The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars
I like really yellow vanilla ice cream. I've never seen yellow with flecks. Only the pristine white with flecks. Thus, no flecks > flecks.
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Photo of the Day: Portuguese Egg Tarts
I think all the Ranch 99's in CA sell them. I always get a bunch when I'm near one.
Grocery Ninja: Curry in a Hurry
*drool* Haha. I remember Brahim's. Gee I haven't heard that brand in years. SoCal is a pretty good place to find Malaysian food though, and I haven't been craving it much as of late. I'll just fry up some KangKong belacan and I'm pretty content. :) Thanks for the website of treasures!
Alton Brown on 'The Next Iron Chef'
Good Eats is the only show on Food Network that I Tivo. Long live the AB!
Mangosteens in the U.S.
The mangosteen is probably one my favorite fruit of all time. I used to eat lots of 'em as a kid in Malaysia. Perhaps nostalgia is playing a big part of it. I think some people sell a mangosteen juice here. I saw it at the random Southern California health food store. Looks for it. Ahh Here we go... I've never tried it so I have no idea if it even tastes like the real thing. http://www.xango.com/
Snapshots from Asia: Claypot Rice
Oh Miss Wan! How you torture me so. First Chwee Kueh now this! Dolsot Bibimbap is pretty darned good. But good ol fatty pork claypot rice is hard to resist. Also impossible to find in Los Angeles...! I however did try to make it at home, with ham!
I made ham for christmas last year. The leftover ham I ended up throwing in a pressure cooker with some rice and it got everything just a little fatty. Then a couple of minutes in a frying pan to get it a little drier. Serve with pickled vegetable of choice. In my case, Kim Chee. There was this place in Malaysia that actually made Tom Yum claypot rice. Definitely a very different approach, but awesome all the same! Time to go get lunch!
Who inspired you the most regarding food and cooking?
Mom was the biggest influence the earliest part of my life. Whenever we'd go out to eat somewhere, she'd ask me to taste the food and figure out what was in it. So she could make it at home and we didn't have to go out to eat. It was a pretty amazing day for me when I outtasted my mom one night at dinner. I still remember her saying, "Hey! You figured it out! Now let's go make it!" Till this day I make it a mental exercise to figure out the spices in something when I'm eating it.
Later it was my ex-wife who is Korean. She's found another flavor that she enjoys more and is gone from my life now. But she did expand my spice rack before she left! God bless her.
Snapshots from Asia: Chwee Kueh
Oh dear, that reminds me of Chinese New Years when we'd visit relatives in Singapore. ( Mom is Singaporean, dad is Malaysian ) That's all I would eat for breakfast almost every day. That's an awesome photo!
Snapshots from Asia: Ice Kacang
Sigh. I haven't had one of those in......5 years or so. Although the cendol at Penang cafe' in West Covina is pretty darned good!
Singapore Day Eats: Kaya/Kaya Roti
Oh dear, this reminds me so much of my childhood. Some truly delicious stuff this kaya. That and key-chang ( phonetic pronounciation ) which is pretty much a chinese onigiri made with glutinous rice ( i think ) wrapped in pandan leaves and boiled till it's translucent. Eaten either dipped in gula melaka or kaya, it truly is heaven on earth.
Responses to Comments by lysine
The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars
The specks annoy me, however I do like green mint ice cream (which bothers my mom...).
If I have to have vanilla, I prefer the French Vanilla from Vic's in Sacramento. (they have two vanillas)
The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars
So, the question must be asked, what is the best vanilla ice cream (with or without specks)?
The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars
I don't think so. Actually, I tried the Green & Black vanilla pictured in the post, and it was good of course, but not amazing.
The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars
Years ago, it was supposed to imply (and it usually did) that the ice cream was of premium quality. Today however, I firmly believe it is more "eye candy" than anything else.
The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars
I work in the dairy industry and can tell you that the specks are mainly for show. Someone else mentioned that they could be ground up pods and that is essentially correct. When they make vanilla extract the pods and seeds are mashed up and soaked in ethanol to extract the flavor components. Once the extract is removed, the pods and seeds are dried and ground further to make the specks. There may be some residual flavor in the specks but not much. An ice cream manufacturer will buy those specks from a vanilla supplier by the boxful and add them to the ice cream along with extract to get the flavor.
A better indicator of quality is whether the flavor is vanilla extract only since that is a defined flavoring. If the label says vanilla and other natural flavors, that means the flavor company has padded out the natural vanilla with additional natural flavor components to tweak the profile. And, of course, when the labels starts talking about artifical flavor and vanillin, walk away.
The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars
Good vanilla ice cream without flecks vs. good vanilla ice cream with flecks...They are a different breed of cat so it's hard to fairly compare them side-by-side, at least in my book. Each can be satisfyingly good in its own way.
I agree with those who say that flecks don't necessarily equate quality and flavor in a vanilla ice cream.
I'm hoping for a debate about coffee ice cream. There are some really bad coffee ice creams out there and I wonder if coffee ice cream lands on the SE Team's list of classic ice cream flavors.
The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars
Mmm vanilla bean ice cream... I'm a flecks person myself, but I don't think it conveys "quality".
The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars
I don't really care if it has flecks or not. If the ice cream is good, then the ice cream is good.
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