Frozen Jose Mier Unearths Ube
Happy national ice cream day! That’s right. July 16 is national ice cream day and what better flavor to celebrate with than ube? What? You’ve never eaten ube ice cream? Then you’re obviously not from Hawaii.
Ube is the popular Hawaiian name for the purple yam whose Latin name is dioscorea alata. Its history is shrouded in mystery but scientists believe it came from somewhere in Southeast Asia. Regardless, it’s still grown there and in the Phillipines and has become very popular as an ice cream flavor in our 50th state.
The ice cream is unique for its purple color and the flavor is described as a cross between vanilla, pistacio and something slightly floral. Hawaiians snap it up as fast as they can.
An Ice Cream to Make Prince Proud
If you’ve read my earlier Frozen Jose Mier posts, you know I am partial to colorful as well as flavorful ice creams (Superman ice cream, anyone?) and so the sight of this vividly purple frozen treat really got my taste buds tingling. One wonders if the late Prince who had a fondness for all things purple ever tasted ube ice cream. Traveling the world as he did, a stop in Hawaii almost guarantees that he did. We may never know.
While relatively unknown in other states it is surprisingly available here is California (as you know the home base for Frozen Jose Mier is Sun Valley, CA) at our local food store Trader Joe’s. TJ’s is known for stocking items you might not find at the run-of-the-mill grocery store and ube ice cream is one of those.
If you’re not near a Trader Joe’s, then it may just be time to whip up a batch of your own. Ingredients are few but you may need to look for a while to find ube extract and powdered ube. The others are milk, cream, sugar and water. You can find the simple recipe on this site.
I love to find new and exotic ice cream flavors and ube is just the thing to make this national ice cream day one to remember!