Singapore’s take on street ice cream

It’s easy to tell that summer has arrived. The sun shines brighter than ever, the colors are livelier, and you get an insane craving for cold things like ice cream! I have an assortment of favorites, both local and elsewhere, one kind of ice cream that made its mark on me is Singapore’s streetside Ice Cream Sandwiches.

Where we have dirty ice cream, ice buko and ice cream carts with lively tunes from the major ice cream manufacturers, Singapore’s streetside ice cream carts feature an interesting take on the ice cream sandwich.

Imagine a block of ice cream. Yes, I said block. Not tub, not can, but block. They’re similar to those handcrafted soap blocks that specialty shops slice into bars. THAT sort of block. There are a lot of those ice cream blocks in his cart, corresponding to different flavors. Once you make your selection, Uncle Ice Cream man slices off a soap-like block, then sandwiches it between two layers of thin, crisp wafers. He hands you that wafer-ice cream block-wafer sandwich wrapped in a thin plastic wrapper. You may wonder if it’s really ice cream, but after a happy bite, you’re on your way to ice cream heaven.

What’s nice about this ice cream sandwich is how the wafer remains crisp. Unlike commercially packaged ice cream sandwiches that have a tendency to go soggy, this is closer to how you can enjoy a freshly prepared ice cream cone. Another thing I noticed is that it held its shape fairly well, and isn’t as drippy as normal ice cream.

Both King’s and Wall’s have these ice cream carts, so you can take your pick and enjoy the ice cream you prefer, in a myriad of flavors too. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the freezer for a bit of ice cream as well.