Chiang Mai Coffee Ice Cream (a la Vietnamese)

I have fallen in love.

With Chiang Mai.

With its scenery, weather, beautiful city with its waterways and ancient walls, its succession of intricately gold-leafed wats.

Its mango ice blendeds.

Its night market.

Its coffee. Say what??

Now AK and I are somewhat wannabe barristas. I got him a Bodum coffee press from Starbucks for Christmas gift once, and I think we have used it (before this) a grand total of three times. Turns out washing the filter isn't as much fun as brewing coffee. And, cheapo that I am, I have been unable to declare any coffee better than good ol' Nescafe. No Arabica brews from Dome, Starbucks or the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for me. Yes, old, cheap habits die hard.

Well, my coffee love is revived with this highland coffee from Chiang Mai. They plant this amongst secondary growth in the jungle. It's mighty strong and I have taken to drinking it in shots. I take 2 tablespoons of the ground coffeebeans, pop them in my press and add a cup of water. Then I pour the black liquid out into a pretty glass and down it neat, in shots.

So as fate would have it, I decided to browse Cafe Fernando, a famous Turkish food blog I aspire to be in my next life. And he had a recipe for Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream. Well, you don't need to tell me twice.

Leaving work much earlier than I normally would (anyway it's the school holidays - most of the poeple are not even in the office - that's my excuse), I popped by the store to by a can of condensed milk and a can opener (mine rusted into oblivion sometime ago - but I hardly needed it before - does this mean that we're eating a lot fresh stuff? I hope so.). Of course, no shopping trip can end in just 2 items. I ended up buying the biggest stainless steel sieve in the store, another big stainless steel bowl for mixing up wontons and whipping cream, and a carton of milk. Good stuff.

The ice cream? Well, I followed Cafe Fernando's recipe except I added a swig of Tia Maria for some alchoholic oomph. And also I was doing all could to counter the strong caramelly-milky condensed milk taste. Turns out they all can only coexist together, not wipe each other out.


I ended up with a soft-serve, no-churn ice cream that tasted like a very very concentrated Vietnamese coffee drink. If you ask me, I think I prefer the custard-based ices with a hint of the condensed milk, as I found it a bit too much (sweet) for me. Well, you can't beat the convenience. I guess some great cooking (but not all) does take time.