[okazu]

The Good and Bad of Chinese 冰淇淋

August 11th, 2008 by Naomi

This is the final entry from Kunming. How crazy is that? What better way to wrap up a summer than with a few paragraphs about ice cream?

I’ve eaten a lot of ice cream 冰淇淋 (”bīng qí lín”), in China, most of which I don’t have photos of. Depending on where you are and whether or not the sales person wants to take advantage of your “big American wallet”, ice cream bars range anywhere from 2元 (little shops here in Kunming) to 10元 (tourist spots like The Great Wall). I’ve personally never paid more than 5元, thanks to a combination of bartering and an “I actually don’t need ice cream, today” attitude. Most of the ones I’ve had have been 2-3元. Like with other luxury food, cost does not necessarily represent quality.

1. chocolate dipped vanilla with caramel swirls / 2. chocolate dipped vanilla with oatmeal / 3. chocolate with crisp rice over vanilla with a core of chocolate / 4. strawberry cheesecake-ish

Two of my least favourites are not pictured here; I really do wish I had gotten photos. The first was literally layer after layer of complete disappointment. What looked like coffee beans on the package turned out to be red beans. Now, I don’t mind red bean paste, or red bean flavoured things, but this was unflavoured ice cream (as far as I could tell) wrapped around a layer of whole red beans, wrapped around another differently coloured core of non-flavour. The second was yet another red bean flavoured ice cream, purple-ish in colour, wrapped in dark chocolate. Fine, in theory, but this was highly chemical tasting with a poor texture.

My most favourite is pictured above. Oatmeal ice cream is the most amazing idea ever. It was like eating a no-bake cookie ice cream sandwich. The chocolate was satisfying (hard to come by, in China), and the ice cream itself had a really nice texture and full flavour. I found this at a little stand next to our dining hall that was run by a very sweet older couple. It cost 2元.

A never-fail ice cream choice, if you aren’t up for adventuring into the realm of the bizarre, is the straight-up packaged ice cream cone/drumstick. They are more or less the same as they are back home, can be found just about anywhere, and generally cost 3-4元. My favourite of this variety is the strawberry and chocolate combination.