Ice Cream Burrito: the deceptive, sweet-and-savory snack of Taipei’s night markets.
2 min read
We are in Taipei. Tucked deep into local night markets, vendors disguise scoops of ice cream as a savory snack. Customarily, Taiwanese cooks fill their flour crepes with pork, cabbage, and ground peanuts to make a traditional roll called run bing. However, street hawkers use the same wrap to swathe a sweet-and-savory treat.
To assemble, the vendor lays out a flour crepe and shaves fine pieces of peanut brittle over it from a wooden tool which is used to shave the peanut candy block.
On top, he adds three scoops of ice cream, often in flavors like pineapple, taro, or peanut, then another layer of peanut candy shavings, and then coriander.
After the sprinkle of the spice (that can be omitted, on request), he folds the edges in and rolls up the contents into a burrito-shape creation.
The combination of flavors and textures achieves a balance of creamy, crunchy, chewy, sweet, herbal, tart, and nutty.
Images from web – Google Research