Eat Like Ushi

You might find many of the reviews for this place under the name Ovejitas. That's the name of the chocolatier that shares the same premises at Acuarela the icecream maker. The Airbnb host made mention of an icecream place that is also a chocolate place and The Rough Guide also mentioned it as the best icecream in town. On the final night walking the 30mins from La Tablita back to the accommodation, I was glad to see it still open around 9pm.

I had two missions - the try the calafate berry and the chocolate. I had read about both and it seemed fitting to have calafate in El Calafate (given the berry was not in season in November) and the chocolate is called Chocolate Patagonico which means they are proud of it too. Both were exceptional - the chocolate was dark, rich and not too sweet whilst the calafate was tangy, sweeter with that distinct berry flavour similar to a blueberry with a little extra tart of a blackberry. The textures were thick and creamy and no crystals detected.

Although expensive, they really pack the scoops including stuffing the cone right to the end.

A local gem and one to add to the collection.

Conveniently located across the road from Bellas Artes metro station and down the road from my accommodation, it was by chance I came across Mo. The words Gelateria Artesanales are music to my ears/eyes everywhere I go, indicating housemade (and higher chance of good quality) gelato.

Despite it being a coolish night, many were camped outside enjoying icecream, dessert drinks and other treats.

The specialty gelato flavour in Chile is Dulce de leche, a sweet caramel made from milk. And their own version tasted exactly like that, very sweet caramel but not sickeningly so. The other flavour that caught attention (due to a larger than the others container and also having the word Mo in the name) was the chocolate. It was an excellent quality dark chocolate version, with only modest sweetness finding a good balance between enough sweet for a dessert and keeping it not too sweet for a dark chocolate. It wasn't bitter like true dark chocolate which I wouldn't mind at all.

The gelato itself was thick and firm, great texture and barely had any melted areas even after 15mins of slow indulgence. I don't know how they derived that texture but it was a quality rarely seen in gelato. They also serve in a cup and give you a bonus cone of top to eat in our own creative ways.

Now that I've tried dulce de leche once, I'd next time balance the chocolate with a lighter flavour. And I hope one day they make my favourite pistachio in the future.

I've been meaning to try the icecream here for a while but due to it always being late or too cold or closed over winter, opportunity keeps passing. However I finally managed just before closing time and had pear and pistachio. In both, the main flavour was rather mild. For fruit I do tend to enjoy more tartness and I like my pistachio quite strong. For those reasons, I was a little disappointed. The texture was very smooth and seemed creamier more like icecream rather than gelato, and I do know I prefer gelato over icecream.

I'll definitely drop back to try some other flavours next time.

After fish and chips, nearby I had starred Murphy's for ice cream. The city's best, maybe even the country's best, it had to be tried. Seeing the shiny metal containers is always a good sign of a company that cares for its ice cream product.

The Irish Coffee with whisky was as unique as you'd expect, with a strong coffee flavour and whisky aftertaste. I balanced it with black current sorbet for the sweetness, tartness and lightness. The cookies, chocolate and caramelised brown bread beg to be tried next time.

A late night barmy evening lent itself to a gelato dessert. By coincidence, luck and fortune, I can across an artisanal seller after dinner.

There's a good list of flavours, but unfortunately on my first visit, the pistachio was sold out, and the deep green I saw was green tea.

Nonetheless it didn't stop me over the next 24 hours from sampling the wonderfully brown coloured pistachio with its intense nutty flavour and minimal sweetness, a rich fruity cherry and a slightly less impressive raspberry.

On a scorching 32C, high-humidity day in Paris, gelato was necessary. After avoiding the soft serve and generally substandard tourist fare, I was lucky enough to spot the golden word Amorino at a stand near the Louvre. Of course this word resonated with me instantly like a mirage from the depth of the desert floor due to my exposure in Lisbon (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/amorino-gelato-lisbon-10-2013).

Due to heat, a lack of lunch and a desire of gelato, I ended up queuing twice for a double each time.

- Pistachio gelato - a sweet version with good flavour;
- Coconut gelato - really delicious flavour with pieces of coconut providing texture;
- Pistachio sorbet - a stronger nuttier flavour, less sweet and preferred over the other (contrary to what I wrote in Lisbon);
- Mango - a strong fruity version as though mango had been blended, thickened and served.

Thanks for saving me. I hope to see you elsewhere.

The other night I found myself at Readings on Lygon Street, then braving the masses at Brunetti. As I walked out I was directed toward the more orderly queue of people across the road. This was the new gelato place started by a producer of Lavazza coffee who had apparently learnt gelato trade in Italy (as most seem to do these days). Unfortunately I was sweeted out for the evening and thought nothing more of it.

A few days later I was near the south end of Chapel Street and unexpectedly came across another Pidapipo. Far away from the crowds due to location and day of the week, the icecream in shiny metal containers (the way it is supposed to be kept for maximal quality as the expense of minimal wow/colour factor) beckoned.

Pistachio was a light shade of beautiful brown, with a good nutty flavour but a little too sweet for my preference. Kudos nonetheless. This was balanced with an excellent coconut dotted with flesh along the way.

Perhaps not my favourite place ever but an excellent quality one.

During the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival this year there was a dedicated event to icecream. Messina and others represented the local market and the international act was Big Gay Ice Cream from NYC. Other than the attention grabbing name, the high regard (and cookbook) made it an attractive deal.

The signature dish from these guys during the MFWF was the Tim Tam Slam. Although they only setup shop for a few days, the Tim Tam Slam was still available to order freshly made on any day.

I did go on one of the non-official days and delightfully ordered this special. What I received was a pretty disappointing result. The icecream felt topped or mixed with cream and really didn't have much in the way of vanilla flavour let alone any visible beans. The standard Australian Tim Tam had been crushed underneath and plunked on top to make it special. Seriously if this is the best the USA can do in terms of icecream or gelato, there is a long way to go.

You can argue a few things here - they didn't serve it themselves (who knows how it was bastardised and ruined in their absence), the soft serve is different texturally to icecream and so I'm critiquing a different product here (yes soft serve is what 20 years ago McDonald's used to do for 30c and most of us have matured from that flavour, mush texture and price point). But if you're going to give your brandname and reputation to a product, it should be good. And sadly this was really ordinary.

(I know this isn't strictly a NYC branch issue but again, see last point.)

For comparisons, my last few years included: 
http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/gelato-trail-italy-07-2012, 
http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/dooleys-the-ice-cream-tub-apollo-bay-02-2016, 
http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/bibelot-melbourne-03-2016, 
http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/pel-gelato-and-sorbetto-hobart-01-2016, 
http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/frugii-dessert-laboratory-canberra-12-2015, 
http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/cow-and-moon-sydney-05-2015, 
http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/gelato-secrets-ubud-12-2014, 
http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/amorino-gelato-lisbon-10-2013, 
http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/gelataria-sincelo-porto-10-2013.

After brunch at Chez Dre, my inadvertent initial stumble into Bibelot and visual delight of chocolates and sparkling desserts meant I needed to look again. The gelato/sorbet list is extensive and each flavour individually reads like a special from any other place. I'm not a huge dessert person generally but I was told the small cakes here were better than Zumbo, Burch & Purchese etc. and so since in the area (and probably wouldn't be again for a while) I bought up large for takeaway.

1L gelato for $19.5 and 3 flavours started off. There's so many to pick from that although I wanted to taste a few, I knew it would take too long. I've had to leave the mandarin & yuzu, strawberry & lemon myrtle, amrood (since found out is guava) pineapple & chilli chocolate, coconut & pandan for another time.

Pistacchio gelato was mildly sweet, quite nutty and boosted by whole roasted pistacchios - excellent overall. Pear & ginger gelato was mild with intermittent chunks of crystallised ginger - unusual and great. Coconut & cherry chocolate sorbet was a mix of flavour with coconut being the most prominent - it was good but overwhelmed by the other two.

The beautiful gourmandise board $27 samples most of the cakes on display. The favourite two were the hazelnut-praline crunch (strong chocolate with crunching popping texture of the base) and the much lighter and softer manga, yuzu & coconut. Life with Bibelot and green tea dome were similarly light but very mild in flavour, and the other four chocolate options didn't wow me. The rose-raspberry macaron was very sweet (as expected) and a little too much for me.

I know what I'll be getting next time.

Every beach (actually every city) needs an ice cream/gelato place. That one in Apollo Bay is Dooley's (aka The Ice Cream Tub). There's two things that are quite intimidating about the place when you walk in - one is the queue (not as large as Messina for example, but considering the relative market population) and the other is the enormous number of awards hanging on the walls.

The flavours that tend to win the awards are chestnut, licorice, lemon curd, vanilla, coconut passionfruit and many more.

I couldn't imagine licorice appealing so much so I tried a small sample. It's creamy and lightly flavoured and unexpectedly pleasant. Having said that I don't think I could handle an entire scoop.

What I do settle on is chestnut (a smooth mild flavour) and lemon curd (essentially a potent lovely lemon cheesecake flavour). What is distinctive is how extraordinarily creamy the ice creams are, but I suppose that's the key difference in fat content between ice cream and what I usually buy in gelato. It's incredible and some of the best ice cream I've had. Overall I think I prefer gelato in being more dense and discrete but this ice cream makes it a tough call.

They unfortunately didn't have pistachio that day so I'll have to take a raincheck on that.