Pandan Ube Ice Cream Cake/TemptAsians

Lately, my toddler daughter has been playing a game on the PBS Kids Games app based around the cartoon “Jelly, Ben & Pogo.” I keep noticing that halo-halo is one of the recipes to create in the game — a recipe of which I had never previously known. Little did I know that my next dessert sojourn would take me to a place that uses a key ingredient in halo-halo, an ingredient that I also had never tried before: ube ice cream. TemptAsians had pandan ube ice cream cake, and, well, take a look:

This dessert combines two aspect of southeast Asian cuisine: the aforementioned ube, plus pandan. Ube is also known as purple yam, and the ice cream is made directly from the vegetable. Pandan is a tropical plant; the green juice from the leaf is used as a food coloring in items like cakes and waffles. In this instance, there were two layers of pandan cake, surrounding a layer of ube ice cream, with Oreo ice cream and crushed Oreos atop.

You get all the flavor variety here. The pandan cake has elements of vanilla — it reminds me of pound cake, which is somewhat of a good food comp. Meanwhile, you do get some of the subtle nuttiness in the ube ice cream. It’s a different flavor alternation compared to what you ordinarily find in western Wisconsin (or much of the country/continent, really). That all contrasts with the chocolate of the Oreo. All in all, to catch all the flavors, you’ll want to eat this one in small bites and dart around to different layers.

TemptAsians has gotten rave reviews for awhile, particularly for their pho. They also have a good amount of dessert options. At some point, make sure you spring for the pandan ube ice cream cake. It’s a unique color and flavor delicacy for your post-dinner option — and maybe will inspire you to take a crack at something your child is learning about!