July 23, 2002

1:23 PM

When the Japanese do ice cream, you end up with flavors like...well, whatever you're thinking, it's probably not too far off.
Mmm, wasabi.
posted by Su (30 comments total)

I will do anything...

ANYTHING

to and/or for the person who imports Ika Aisu.

Yummy.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 1:28 PM on July 23, 2002

There's an ice cream place here in vancouver, La Casa, that serves, among other flavours, wasabi, chocolate chili, garlic and durian.
posted by icathing at 1:29 PM on July 23, 2002

I don't know what's worse -- the thought of some of those flavors or the awful puns used to review them.

Some of them do look...interesting, though.
posted by UnReality at 1:29 PM on July 23, 2002

Wasabi ice cream rocks. It's one of those things that you just have to try, because it has to be terrible. And it's actually quite good.
posted by websavvy at 1:30 PM on July 23, 2002

I love how on Iron Chef they insist on forcing whatever the theme ingredient may be that week to become a flavor for an ice cream dessert. The palmreader sure seems to love lobster bisque sorbet.
posted by machaus at 1:34 PM on July 23, 2002

There are many admirable aspects of Japanese culture, but my personal experience suggests that green tea ice cream is not one of them.
posted by bingo at 1:34 PM on July 23, 2002

This doesen't sound half-bad actually, kind of a short step from pie a la mode, really.
posted by jonmc at 1:48 PM on July 23, 2002

hmm. I haven't seen any of these flavors there, but the ice cream parlor in San Francisco's Japantown makes a mean red bean ice cream that is one of the tastiest ices i've had. ever. i'm assuming it's probably rather near the miso flavor.

moral: add enough sugar and cream to anything, and it's delicious.

yes: ANYTHING.

example: saffron?

no problem: Bombay Ice Creamery (scroll down: under mission district heading).

it's actually mighty tasty.

plus, the italians, arguably the creators of the stuff (and yes, i'm talking sideways here, but i'm going to pretend it's true without looking for a link to back it up) make some pretty funky gelato: like "egg" (damn good, my friends, damn good. also, "simpsons donuts" flavor, which i ate mostly just for the novelty and to ick-out my then girlfriend.)
posted by fishfucker at 1:51 PM on July 23, 2002

Genghis Grill here in Dallas has, other than the best damn mongolian bbq in the world, red bean, plum, and grean tea ice cream. I found all three to be pretty good, but especially the red bean. My friend that grew up in the Phillipines said that a lot of desserts there are red-bean flavored.
posted by Ufez Jones at 2:00 PM on July 23, 2002

I was in Kyoto during Cherry Blossom season this year and found Cherry Blossom ice cream. Not much flavor though. It was light pink and flavored with Cherry Blossom leaves. They had green tea ice cream at the same stand.
posted by Red58 at 2:11 PM on July 23, 2002

fishfucker:The history of ice cream contains much that is apocryphal or, at the very least, wildly inaccurate.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 2:13 PM on July 23, 2002

The only one out of that list that I would try is the cactus ice cream. Sounds refreshing, somehow.
posted by rio at 2:20 PM on July 23, 2002

It's kind of weird, but as a person who's tasted a good portion of the ice creams on the list (I lived in Nagoya for a while), the writer's comments struck me as a little odd. I don't remember wasabi ice cream being very tangy, just kind of sweet. Eel isn't tasty? My guess is this person hasn't even been to an eel restaurant. This sounds like it might have been phoned in, but I can't blame anyone for electing to make judgments based on package design considering that the alternative is to actually eat crab ice cream.
posted by Alison at 2:33 PM on July 23, 2002

it's prawnographic!
posted by modge at 2:45 PM on July 23, 2002

If you do decide to try some of those, you might want to have some Japanese Bad Words prepared for the occasion.
posted by Danelope at 2:58 PM on July 23, 2002

I'll assume that this site is an annoying wanker Onion wannabe site, judging by the articles.
posted by mark13 at 3:30 PM on July 23, 2002

I may be vegetarian but the Ox Tail Ice Cream label is the best ever. Go Cyclops Ox!

I remember walking all over Greenwich Village with a girl from Hell's Kitchen, looking for The Cubby Hole & Green Tea ice cream. All three were pretty fine...
posted by i_cola at 3:32 PM on July 23, 2002

I agree with jonmc. The sweet potato ice cream actually sounds kinda good.
posted by mrbula at 4:00 PM on July 23, 2002

On the basis of a single can of cold green tea bought from Muji I would guess that green tea ice cream is totally minging.
posted by MUD at 4:27 PM on July 23, 2002

I like green tea ice cream, but I've never seen those other flavors out here in the sticks. Not that I would try them.
MUD, wow, I didn't know you had Mujirushi. But, ahem, what does "minging" mean?
posted by planetkyoto at 4:41 PM on July 23, 2002

I've been to an ice cream shop, Heladeria Coromoto, in Merida, Venezuela with over 600 flavors of ice cream, including beer, shrimp, garlic, steak (I have no idea...), and many more.

It's a fantastic place.
posted by Qubit at 4:45 PM on July 23, 2002

Well, dictionary.com gets it oh-so wrong but at least the BBC are clued up about minging. Close inspection of the latter link will reveal the similarly themed "bogging" which would take the world by storm if the Health Education Board for Scotland would put their classic anti-smoking advert on the net for all to see.
posted by MUD at 4:57 PM on July 23, 2002

wasabi peanuts, found at Trader Joes, are the best.
posted by stbalbach at 5:16 PM on July 23, 2002

Thanks, MUD. I used the nifty dictionary feature on google (click the search word in the blue bar on the results page), but it only came up with Dictionary.com "mincing" thing, and I knew that wasn't right. But minging sounds like such a lovely word, too bad it's pejorative.

Already over 35 degrees (95F) and 90% humidity here in Kyoto at 10 a.m., I could go for some ice cream about now. Something boring but trustworthy like vanilla.
posted by planetkyoto at 6:31 PM on July 23, 2002

I'm actually a bit disappointed by the range of tastes. I had suspected (hoped) for something more outlandish. I mean, it's Japanese, and knowing their knack of catering to the most bizarre tastes, I would have thought there were some shockers among them, but no... just ordinary Japanese foodstuff ice creamified. Nothing unlike anything you would find in finer restaurants in the West.
posted by cx at 7:24 PM on July 23, 2002

Green tea icecream is awesome. I'm surprised at the reaction - ive always loved it for years. Most japanese restaurants in Sydney has them. We also have many chinese ice cream places that stock flavours ranging from the aforementioned Green Tea, to Wasabi, Taro, Black Sesame, Lychee, and many others. I even once had a Laksa icecream - that wasn't so great.
posted by aki at 7:49 PM on July 23, 2002

I lived in the Philippines when I was a kid, and a popular favorite (though not with me) was ube ice cream. Ube and cheese ice cream was also available, purple ice cream with large chunks of cheddar. I kid not.
posted by Ty Webb at 8:31 PM on July 23, 2002

Red bean is actually often used in Chinese desserts. Someof the most common Chinese desserts are a red bean ice thing (sort of like a granita maybe? not exactly), and a hot red bean "soup." That said, even though I am Chinese, I find that other countries are much better at dessert than we are... Personally I hate the red bean stuff.

Except mango pudding. If you're ever in Hong Kong, go to the Peninsula Hotel to try some mango pudding. You can get it in the lobby, and it's probably like 7 bucks or something, but it's worth it.
posted by swank6 at 9:14 PM on July 23, 2002

bleh, red bean is awesome.

I don't have the fortune to live in a city with a real Chinatown, but go to places like NYC and they have tons of wacky flavors and strange desserts.. MMM yummy

Red bean and green tea are *great* stuff. I speak from what I know. I also know there are at least 100 other flavors lol

Hmm.. come to think of it there *is* a Chinese themed tea/dessert shop in this college town. I gotta go visit sometime.

Mongolian BBQ r0x0rs.
posted by firestorm at 8:19 PM on July 24, 2002

Don't much like Western dessert, except for, say, margaritas ;) cocktails, some Italian ice, and brownies.

The rest of the stuff is too crude. Heh heh!
posted by firestorm at 8:21 PM on July 24, 2002