Pinoy ube-coconut-pinipig ice cream sandwich featured in the NYT 

The ice cream sandwich has changed a lot since the first time it was first sold in Manhattan more than a century ago using the basic formula of "slapped together skinny wafers and vanilla ice cream," according to an article in The New York Times that featured a Filipino version of the dessert sold in Queens.

 

In her NYT Hungry City article entitled, "The Ice Cream Sandwich Comes of Age", Ligaya Mishan said she discovered the Filipino ice cream sandwich at the House of Inasal in Woodside, Queens.

 

The Filipino restaurant's interpretation of the ice cream sandwich consisted of "overgrown sliders in school-spirit colors: regal ube (purple yam) ice cream on golden rolls of baliwag, rich with eggs and milk."

 

Mishan mouth-wateringly described each serving as "adorned with a spackle of ube halaya, mashed purple yam thickened with coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk and a touch of butter; curls of young coconut; and scattered pops of pinipig, unripened glutinous rice that has been pounded and toasted to a state near Rice Krispies."

 

The NYT food writer praised the House of Inasal dessert."The result is a fine reciprocity of crunch and give, and flavors that incline more toward buttery than sweet."

 

Mishan featured nine other ice cream sandwiches. Her favorite "was the simplest, handed to me from a stall run by Luca & Bosco in the Essex Street Market on the Lower East Side."

 

Mishan found a diversity of sandwiches that spoke of the multicultural demographics of New York today.

 

There was one that had gelato and brioche and there is another made with Japanese shokupan with white Pullman loaf slices and honey. The Thai dessert Mishan discovered had coconut-jackfruit with a Chinese bakery's sweet bun. 

 

This is not the first time that a Filipino food creation was featured on The New York Times. Last year, a food review described sisig as "arguably greatest pork dish on earth."  — with Trisha Macas/Earl Victor Rosero/DVM, GMA News