Ice creams around the world

In January, 1980something, I took a trip to England. My then hubby is a Brit, and it was my first trip to meet the in-laws. In my host's teeny-tiny ice box there was a small plastic tub of what was purported to be ice cream. It tasted like sweetened margarine, with an even worse texture: mealy and oily.

Clotted cream to the rescue
If only I had known then what I know now, that just a wee drive away, down to the town of Cornwall was some of the most spectacular ice cream known to mankind: ice cream made from Cornish clotted cream. And in true English eccentric fashion, check out these flavours: Butternut Squash and Honey, Lemon Curd, Gooseberry Fool, Cornish Blue Cheese and Pear, Cardamom, and this classic: Rhubarb Crumble and Clotted Cream!

Frozen sweets go back as far as the 5th century BC when vendors sold snow cones of shaved ice with honey and fruit in the markets of Athens. Today, we're spoiled here in Canada for awesome ice cream. We've welcomed folks from all over the world who have brought their own versions and flavours of frozen treats.

While we probably won't find Scandinavian reindeer's milk or Middle Eastern camel's milk ice cream here - though goat's milk ice cream is getting easier to come by, and it's delish! - we do have a lot to choose from.

Ice creams around the world:
Kulfi
The ice cream of India and Pakistan, it's richer and more dense than Western ice cream because it's made from condensed milk, slowly boiled down until sticky, sweet and thick. In exotic flavours—rose, cardamom, saffron, pistachio, and mango—kulfi is the perfect way to put out the fire of that vindaloo you just braved at dinner.  

Dondurma
Dondurma is Turkish goat's milk ice cream, flavoured with salep, the powdered tuber of an orchid, and thickened with resin. It's described as a chewy ice cream, sometimes even eaten with knife and fork. Don't go looking for it here though, exportation of true dondurma is forbidden as the orchid is being harvested to near extinction. Perhaps someone should suggest vanilla?

Page 1 of 3: Discover Ais kacang, gelato, sorbetto, semifreddo and tartufo on page 2!