Just Desserts: Ice Cream Sandwiches From Around the World
Words Lauren Berry
Illustration Frankie Thorp
Bastani e Nooni
Locally known as Bastani e Nooni, the Iranian take on the ice cream sandwich is made with saffron, rose water and pistachio ice cream (bastani sonnati), which sounds like a floral, nutty dreamboat of a flavour. Then they stick it in wafers and cover it in nuts because they can, and they should. Arguably the best one on this list in my opinion. Let’s argue about it. Go!
Did you know: In 400BC, ancient Persians built giant conical structures called yakhchāls to make ice and keep things cool. The walls are made of a mixture of sand, clay, egg whites, lime, goat hair, and ash.
Sánguche Helado
Uruguay loves cattle. The country has more cows than people, and where there’s cows and people, there’s ice cream. The other thing Uruguay seems to love, is sandwiches full of layers… We’ll skip the meat version (known as chivito, and well worth checking out if you’re a protein guy) and head over to the freezer section for an ice cream sandwich (sánguche helado) or triple sandwich (sánguche triple). These are absolutely classic – Neapolitan vibes and wafer wraps… maybe the closest thing to a Mr Whippy van sandwich circa 1985. I found a guy on Twitter who said it’s important to start at the chocolate end and finish on the strawberry and people kicked off about it. I say fuck the rules, start in the middle like a proper psycho and take out your childhood trauma on that vanilla strip.
Extra Credit: If you’re in Uruguay, try their ice cream flavours made from their national beverages: Tannat wine, and yerba mate.
Ice Cream Loti
In Singapore no one is fucking around when it comes to an ice cream sandwich, it’s a slice of bread with a hunk of ice cream in it, no scoops, no cones and no micro-plastic mini-forks. Singapore ice cream flavours include sweetcorn, coconut and durian* and many vendors use iconic rainbow-swirled bread to give these a fun factor for the kids. Sometimes the bread is flavoured with Pandan, which tints it green and adds a flavour people struggle to describe – vanilla popcorn, grass, hay and bubble gum.
*Bonus point: Anthony Bourdain once said that after eating durian, “Your breath will smell as if you’d been French-kissing your dead grandmother.” Yummers.
Itim Khanom Pang
The ice cream sandwich is a classic street food in Thailand, distinguishable in this list for its love of toppings; chewy palm seeds, corn, gingko nuts, nata de coco, syrupy jackfruit, condensed milk or (and) crushed peanuts, this already sounds SO GOOD. Sometimes called Pok Pok, sometimes Itim Khanom Pang (ice cream bread), it’s a bun similar to a hot dog bun, often layered with a sweet sticky rice foundation topped with several scoops of coconut milk ice cream.
Thai tidbit: In Thailand they also add bread cubes to ice cream sundaes because they know that when it comes to ice cream and carbs, format doesn’t matter.
Brioche
con Gelato
This sounds so good you might want to whimper; a specially prepped brioche with a hat (col tuppo) is traditional for a Brioche con Gelato, you tear off the hat as a little pre-tease then toast the inside of your brioche and fill it with ice cream. It’s worth Googling recipes for these because people have gone miles out of their way to complicate it. Like me!
Fun fact: At the height of summer, Sicilians eat these for breakfast. FOR BREAKFAST!
