Vanilla ice cream with crispy chili oil: is that a good idea?
If you ask me, crispy chili oil is the flavor booster of the moment. I love putting the spicy, flavorful stuff on just about everything. Then I thought: why not put my money where my mouth is? So I put it on vanilla ice cream. No, I didn’t come up with this myself. It’s a trend that’s going completely viral on social media.
We usually drizzle crispy chili oil over our grilled cheese, salad or nasi. We’re crazy about Parmesan polenta with cavolo nero, crispy chili oil and egg, and scrambled tofu with crispy chili oil. All savory dishes that get a delicious kick from the spicy flavor enhancer. But crispy chili oil on something sweet, like vanilla ice cream? That had never crossed my mind. I decided to put it to the test. Is it a divine combination or an unmitigated disaster?
Putting it to the test: vanilla ice cream with crispy chili oil
When I see the vanilla ice cream drenched in crispy chili oil sitting in a bowl, I get a bit of an error message. The bright orange stuff really clashes with the white ice cream. And that garlic smell I notice while looking at vanilla ice cream: it makes my brain short-circuit completely. But okay. Don’t judge a book by its cover. I’m going to taste it.
Do I like it? No. I just find it weird. I taste garlic and onion, but also vanilla. And in my head and in my mouth, those flavors simply don’t go together. Sorry. It’s like eating nasi with fried onions and sambal, with a dollop of vanilla sauce on top or something? I don’t know. It also gives me a bit of a tickle at the back of my throat. I don’t normally get that with crispy chili oil, so maybe it’s some kind of strange reaction caused by the ice cream. No idea. Oh yes, and one more thing: it’s very strange to have something cold in your mouth and then taste the spiciness afterward.
But seriously, error
So no, I don’t recommend it. If you serve this at a dinner, you’ll leave your guests with a very strange aftertaste. My boyfriend gets absolutely furious when I offer it to him, at least. ”I’m not going to eat this! Just smelling it makes me want to puke!” Take it easy, boyfriend. I’m not asking you to eat half a kilo of moldy garlic cloves. And exaggeration is an art, too.
In the meantime, I’ve already eaten half the bowl, so somewhere deep down I am fascinated by the flavor. At the same time, I want to rinse out my mouth. Maybe that’s dramatic, but it’s the truth. I said it already: error all around. I’ll take vanilla ice cream with olive oil and salt, thank you. Much better!
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