3 Ice creams (4 if you count popsicles) tried out of 7 vendors from Brooklyn Flea! This is the first one.
WHAT: Traditional
⚪️ Base: Sweet milk ice cream
⚫️ Served with: Rose-pomegranate syrup, basil seeds, vermicelli noodles, topped with pomegranate seeds.
WHERE: Malai @ Brooklyn Flea!
Creativity: 😉😉😉😉😉
Presentation: 😎😎
Taste: 😋😋😋
Texture: 😜😜😜
Value: 😄😄😄
Overall Experience: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
STORY: It's National Ice Cream Day! Once I arrived at Dumbo, I made a beeline towards the Brooklyn Flea, which is held underneath & next to the Manhattan Bridge archway. It was so hot, and I was sweating bullets when I arrived. Two of my friends would be accompanying me today, and would be arriving within a half hour.
I surveyed what was there - It turns out the Ice Cream Bonanza is integrated with the Brooklyn Flea. This is unlike the the 7 ice cream vendors were sporadically spread out. Four vendors were next to each other, and two others were interspersed with other non-ice cream vendors. My very first one that I would try would be Malai, a vendor who I had not tried or heard of before until today.
Menu
At first glance, their menu seems to stem from Indian roots. However after reading more into them from their FB page, their ice cream is actually inspired by "globally sourced whole ingredients, underutilized spices, and unexpected twists on old classics".
All menu items read as exotic, and I decided to try the Traditional.
THOUGHTS: The experience of seeing how the Traditional sundae (and likely all other sundaes) was very amusing. Each ingredient, save for the ice cream, was in a separate cup, and was made in front of your very eyes. In went the basil seeds first, then the vermicelli, ice cream, syrup, and finally garnished with pomegranate seeds. Wow.
I would call this more a ice cream parfait than a sundae. The only difference I see is it uses ice cream as a replacement for yogurt. Each ingredient layer was separate from each other. On first bite, juicy pomegranate burst into my mouth - which I liked. I detected a hint of spice, not sure whether it was from the milk ice cream or another ingredient. Scooping further down, I reached vermicelli, which oddly wasn't too odd eating with ice cream. Possibly because it's flavorless? Eating the basil seeds were weird though.
I'm wondering if there was a proper way to eat this ice cream sundae. I did not want to mix the ingredients together as I would in a normal yogurt parfait, because I did not want ice cream soup. And with this heat, 90+ degree weather, it was already becoming ice cream soup.
Would I try this again? I would be down to try the other menu items!
