25 April 2007

Perfect Substitute #4: Ice Cream


Haato ice-cream ^-^

Okay, okay, this is another ice-cream post, but seriously, who can get enough of ice-cream?

No other ice-cream can take the place of Tom's Palette's chocolate, hazelnut, coffee and rum & raisin ice-cream in my greedy little heart, but there is a void that Tom's Palette can't fill: Matcha. I am very fond of matcha ice-cream, but they don't make that flavour very regularly, and anyways their matcha ice-cream is a bit too strong for me.

I like to pair the slightly bitter flavour with something sweet and subtle such as vanilla, and I'm quite a fan of the Hokkaido matcha+vanilla soft cream cone at Central. The slightly bitter aftertaste; the fragrant, refreshing taste that cleanses your palate so effectively... I want one now! But as usual, I am fussy, and there was once they gave me the matcha+vanilla soft cream cone with too much vanilla and too little matcha to balance out its sweetness =( I've been emotionally scarred ever since and have hestitated to buy another cone in case I get disappointed again :P

The Matcha-Ice Cream force was strong with me though. While talking to Singing Tigger about food on msn one day, she told me about this ice-cream stall at Meidi-Ya, at the basement of Liang Court, saying that the durian flavour there is fantabulous. Another day, while trying to convince the staff at Tom's Palette to do matcha more regularly, he pointed me towards the ice-cream stall at Liang Court's basement for good matcha ice-cream. Hmmm, is this a sign??

Long story short: I met Intuition, dragged him there in my problematic shoe that was giving me a blister, hobbled to Meidi-ya and decided upon the combination of flavours above. The portions are so generous! Comparing the prices of the substitutes:
Ice-cream
Tom's Palette: single scoop for $3.
Haagen Daz: single scoop for $4.70.
Jap ice-cream
Haato: double scoop for $4.
Hokkaido: double scoop for $5.70.
The Hokkaido ice-cream at Central mall sells 2 flavours for $5.70 and their portions are measly compared to what Haato piles onto the cone, and Haato charges less for more! Oh happiness! Quick, go get your ice-cream fix today!

9 comments:

Singing Tigger said...

glad to be of help in finding your "perfect" ice cream. didn't know you are so picky about this. :p

Singing Tigger said...

oh ya. and i always thought it's mocha?

Quirkz said...

hi! yes when it comes to food, i can be pedantic :P
it's the jap green tea ice-cream flavour... as a drink, it's "ocha", and as an ice-cream flavour, it's "matcha" (not sure how the jap grammar works.. maybe mr bing can shed some light on this??) =D

Anonymous said...

Then name is maccha (抹茶). Double consonant 'cc' is pronounced with a slight break in between like how you'll pronounce 'zz' in 'mezzo soprano'. Hence it sounds like 'matcha'. Not to be confused to 'mocha' which has to do with coffee. Hope it helps.

Quirkz said...

okie... then why is it "ocha" as a drink and "maccha" in desserts?

Singing Tigger said...

oh ya. didn't realize i've spelt mocha like the expresso drink. :p ok then... maccha. :) maybe i always heard "mo"cha before... hmm..

Ms Krong said...

ooo, this ice cream looks and sounds good!!!

Anonymous said...

iirc maccha is the tea ceremony sort of tea, where you have powder and use a stirrer. it is a subset of ocha, which refers to tea in general.

Dr.Gray said...

Also in English it is spelled matcha. Love green tea ice cream by the way.