Ais, Ais Baby: A compendium of cool and unusual Asian desserts in NYC
J.E. Clarke (Gaijin Girl)
Copyright 9/25/04
| Sometimes,
that darned ice cream truck just doesn’t cut it. Once
you’ve seen one Eskimo pie, you’ve seen them all. You
want something sweet, something cold,
something different. Thank
God we live in New York City, where
that something different is available – if you just know where to look.
Probably the easiest sweet treat to find, at least if you’ve spent some time on Mott Street, is a rather huge fad called Bubble (or Pearl) Tea. A.k.a. Boba – Momma’s breast. You may have heard of it – rumor has it that Starbucks is considering adding it to the menu. The trend hails from Taiwan, and has spread to every Chinatown across the US. The basic concept is simple, albeit slightly strange. Take sweetened milk tea, mix in fruit flavors if desired (something like a smoothie) and add a scoop of large, black tapioca balls. Insert a jumbo sized straw and sip. The effect is amazing – a lot of the appeal is due to texture and timing. Sip, sip – pause. A tapioca pearl pops up through the straw. Chew, chew. Then start to sip again and repeat. It’s a sweet refreshment that has to be experienced to be understood. And there’s no lack of places to try. You can’t throw a tapioca ball without hitting a bubble tea establishment. Try Tea Ren on 75th Mott Street, or Saint Alp’s Teahouse (20 Elizabeth Street.) Or just stroll through Chinatown. You’re sure to find a place. If you are already jaded to Bubble Tea, there’s always Malaysian Ais Kang. A.k.a. ABC. Translated into English, the name means “Iced Beans.” If you find bubble tea odd, you’ll find this one utterly alien. Keep an open mind, and the rewards will be great. Shaved ice desserts are ubiquitous throughout Southeast Asian – sort of like snow cones, but with more culture and substance. ABC is the “junk pizza” of this category—with everything thrown in but the anchovies. To wit: shaved ice, syrup, evaporated milk, red beans and corn. Yes, corn. Take it as a leap of faith – the concoction is cooling on a hot day, and very tasty. When you’re ready to try it, ABC can be found at Jaya (90 Baxter Street). Different variants of the concept bear different names, depending on the nationality. It’s Halo Halo in the Philippines (Elvie’s Turo Turo – 214 1st Avenue). Korea has Pat Bing Su, which includes chewy little rice cakes called dduk (KR Space, 34 W. 32nd Street). Prefer your shaved ice with green jelly worms? Then try the Indonesian version called Chendol at Nyonya (194 Grand Street.) For those with a Japanese bent, NYC offers two particularly sweet treats. You’ve probably heard of tempura, that archetypically Japanese food. But are you familiar with Tempura ice cream? Same concept, in a radically different venue. Fried ice cream – warm and toasty on the outside, cold delicious ice cream (red bean or green tea flavor) on the inside. You’ll find it at all the better Japanese restaurants. If you crave a more bite sized snack, there’s a newer innovation on the market – mochi ice cream. Mochi is a steamed, glutinous dough used in any number of traditional Japanese desserts. Soft and chewy, the texture becomes especially exquisite when wrapped around little nuggets of frozen ice cream. Gourmet flavors include Mango, Green Tea and Kona Coffee. Buy them at JAS Mart (35 E. St. Marks Place). If all of this is just too exotic, there’s always the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory on 65 Bayard. Taro ice cream provides a good change of pace, as does Lychee, Ginger or Avocado. Durian ice cream is also available at New York Supermarket on 75th East Broadway. And if all you’ve got is a scoop of Ben and Jerry’s? Don’t despair – slap it on a piece of bread and eat it like they do in Singapore. You’d be surprised how good it is. Or do you really want that Eskimo pie? |
