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 Asia... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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Wiz Bang Bar Smith Teamaker Big Hibsicicle Sherbert: In the Pine Street Market, an indoor food hall in downtown Portland, is a soft serve and sundae bar named Wiz Bang from Salt & Straw, the ever-popular ice cream shop that has branched outside of the city to several LA and San Francisco locations. Central to Salt & Straw's success is their ability to strike a chord between the familiar and unexpected, with comforting flavors that are also intriguing and sometimes daring. The soft serve that I ordered, the Smith teamaker big hibiscicle sherber... (read more) 4.0/5.0
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Freezing Point Creamery Matcha Rolled Ice Cream: Originating from Thailand, rolled ice cream is a technique for making fresh ice cream from scratch to order. Liquid ice cream base is poured onto a cold metal pan (think crepe-grill-sized) and is then mixed, scraped, and chopped by hand before its spread into a single, solidified layer. At this point, the scraper is used to roll the ice cream into individual pieces resembling fruit roll up / mini crepes, looking nothing like your typical scoop of ice cream. I ended up at Freezing Point Cr... (read more) 2.0/5.0
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It's-It Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich: Finally had one of these San Francisco classic frozen treats, with vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two oatmeal cookies, all covered in dark chocolate. In other words, it's essentially everything you really shouldn't eat if you're watching your diet. That being said, some treats can be well worth it when eaten infrequently. It's-It is not one of them. This hefty ice cream sandwich is extremely sweet, and the ice cream has a strange whipped-cream-like flavor and texture. I was pretty... (read more) 2.0/5.0
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John's Ube Ice Cream: Neighboring the Berkeley Bike Station is a small ice cream shop named John's with barely enough room for two sets of freezers and a single-file queue that regularly extends well past the doors. Given the size of the establishment, it wouldn't be inaccurate to credit these lines simply to space limitation rather than the quality of John's products. But a comic-sans printed sign outside the door advertises what is likely the biggest draw: $1.50 scoops (the $0.50 handwritten and appended to t... (read more) 2.5/5.0
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Tara's Organic Ice Cream Jasmine green tea ice cream: On the northern edge of the Elmwood district, at the border of Oakland and Berkeley, is a small ice cream shop called Tara's Organic Ice Cream. They feature a rotating menu of ice creams and sorbet. I was hoping they would have black sesame ice cream, but I was out of luck on the day I went and got a scoop of jasmine green tea instead. The texture was not as smooth as it could be, but the subtle herbal flavor was unique - clean but also very creamy. The type of ice cream that needs to be acc... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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