For Dessert: Maison Bertillon on Île Saint-Louis

pron.: BER-TEE-YONG

This place deserves one word: EPIC

Okay, maybe it deserves a few more, but if I can only use one word to describe it, it truly would have to be "epic".  This place has nearly 60 years of history, opened since 1954.  It uses no chemicals, artificial sweeteners, or stabilizers.  It is all-natural, uses only milk, cream, eggs, sugar and natural flavourings.  If organic, hippy, free-ranged, granola crunching vegans still have anything to complain about the purity of their ice cream, they can all go to hell.  It doesn't get any better than this.

Maison de Glace Bertillon on Ile de St. Louis

Take out and tea salon

Mango-Coconut Ice Cream

Stupidstore had a sale of mangoes and so of course Mr. Meow and I bought too many.  We were looking for the Altaufo types as advertised in the flyers but found only Kent mangoes, we bought them.  Then about a few days later, Meow went to Stupidstore again and decided to see if they have Altaufo mangoes for shits and giggles and low and behold, they do!  So Meow bought.  We prefer Altaufo mangoes simply because of the sweetness and texture.  Kent mangoes in comparison are a bit tart and crunchy, although if given enough ripening time, they do soften up and sweeten.  Though usually, they rot before that happens due to the bumps and bruises they received during shipment.

Altaufo mango

Kent mango

So, we have 2 cases (24+) mangoes sitting on the counter.  What to do?  All this mango talk got Meow craving some Thai mango sticky rice, but Meow lacks the skill to deal with glutinous rice let alone cooking it with coconut milk!  So, I pondered about the next best thing: mango-coconut ice cream!  I set out to search for a recipe and surprisingly, there wasn't a lot.  So, I had to use my Meow om-nom-nom senses to judge whether this recipe will work.  Well, I'll let you be the judge.

Mangoes galore!

Dulce de Leche Frozen Yogurt

My second day with the ice cream maker.  I was actually looking for a recipe for a yogurt flavoured ice cream, sort of like the ones you would find in Japan or Asia, not frozen yogurt.  But then these three little words (well, not so little when you love it like I do, they pop out like giant bold letters) dulce de leche popped up on my search results, I HAVE to see it (it's not like I was having any luck either with my original search).  I like the fact that it’s got cream AND yogurt, so it shouldn’t be too tangy or sad.  Ran out to Stupidstore and bought 2 jars of dulce de leche.  I didn’t even know Stupidstore carried it until I Google’d it.  It certainly saved me a lot of time and sanity, because if you’ve read my Not Nougat entry, you’d know not to ask me to caramelize sugar or anything of the like again.

I had to refrain myself from eating the whole jar with a spoon.

The stupidest thing of making ice cream is that the stupid bowl needs to be chilled in the freezer for 15 hours!  15!!  So, if I only remember to pop it into the freezer before bed, that means it’ll only be ready by 3pm, and when all is said and done, the ice cream would be set by maybe 9pm.  A little late for dessert in my opinion.

Mixed Berries Ice Cream

This was just a craving for all things berry.  It was also my first discovery on how to use my ice cream maker.

Before freezing.  Soft-serve stage.

After some research, this style of ice cream - where no custard is involved, is considered as "Philadelphia Style" ice cream.  I actually like the simple, no hassle method it employs.  As you may know, Meow has no patience whatsoever, so cooking custard is a bitch.  This recipe seems perfectly brilliant to my non-patience.