8 unique ways to eat ice cream

During the summer, Texas always gets too hot. On a hot sunny day, ice cream is the perfect sweet and refreshing dessert. However, having the same thing over and over, no matter how delicious, can get tiring. Here are 8 unique ways you can diversify your ice cream selection!

These are not in any order in particular and are all my experiences with ice cream. It's my favorite kind of dessert and I recently even purchased my own ice cream maker to have ice cream any time I want!

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1. Taiyaki Ice Cream

Restaurant: Cocohodo

Location: Carrollton, Texas

Rating: 7/10

Description: Taiyaki is one of my favorite Asian snacks, and it's even better when they put ice cream in it! I love the crispy, soft, and hot texture of the cake, and how it makes the ice cream taste even colder. This ice cream is matcha flavored, topped with mochi bits and drizzled in chocolate. Overall, very average taiyaki, but genius touch with the ice cream swirled inside the bread.

Taiyaki is a Japanese fish-shaped cake. It imitates the shape of the tai, which it is named after. The most common filling is red bean paste that is made from sweetened azuki beans. Other common fillings may be custard, chocolate, cheese, or sweet potato -Wikipedia

2. Ice Cream Cupcake

Restaurant: Sprinkles Cupcakes

Location: Austin, Texas

Rating: 8/10

Description: This was definitely filling and acted as my guilty dinner. The top of the cupcake was dark chocolate with an extra crunch. The ice cream was peanut butter. These two flavors worked wondrously together, it tasted like a Reese's puff! I thought the cupcake was a nice touch to the hard and cold ice cream. The top was so soft and warm while the ice cream was cold and melted right into my mouth.

3. Mochi Ice Cream

Restaurant: Kome

Location: Austin, Texas

Rating: 6/10

Description: Mochi is my favorite kind of ice cream. I usually eat mochi in Japan or China, and haven't really found a solid place that sells good mochi. Good mochi is when the rice cake is a decently thick layer that is soft and covered just right with sugar. The ice cream needs to be soft to bite into with a delicious milky taste. The two need to act together in harmony. However, this mochi was frozen and the flavors didn't come out right. Still on the search for the perfect mochi. I have even attempted making my own with my sister by following YouTube videos, but it was ultimately a fail.

Mochi is Japanese rice cake made of mochigome, a short-grain japonica glutinous rice, and sometimes other ingredients like water, sugar, and cornstarch. The rice is pounded into paste and molded into the desired shape. In Japan it is traditionally made in a ceremony called mochitsuki. -Wikipedia

4. Baked Alaska Ice Cream Cone

Restaurant: The Spot Dessert

Location: New York

Rating: 8/10

Description: Baked Alaska is usually ice cream covered with meringue that's been browned or burned by a torch or baked. The browned meringue created a somewhat burnt but deeper taste to the ice cream. It was such an interesting idea to put it on a cone! The ice cream was creamy while the inside was a fresh and tart raspberry sorbet. These two flavors along with the crispy, burnt outside and creamy inside, balanced perfectly.

5. Ice Cream in a Shake

Restaurant: Cold Cookie Company

Location: Austin, Texas

Rating: 8/10

Description: This is known as the unshake which is basically a shake but ... unshaken. It was two choices of ice cream, 2 cookies, toppings with whip cream on top. We got double chocolate and cookies and cream ice cream. We had chocolate chip and caramel waffle cookie. We only had gummy bears as our toppings. I love gummy bears on ice cream because of how it hardens up. The gummy bears were enjoyable with this shake. It was an overload on sugar, but it was definitely worth in quantity and satisfied my sweet tooth.

6. Monkey Bread Ice Cream

Restaurant: Salty Sow

Location: Austin, Texas

Rating: 8/10

Description: As you can tell, there's a pattern with me and ice cream and bread. I just think hot bread and cold ice cream go so well together. What's so special about this dessert is the combination of flavors. The monkey bread was so soft and topped with sugar and cinnamon while the ice cream was banana flavored and creamy. These two blended perfectly and made me feel like I was at a fair.

Monkey bread is a soft, sweet, sticky pastry served in the United States for breakfast or as a treat. It consists of pieces of soft baked dough sprinkled with cinnamon. It is often served at fairs and festivals. -Wikipedia

7. Golden Toast with Ice Cream

Restaurant: The Spot Dessert

Location: New York

Rating: 9/10

Description: This dessert is an amazing combo of hot, crispy and soft bread and milky ice cream. The bread was so soft and cooked just right with an extra layer of crunch. This type of dessert usually tastes this good. I like to think of it as the Asian version of a Pizookie. The bread help keeps a light and airy flavor to the thick ice cream, these two balance each other out perfectly. The fruit also adds a refreshing bite.

8. Shaved Ice with Condensed Milk Ice Cream

Restaurant: Mozart's Bakery

Location: Carrollton, Texas

Rating: 7/10

Description: Shaved ice dessert (Baobing) (Bingsu) is a famous Asian dessert with condensed milk and usually fruit. It's such a light and refreshing dessert that melts right in your mouth. The shaved ice is cold and tastes like snow while the toppings and flavors are sweet or tangy. This was a macaroon shaved ice and it was a bit too sweet in my opinion. It was beautiful to look at and the macaroons were delicious, I just felt the sweetness was too much to handle in the end.

The dessert consists of a large mound of ice shavings with various toppings on top. A wide variety toppings exist, but the most common ones include sugar water, condensed milk, adzuki beans, mung beans, and tapioca balls. Fruit are also used according to the season. Mango baobing is typically only available in the summer, while strawberry baobing is available in the winter. -Wikipedia

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These are my suggestions and recommendations on ice cream based desserts! Some of the places listed could be improved, but I am still searching. For now, these desserts hold a special place in my heart and I hope to discover more. I also hope to create more original and unique ice cream flavors with my new ice cream maker!