrogen, has a smooth consistency. I was hoping for more aniseed licorice flavor from the fennel, but it mostly tasted like a solid milk base with bits of pistachio, though there was a little something extra to the aftertaste that told you it wasn't just straight-up vanilla. Would come agai... (read more) 3.5/5.0
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Powder Black sesame Taiwanese shaved ice with mochi: During my childhood, my family would visit Taiwan every few years, spending several weeks in the scorching heat of the summer months. Once in a while, we would be treated with the best cure for a heatwave: baobing, or Taiwanese shaved ice served alongside a variety of toppings like peanut and red bean, all saturated with a sweet syrup that flavored the ice crystals. In anticipation, we would watch as a machine transformed a large block of ice into a heap of snow, spinning into a sharp rotar... (read more) 4.5/5.0
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Powder Matcha Shaved Ice: This Taiwanese shaved ice shop on Divisadero in San Francisco has a variety of Asian flavors like black sesame, matcha, and Vietnamese coffee. Having had their excellent black sesame on a previous trip, I opted for matcha, which was shaved into thin, overlapping ribbons. While I remembered the black sesame shaved ice being remarkably light, this one texturally was more dense, with the ice cream packing together less than 1/3 of the way through. The matcha flavor, though, is very good and ... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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Powder Ube shaved ice with mochi and condensed milk: This is the third flavor I've had from Powder, a Taiwanese shaved ice shop in San Francisco. The first, black sesame, was excellent, with a light texture but creamy flavor. The second, matcha, had a great green tea flavor but was more dense in texture. This last one was, unfortunately, the worst texturally, which is apparent from just the image itself - the starchy potato may have made it harder to achieve the same airy consistency that the black sesame ice had. Ube is a seasonal summer ... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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