In a country where residents insist the three seasons are hot, hotter and hottest, ice cream should be a year-round treat. Yet, Thais never take this melty delicacy for granted. Each year when "summer" is about to arrive, ice cream lovers in the Kingdom are always preparing for new taste (and many times, visual) indulgences that the proprietors of the frozen dessert proffer.
Rather than energetically following a worldwide trend, the evolution of ice cream ventures in Thailand, unlike other sub-genres of the food trade, is more about catering to niche group of diners and exciting mass consumers with fresh creativity. And that doesn't necessary mean just decorating the conventional scoops of ice cream with fanciful toppings or enhancing the all-time favourite vanilla and chocolate flavours with a new zest. Today, "ai-tim" _ the Thai nickname for ice cream _ is available in plenty of imaginative flavours, textures, shapes and appearances.
In concocting new icy formulae, both international big brands and home-grown entrepreneurs seem to put their trust very much in local culinary hallmarks. Famous tropical fruits and street-style dainties have become great inspirations for many ice cream manufacturers.
Especially during the steamy months, residents in Thailand can take joy in the luscious sweet mango and the rich and creamy durian, which is available only in summer, not only from fruit vendors but also at ice cream parlours.
Swensen's, the San Francisco ice cream brand, is bringing back its summer favourite flavour: mamuang ok-rong, or sweet and sour mango, which is available by the scoop (50 baht) or in sundae style with pandanus sticky rice and young coconut flesh (79 baht to 159 baht).
Sfree, the Japanese-style ice cream cafe with more than 30 outlets nationwide, is offering mango mille-crepe a la mode (165 baht) and mango a la rose parfait (129 baht). Meanwhile its sister brand, Kyo Roll En, located at Gateway Ekamai, presents a fluffy soft mango roll cake together with its signature bamboo charcoal soft serve in a photogenic set (175 baht).
One of the country's pioneering brands in home-made ice cream is Iberry, which has delighted fruit lovers over the past 12 years with an impressive variety of milk-based flavours and tropical fruit sorbets, such as gooseberry, rambutan, green mango, garcinia, tamarind and guava.
It never misses the bandwagon, and this summer is promoting a mango sticky rice set (199 baht), which features two scoops of the silky sweet mango yoghurt ice cream with soft sticky rice and cubes of fresh mango.
A new face in this chilly industry, Kiin Tim is a Yaowarat-based ice cream producer. Its creations present traditional Thai desserts, warm and chilled, which are usually served in a bowl, in the form of an ice cream bar (35 baht). There are more than 20 choices including kluay buad chee (banana in salty sweet coconut milk), khao niew piak lamya (soft glutinous rice with fresh longan and coconut cream), fug thong gaeng buad (pumpkin in salty sweet coconut milk), taeng thai nam kati (melon in coconut milk), lod chong (green noodle in palm sugar syrup), mango sticky rice and durian sticky rice. These are not the result of adding flavour to coconut milk ice cream, but instead come from meticulously turning a real dessert into a frozen bar, retaining both the taste and texture of the long-cherished delicacies. Kiin Tim is now available only at the Lor Yaowaraj boutique grocery shop on Yaowarat Road.
And for ice cream eaters looking for visual thrills, put the smartphone camera on standby. Just Jela promises to bewilder you with its "gelato illusions" _ the Italian confection (in as many flavours as you can imagine) comes shaped as cupcakes or Furbies or characters from Line Pop cartoons.
Just Jela's creations are available alongside a range of other innovative frozen desserts at the Central Plaza's Ice Cream Festival. Other offerings include Imaru's egg-shape ice cream, Icedea's ice cream that mimics the appearance of savoury treats, and Melt Me's healthy gelato. The festival will move between different Central malls from now until June 3.
