Cold ice cream “baked” with a torch has made Hanoi’s youth curious about the flavor and hunting for it in recent days.
Korean baked ice cream has recently been sought after by young people in Hanoi because of its curious name and appearance. The dish originates from Korea. The ice cream ball is covered with a layer of marshmallow (a type of marshmallow, sweet and spongy) on the outside, then burned with a torch until the shell turns golden brown on all sides.
Not many restaurants in Hanoi sell this dish. The address that many diners come to is Ms. Hoang Mai Phuong’s Kho Kho restaurant at 5 Hang Mam street, Hoan Kiem district.
Ms. Phuong opened a shop selling cakes and marshmallows 8 years ago. During a trip to Busan, Korea, she had the opportunity to enjoy Korean grilled ice cream for 4,000 won (about 80,000 VND).
Seeing how easy it was to make and the unique flavor, she researched and contacted the Korean supplier of this ice cream and started selling it three weeks ago. The dish immediately received the love of many diners.
The type of ice cream the shop uses is imported from a Korean ice cream company, so “it can be said that the flavor is 90% similar to Korean,” said Ms. Phuong.
Each ice cream tray has 12 rectangular pieces, about 5 x 6 cm in size. The outer white shell is marshmallow, the inside is filled with 6 types of matcha, vanilla, coconut latte, milk strawberries, sea salt cheese and dark chocolate.
Ms. Phuong’s baked ice cream is made according to the company’s instructions. First, use a brush to brush off the powder coating on the outside of the ice cream used in the packaging process. Then, use another brush to apply a thin layer of water so that the ice cream becomes smooth, shiny, and smooth.
The final step is to use a torch to heat all sides evenly. When exposed to fire, the marshmallow layer turns from white to golden brown, emitting a sweet fragrance.
Marshmallow, after being torched over fire, has a light crunch on the outside like a layer of burnt sugar, and a white, spongy, chewy, smooth and fatty inside. Biting through the still hot marshmallow layer, diners immediately feel the cool, lightly fragrant, sweet cream filling.
The combination of the hot outside and the cold inside creates a strange flavor. Ms. Phuong serves additional free tea to help diners balance the flavor and reduce sweetness. A baked ice cream costs 50,000 VND.
Le Phuong Anh (right), a student at a University in Hanoi, learned about the baked ice cream at the shop through social networks and came to enjoy it for the first time on the afternoon of January 18.
“The matcha ice cream inside is fragrant and cool, reducing the sweetness of the marshmallow. The ice cream is not too hot or too cold, suitable for eating in winter because it does not cause tooth sensitivity,” Phuong Anh said.
On average, each day, the shop sells about 200 – 300 ice creams. On weekends, more customers come, the number can reach nearly 400 cars. Customers coming to the restaurant are mostly young people, interested and curious about trending dishes on social networks.
The restaurant is usually crowded around 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. every day. In addition to baked ice cream, the shop also sells many sweet snacks such as lollipops, marshmallows, and salted egg sponge cakes. However, the restaurant’s indoor and outdoor spaces are both small and the parking space is narrow, so the number of customers is limited, with a maximum capacity of about 30 people at the same time.
($1~24,000 VND)
Photo,Video: Internet (Vinlove.net)