Cool Comfort
Regardless of the weather, ice cream is still on the table
Gray-rimmed clouds, strong winds, and unpredictable rainfall are what this rainy season brings. The dreary weather makes people look for warmth, particularly in a hot bowl of soup or a cup of coffee. But surprisingly, cold and frozen fare like ice cream don’t exactly take a back seat.
Perhaps this is because ice cream makes people remember hot days long gone, or even summer. After all, hot days like those are never complete without “mamang sorbetero” passing by their homes so they can buy their oh-so-craved ice cream.
Faye Matriano, Haagen-Dazs senior brand manager, says that ice cream sales do not exactly go down during this season. They’re even bold enough to introduce new concoctions more commonly associated with the summer months.
One of these is the Passion Waffle Delight from their Fruit Collection line. The dish has scoops of mango and passion fruit ice cream, with seasonal fruit servings as well. A Belgian waffle is on hand to counter the ice creams’ sweetness and texture. Though the mango is a familiar Filipino flavor, the passion fruit is one of the dessert company’s newer ones, which was developed in Europe.
Another is the Caramel Apple Summer Waffle. This creation is made of Caramel Apple Crumble and vanilla ice cream scoops on a waffle base, and is surrounded with fresh green apple slices and whipped cream. It’s a lot like apple pie, because of the sweet apple bits infused with the ice cream.
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Then, there’s the Melon Strawberry Paradise, a mound of melon ice cream with little baby scoops of strawberry ice cream. To enhance the dish, fresh melon and strawberry slices are served with it.
Last one in the line is the Dark Chocolate Orange Brownie. It is a very rich dish of chocolates, oranges and brownies. But the “bittersweetness” of the chocolate ice cream is well balanced by the orange morsels in it as well as fresh slices on the side.
However, there are many out there who will disagree with eating something cold with this damp weather.
So, for those who do want a bit of heat with their ice cream, Haagen-Dazs (whose company store is located at the Mall of Asia) is one of the few places where one can enjoy an affogatto. This favorite is a scoop of vanilla ice cream drenched with a steaming espresso shot. The ice cream espresso is served on top of a burner to keep it warm.
Aside from the affogatto, there are other favorites. These include their Banana Caramel Crepe, a warm crepe served with scoops of Apple Crumble and Macadamia Nut Brittle ice cream, with slices of banana all drizzled with caramel sauce.
There’s also the Belgian Waffle Dream, which consists of Macadamia Nut Brittle and dulce de leche ice cream doused with sweet maple syrup.
Now, that’s something one can really dip a spoon into. So, whether reminiscent or not, good ice cream is simply too enticing to pass up. Be it in the heat of summer, or as cold as the ice cream you’ll be licking off your spoon.
(Article is originally published Friday, September 12 2008 — front page of Lifestyle section, Manila Bulletin newspaper/broadsheet)
