KUCHING: Something sweet and savoury has city folk smacking their lips – ice-cream wrapped in crispy bun, a delight one should not miss.
Now this particular shop named Khin Kueh Khiong sells more than 20 types of flavoured ice-cream, and not just any ice-cream but gelato.
And if you don’t know what gelato is, it’s a popular frozen dessert of Italian origin and generally made with a base of milk and sugar.
It’s generally lower in fat than other styles of frozen desserts.
New Sarawak Tribune sat down with shop owner Phang Boo Khiong, 59, who owns a bakery that’s over 30 years old and sells the ‘bun ice-cream’ in India Street in the heart of Kuching city.
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“My shop started selling ice-cream, the normal kind on cones, and that was 10 years ago.
“During my younger days, we ate ice-cream that was wrapped in a bun, and I thought, why don’t I introduce this again, but with a variety of flavoured buns and flavoured gelato to choose from,” he said.
The difference between his product and others, he explained, is he uses gelato recipes, and the buns are freshly baked every day.
Some of the flavours on offer range from the usual vanilla, chocolate and strawberry to fruity favourites such as durian, mango and blueberry.
For the adventurous, there’s coffee, caramel, cheesecake, green tea and yes, bamboo charcoal, to choose from.
Customers get to choose bun flavours ranging from wholemeal, green tea, strawberry to bamboo charcoal as well.
“Our best product is ice-cream with bun because we’ll toast the bun for a minute before we put the ice-cream on top.
“The best feeling biting into it is when the bun is warm on the outside, and you bite into the gelato that slowly melts in your mouth,” he beamed, adding that the gelato is also freshly made by his chef.
When asked why his ice-cream was cheaper than most, he said with a smile: “I want to make everybody happy.”
To those who still prefer the iconic ice-cream on a cone, he does sell them, or customers could also go for the waffle type.
Even the cones come in strawberry, green tea, bamboo charcoal and vanilla flavours.
The price of the bun or cone with a scoop of gelato (except durian flavour and plain bun) costs RM4 while with plain bun or vanilla cone, it’s RM3.50.
It’s RM7 for any two scoops of gelato (except durian
flavour) on waffle.
Those who like durian gelato on plain bun or cone, it’ll cost them RM5 while with assorted bun or cone, prepare to fork out RM5.50.
Phang’s shop is at India Street Pedestrian Mall, and opens from 8am till 6pm on weekdays and Saturdays, and from 9am till 2pm on Sundays and public holidays.
