Mmmmm...Ube
I've lived in the Phililppines for nearly a year, and I only just today finally tried that staple of the Filipino desert, ube ice cream.
Ube, pronounced something like u-bay, is really the purple yam, or taro root, and it's used to flavor everything from ice cream to cake and candy. You can, no kidding, buy a box of Betty Crocker Ube Cake Mix at the supermarket, if you're so inclined.
I probably avoided ube ice cream for so long because of its color. It's just so incredibly purple. (This photo has been minimally photoshopped, but only to lighten it up, not to alter the purple color. That's really what it looks like.) From my Western perspective, it's an unnatural color for food, and visually unappetizing.
One of Shelly's coworkers and a couple of customers were in town today, and conversation led to ube ice cream and its alleged deliciousness. Since they were coming over for dinner, Shelly added ice cream to the menu.
Dinner itself went well, though I found myself nervous cooking for customers. I have cooked for most of Shelly's coworkers who have visited the operations here, but never the company's customers before. For some reason, I decided to make a Filipino dinner instead of an American dinner, which only heightened my sense of unease. (We had chicken adobo and rice for the main course, then I curried some slices of pumpkin, chilled them, and served them cold; blanched some asparagus; and stir fried some greens with garlic, fish sauce and soy sauce. It actually turned out pretty well, I think.)
And then Shelly brought out the ice cream. It was very purple. But it was also delicious.
3 comments:
Just looks like grape!!
The purple color in the picture looks similar to the blueberry yogurt I eat for breakfast, so I'd have absolutely no problem eating purple ice cream. Of course, I love ice cream and will eat it by the quart regardless of the color. However, taste is much more important. Take the green tea ice cream you gave me in Japan as an example. It was green ... no problem ... but it tasted like tea ... yuck. I didn't finish that ice cream because of the taste.
So ... What does ube taste like?
BTW, I'd never wait a year to try the local ice cream!
You definitely don't have children! What more could you possibly want than ice cream and to have it some wild and crazy color like purple?! BTW, did you ever try the green or purple ketchup that was out a few years ago?
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