Chinatown Ice Cream Factory Ginger and Black Sesame Ice Cream: I finally made it to Chinatown Ice Cream factory, a shoebox-sized shop that specializes in Asian flavored ice cream like durian and Thai iced tea. It reminds me of Garden Creamery in SF in terms of selection. The ginger ice cream was impressively smooth and had a pleasant ginger flavor, though I personally would prefer it to be spicier and less sweet. The flavor of the black sesame ice cream was very special - quite savory, and sprinkled with real black sesame seeds, it was nutty and not t... (read more) 3.5/5.0
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Ice & Vice Nankhatai n' cream ice cream : Ice & Vice currently has a variety of Cookies and Cream riffs, ranging from sweet potato and sesame to tomatillo and blue corn. The version I ordered combines chai with bits of pistachio cardamom cookie. The single scoop was pricy, but the portion was generous. It has a smooth consistency with a concentrated spiced flavor that worked really well together. I did find it to be overly rich, and that combined with the large portion size made it feel a bit samey as I was reaching the end, so I wo... (read more) 3.5/5.0
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Shake Shack Hanukoncrete: This special edition custard from the Shake Shack is available until December 14th and consists of vanilla custard, pieces of donut from The Doughnut Project, and a strawberry syrup, all topped with powdered sugar. The powdered sugar felt like an unnecessary flourish as the dessert was sweet enough without it, but the combination of donut, rich vanilla custard, and sharp and tangy strawberry was surprisingly delicious. The best part was definitely the vanilla custard, which was very smooth. 3.5/5.0
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Besfren Taro and matcha soft serve: I stumbled upon this tiny pastry shop on my way to Penn Station from KTown and was impressed with the quality of their soft serve. Served in a large but slightly pricy cup (at $5.50), the purple and green ice cream swirl is well balanced and perfectly smooth. The creamy, slightly vegetal flavor of taro works surprisingly well with bitter matcha. My only quibble is that the way the soft serve was swirled gave it a hollow center, so I think a third of the cup I received was just an air pock... (read more) 3.5/5.0
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Amausaan uji Matcha Matcha Ice Cream: Green-tea-flavored soft serve from Japanese sweets stand Amausaan uji Matcha in the Richmond district of SF (they also have a location in Berkeley). At $5, this large portion comes in a waffle cone and is topped with matcha powder. Most of the bitter matcha flavor comes from the powder, but the ice cream is creamy and smooth; the cone is standard in both flavor and texture. I enjoyed it overall, but sampling it at the Berkeley location the next day, I found the ice cream to be too sweet, ... (read more) 3.5/5.0
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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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