Popagandhi

A surprising thing about Singapore that few people know about, other than those of us who live/lived here, is how much great ice cream there is. Or to be more specific: how much great ice cream there is that isn’t international chain ice cream. Those can be lovely too, but you get the same stuff all over the world. Something happened in the last 5-7 years when the ‘homemade local premium ice cream’ trend took off and really came into its own. I’m proud to say that we have great local ice cream wizards doing great things with local flavours and ingredients. Some of it is highly innovative. Most of it is just tasty and… a hell lot cheaper than the inferior stuff produced by ice cream chains. They’re usually free from additives and preservatives (for that reason, they don’t last more than 3 days when you take them home) too. Some are even egg or gluten-free.

The local flavours available are tremendous: these days, Horlicks and Teh Tarik flavours are regular ice cream flavours Singaporeans know and love, largely (I think) due to the efforts of the pioneering stores like Island Creamery and Tom’s Palette. They’re two of my absolute favourites.

Our latest craze: we’ve been trying to replicate some of these flavours at home with our cheapo Cuisinart home ice cream machines. Next week we’re driving 400 kilometres back to Singapore to attend an ice cream class run by the ice cream genius maniacs at Tom’s Palette. To help the Malaysian ice cream making entourage I’m heading south with, I’ve put together a little ice cream map.

Did I miss anything?

Note: I’m only adding local and homemade ice cream shops here so don’t ask why I left out Ben and Jerry’s. None of us are fans of the “Coldstone-style” of ice cream: the icky super sweet kinds that get all kinds of rubbish mixed into them. Not big on gelato either unless they’re done very very well, which very few Singapore places manage to (are there any!?).., so I’ve left out one or two obvious places because of this… peculiar ice cream preference.

Have fun, go nuts, eat more ice cream, and remember to use GoThere to figure out how to get to these places by public transport.

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