Boasting to be the first of its kind in the Bay Area, Freezing Point Creamery brought one of the latest Asian dessert crazes, Thai-style rolled ice cream, to Oakland Chinatown in 2016. The unique ice cream rolls, offered in 12 flavors with 16 toppings to choose from, are a feast not only for your mouth but also for your eyes.
The ice cream roll, also nicknamed as “stir-fried” ice cream, was invented by the ingenious Thai street food vendors back in 2009. Different from most traditional ice cream that is usually scooped out from freezers, ice cream rolls are made to order in front of the customers in about 2 minutes. First, the liquid ice cream base–usually consisting of flavored milk and fresh ingredients–is poured onto a nitrogen-chilled metal pan, where the mixture is chopped, kneaded, and spread into a thin semi-solid sheet, which is then scraped into cylindrical rolls, all done with a pair of steel tools that resemble paint scrapers. Finally, the rolls are placed in a cup and decorated with any desired sundae fixings ranging from chocolate to purple yam, concluding this entertaining process. Watch how they do it here!
Compared to traditional ice cream, the rolled ice cream tends to be denser and stickier as less air is added during its making process. Aside from its novel technique and unconventional shape, Freezing Point’s ice cream rolls also come in many hard-to-find Asian flavors, including matcha, Thai tea, and red bean. You can peruse their full menu in the images above. Besides ice cream, Freezing Point also offers quite a selection of milk teas, fruit teas, juices, smoothies, milkshakes, and snow-like Taiwanese shaved ice.
Located at 349 7th St, Freezing Point Creamery is within a short walking distance to both 12th St. and Lake Merritt BART stations. For drivers, street parking is also not hard to find.
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