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2014-09-17
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Walked by and saw a new ice cream shop opened up in Causeway Bay. What is with opening ice cream shops near the end of summer? Anyways ... these guys make ice cream using the trendiest thing in current foodie circles ... liquid nitrogen.Liquid nitrogen used in making ice cream is not a new thing. It was first used by the father of Molecular Gastonomy, Herve This. Of course, Herve This was a chemist and didn't run a restaurant. It was people like Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal who made it kno
Liquid nitrogen used in making ice cream is not a new thing. It was first used by the father of Molecular Gastonomy, Herve This. Of course, Herve This was a chemist and didn't run a restaurant. It was people like Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal who made it known to the world. I mean .... how many times have I watched Heston Blumenthal on You Tube make his famous scrambled egg ice cream from his Fat Duck restaurant and how he explains why liquid nitrogen is what makes for a better ice cream in his Search For Perfection series on the BBC. Liquid nitogen is fun (I love waving my hands over the sink at work and cackle like a witch whenever someone uses some to ship stuff around). Liquid nitrogen impresses. And despite the fears of it being dangerous, it's still the most popular technique used in molecular gastronomy cooking.
The first people to bring this concept to Hong Kong is Lab Made. They made everyone ooh and ahh. Pour some liquid into a blender, smoke comes out and oohh....ahh....ice cream! Now, others follow. This time, it's this place. Ice Pop Nitrogen Ice Cream. They have a snappy name. The design is nice black and white brick with a window to let others see the ice cream making. There were four flavors to choose from displayed on a LCD monitor. The flavors changed every two weeks, they informed me. There's seating. It looked oddly like Lab Made. Right down to the uniforms which were white t-shirts with blue ties drawn on, unlike Lab Made which were white t-shirts with drawn on lab coats. They oddly even had Lab Made's current flavor, raspberry rose lychee (which Lab Made is doing a collaboration with Clinque)
I noticed the only difference with them and Lab Made was they served drinks.
And cake.
All this similarity made me wonder ... was this Lab Made's newest venture? Expanding their concept with food and drinks along with ice cream? I asked and the staff said "no, we're not Lab Made. We're Ice Pop. We're different." Um...you sure look like them and even using their current flavor, Raspberry Rose Lychee. The staff said "no ... we're different. We have Lychee Raspberry with Rose." Okay....whatever. The flavor wasn't available when I went to order.I ended up ordering the tofu with sea salt and mochi flavor. The staff started to churn away and ooh....ahh...smoke....ice cream!
My tofu ice cream came with azuki beans and a few chunks of castella cake with some black sesame seed sprinkled on top. I dug around and .... couldn't find any mochi as stated. Couldn't taste the sea salt as well. Aside from the stated missing ingredients, the soybean was quite strong which I liked. The ice cream was smooth and creamy.
I love how Hong Kong is so fast to make copies. Be it snowy mooncakes to liquid nitrogen ice cream. Some times it's all things fail. And some times it's better than the original. They are fine as an ice cream shop. Will keep an eye on them to see how they do.
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