The Thai Ice Cream Sandwich

Let’s get started with one of the funniest things to me: the Thai ice cream sandwich.  I love ice cream sandwiches … those Pet brand ones in the supermarket frozen section – the perfect proportion of dark chocolate cookie to not so great vanilla ice cream.  Oh, and growing up I used to also love the Carvel store ones – the big round chocolate chip cookies with loads of quality vanilla ice cream in between.  To me, the “sandwich” means ice cream as the “meat” between some type of cookie as the “bread”.  In Thailand, the sandwich means not so great vanilla ice cream as the “meat” scooped onto a hot dog bun as the “bread”, then topped with – no, not yummy chocolate syrup  or gooey caramel topping – sweetened, condensed milk, like many other food items here.  They love them some sweetened, condensed milk and evaporated milk.  In tea, in coffee, on street vendor “pancakes” (which are like crepes and deserve recognition as a whole other blog topic they’re so delicious).

Here is a Thai man leaning back and enjoying his ice cream sandwich ….

It's worth noting that while said Thai man is leaning back next to the ice cream vendor and enjoying his dessert, the red shirt protests were taking place right across the street ... a point realized when I looked back to find this photo and found this one of the red shirt barricade next to it in my files ...

I couldn't resist of course, so without further ado, here is a photo of the one Thai ice cream sandwich that I tried being made and then tried by me …

 (notice the string of sausages on the cart next to the ice cream man ... no shortage of delicacies on Bangkok streets)

 

(this one I took more for the long, black pinky nail than the ice cream sandwich, but nice to see the final product (subnote: the long pinky nail is a whole other blog topic))

 Verdict: I LOVE Thai food …. LOVE LOVE LOVE Thai food … to the exclusion of most  American food … but I think I’ll go with the good ol’ US of A on ice cream sandwiches.