Published on January 17, 2005

Don’t be surprised if you’re invited to an ice cream parlour on a cold day – because not everything on the menu lately is frigid

Pity the poor ice cream parlour on chilly winter days – surely all the customers are cuddled up in the coffee shop next door. But hold the sympathy if hot-plate teppanyaki and fondue sound good. That’s what’s on the menu alongside the frosty goodies at some places.

Ice cream vendors are proffering some tempting hot fare these days to avert a drop in sales during the “cold” season.

“The colder it gets, the quieter the ice cream shops,” admits Swensen’s marketing manager Nampetch Tantiyawong. “Coffee shops have better business this time of year.”

But Nampetch thinks business at Swensen’s will warm up when Haagen-Dazs’ Japanese-style hot-plate ice cream is on order. Hot ice cream?

That’s right: “Teppanyaki” is a set of four different flavours of ice cream topped with butterscotch and chocolate sauce, with two sticks of melon scoops (resembling takoyaki) and Pretz sticks served on the side, along with little bowls of red peas and strawberry jelly.

All of this comes on a hot plate. The mystery of why the ice cream doesn’t melt is solved when you realise each scoop is set on a square bun that keeps it away from the heat.

The set also comes with a green-tea milkshake that’s poured from a sake bottle – maybe there’s some psychological warmth in that.

Here’s a handy tip when drinking the milkshake: use the Pretz stick to stir the shake before pouring it into your teacup. Spillage is possible because the ice cream in the shake can clog the bottleneck.

The set – which can satisfy two or three people – costs Bt399. If it turns out to be popular, it might stay on the menu beyond January 31.

Swensen’s fondue has been around for a while, but the folks at Haagen-Dazs claim they introduced fondue-style ice cream six months before Swensen’s – they just didn’t publicise it much.

As well as the hot chocolate dipping fondue set, Swensen’s is touting something called “Something Strawberry”. Strawberry fondue is added to the original fondue, and if the nine-scoop set (Bt299) looks too big for you to manage, there’s a new Le Petit Fondue: two scoops with warm chocolate sauce (Bt89).

Nampetch says Something Strawberry takes advantage of the fresh fruit’s wintertime availability in Thailand.

Baskin Robbins appears to have noticed their popularity too. Its Merry Strawberries is three scoops of ice cream (name your flavour) garnished with loads of strawberries (Bt85).

Is this a major trend?

“Not necessarily,” says Nampetch. Innovative ice cream presentations can derive from anything. Last year green tea ruled, she notes, but you can’t make everything from green tea.

She often visits dessert and ice cream fairs in the United States to get new ideas. That’s how Swensen’s came up with Cold Stone, a frozen flat stone on which customers mix the ice cream of their choice with various toppings, with the price starting at Bt49 per scoop and rising according to the additions.

The choices about which ice cream will be available at expensively premium Haagen-Dazs are made at corporate headquarters in France. Teppanyaki arrives here courtesy of its Asian hub in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, sticking strictly with the cold stuff – and loving it – are the other chains.

Baskin Robbins’ flavour of the month is Jamocha Roca: coffee ice cream mixed with almond and caramel.

Iberry’s seasonal fruit ice cream has rose apple, watermelon and sapodilla sorbet.

It may be cold outside, but there’s nothing like a bracing scoop of ice cream to build character.

Kreangsak Suwanpantakul

The Nation

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