Recently, at a housewarming party that I attended, a discussion about wacky ice cream flavors arose. I quickly mentioned the Curry ice cream from Vosges, while someone else told the tale of eating wasabi ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. Wasabi ice cream? At Cold Stone? I couldn't find any mention of it on Cold Stone's Web site, although I did find evidence of it's existence at one time, but it did start me wondering . . . is Wasabi ice cream available elsewhere?? I thought I'd do some Web surfing to find out!
Apparently, Wasabi ice cream is quite common in Japan, where, according to this Web site, you can also buy ice creams flavored with lots of yummy ingrdients, like chicken wings, eel, and octopus! The "yummy" part was sarcasm, in case you didn't catch that. I also discovered photographic evidence for Japanese snake, garlic, and salt ice cream. (I'd pass on the snake, but the garlic and salt flavors might actually be pretty good!)
Next stop on my Wasabi hunt was the Web site for il Laboratorio del Gelato in New York. They do indeed carry Wasabi gelato, along with LOTS of other new and unexpected flavors like Guinness and cheddar cheese. You can also find curry and wasabi flavors at the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, which is in NY as well.For those of you who prefer making things yourself, check out Anthony Bombaci's recipe for wasabi ice cream, right here.
I'll stop at this point, but I found lots of other interesting asian ice cream treats during my search! More to come . . . soon!
[wasabi ice cream image: Katherine Moon; wasabi sign: Andrew Martin; salt ice cream: piki hiki biki; snake ice cream: kaige]
[wasabi ice cream image: Katherine Moon; wasabi sign: Andrew Martin; salt ice cream: piki hiki biki; snake ice cream: kaige]