Rolled Ice Cream @ Che Kitchen by 车老板 Toa Payoh • A Rare Artisanal Street Food Treat

Rolled Ice Cream @ Che Kitchen by 车老板 Toa Payoh | 1008A Toa Payoh N, Singapore 318998 ☎ 6513 9032 🕚 10am - 11pm

After our sumptuous lunch of zhi char type dishes at Che Kitchen by 车老板, we were served a round of cheerful, colourful ice cream.

The cold rolled ice cream came in different fruit flavours, not overly sweet, felt like gelato but slightly less creamy, not as dense or smooth. The toppings added candy sprinkle sweetness, dried fruit flavour and nuttiness to the melt-in-the-mouth sweet ice cream.

Rolled ice cream originated in Thailand about 10 years ago. Street side rolled ice cream stalls were fairly common in Bangkok during its heyday and even sparked a craze in the US (and the world). A few rolled ice cream stalls sprouted in Singapore too. But, the fad was short lived and today, rolled ice cream stalls are less commonly found.

Which is a pity as rolled ice cream is an artisanal craft, made a la minute, fresh, delicious and an affordable street treat. So, it's great that we can still have rolled ice cream in Singapore at Che Kitchen by 车老板.

Chef Che said we could watch how the rolled ice cream was made at the stall, after we finished our ice cream 😄 I needed very little encouragement 😂

Rolled Ice Cream stall owner Candy used to run Roll & Chill, a rolled ice cream stall at Chinatown Complex Food Centre. Today is her first day operating at Che Kitchen! What a happy coincidence for me.

Candy started by pouring flavoured milk and cream onto the cold frying pan. The Thai original used a form of Creme Anglaise (vanilla custard sauce of milk, egg and vanilla). The cold pan can go down to -30°C but is usually set at minus 10 something ℃ for making rolled ice cream.

Candy added fruits, jam and puree to the flavoured milk and cream. Rolled ice cream is highly customisable.

Milk, fruit, jam, puree were chopped and folded together so that their flavours were thoroughly mixed.

This step was like stir frying, hence the Thais called rolled ice cream "stir fried" ice cream (I-Tim-Pad in Thai) albeit on a cold pan.

The semi-frozen milk-cream-jam-fruit-puree mixture was spread and flattened on the cold pan.

Candy then rolled the semi-frozen multi-flavour ice cream into a tube.

Tadah.... rolled rice cream.

The thing about rolled ice cream is that it is made fresh by hand instead of manufactured in a faraway factory months ahead like most corporate branded ice cream. Rolled ice cream is a true street hawker dish.

Next, the finishing touches of adding toppings before serving. There's syrup, candy sprinkles, chopped Oreo, nuts, raisin, whipped cream, etc., anything goes.

At the moment, Candy is selling her artisanal rolled ice cream at $1.50 per serving, which is even cheaper than Mixue and McDonald's cheapest ice creams.

The rolled ice cream feel and taste good, worth your money and sugar calories.