Tale of 2 Street Side Ice Creams in Malaysia; Fried & Stir Fried

Somewhere in in my teens I discovered that Ice Cream was indeed my soul food, something I would relish silently and connect with myself. During a recent trip to Malaysia, as I walked down the streets of Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Penang, I enjoyed the delicious street side fare but what left a lasting impression was the innovative ways of preparing and presenting ice cream. Malaysia-Thai-Rolled-Icecream7

After a hearty meal, I was walking down Jalan Alor near Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur, yearning for some ice cream. That’s when I noticed the street vendor bent over a pan churning out some rolls. I moved to his side only to realise that he was churning out ice cream rolls with amazing dexterity from a pan which was cooled at nearly -35 degrees. These ice cream rolls or stir fried ice cream which originated in Thailand are now amazingly popular across the world.  I ordered for a mango ice cream with vanilla base and observed him preparing my delicious stir fried ice cream or Thai Rolled Icecream.Malaysia-Thai-Rolled-Icecream1

He added some vanilla milk on the pan and a few bits of mango. It was mashed into a pulp over the next minute with 2 steel spatulas and spread out on the teppan in a squarish manner.

Within a few seconds, he began to roll it and it was served in a cup, garnished with coarsely ground peanuts.

It was a melt in the mouth delight, smooth, sweet as if I was relishing creamed mango!! Give me one everyday, and I will be a happy soul. Malaysia-Thai-Rolled-Icecream6

The fried ice cream is a wonderful presentation of the hot and cold. While there are different theories about its origin,  I am inclined to believe that it was Japan where it would have first made an appearance since there is a culture of combining hot and cold food – Hot Miso Soup with cold Soba Noodles!!  Malaysian-Deep-Fried-Icecream

A small block of ice cream frozen at temperature much below normal is dipped in batter (flour, egg, a little bit of sweetener) or rolled in egg and flour and deep fried for a few seconds in extremely hot oil. The external crunch coats the ice cream which retains its temperature !!Malaysian-Deep-Fried-Strawberry-Icecream

In some cases, it is re frozen and then served later. I had the strawberry flavored one in a homely restaurant in Penang and just loved it !! Infact, I took a bite and the picture was an afterthought 🙂 Yummm and then for the next few minutes, just licked the ice cream, relishing the batter coated cream and I will surely go back for more.

These are priced between 5RM to 8RM depending on the type of ice creams, flavours, toppings etc!!

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19 thoughts on “Tale of 2 Street Side Ice Creams in Malaysia; Fried & Stir Fried

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  2. dNambiar

    Look at that. It not only looks interesting but also very delicious. And you pictures give us the whole story of how it is made. Thank you, Sangeeta. 🙂

    1. Sangeeta Post author

      Great to hear from you after a long time. Malaysia was an eye opener with respect to food and how aligned to our kind of cooking

  3. Pingback: Beating the Malaysian heat with a bowl of Cendol !! | Life is a Vacation

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