because taxi drivers were refusing to take me home

...I had to kill time, till it was past rush hour. I had to make them desperate to get passengers, to the point where they'd stop and ask if I want to ride or not (which often happens when you aren't in a hurry to go somewhere, or when you aren't in the mood to take a cab, or when you don't  have enough money to ride in one anyways).


Opposite my cab-hailing spot was Teriyaki Boy, better known as oh-the-Japanese-fast-food-chain-a-notch-higher-than-Tokyo-Tokyo. It was post-work out and I know I was gonna ruin my diet, but I was in the mood to splurge on ANYTHING given the fact that I haven't entertained myself in weeks and I thought I deserve to have a little treat, so I went inside and ordered Teriyaki Boy Chicken Ju. 

3 chopstick-bites later, I got tired of my chicken and saw something curious:

I needed something different. It came in the form of this thing.

It says in the caption,

Macha Ice Cream: A classic Japanese ice cream with our own twist. Premium green tea ice cream with crunchy tempura flakes on the side. P78.

As you may well know, I am a tea addict. Specifically, green-tea addict. There was a time I went temporarily blind for...an hour, because of too much tea (aka too much stimulation/BP elevation/blockage of the arteries in the eyes). So this was something very interesting, given the fact that well,

• it had tempura flakes
• its green tea ice cream, something not available in my nearby Mini-Stop
• it is from Teriyaki Boy, which is very commercial, and now they're offering something...different. and healthy. 

And so I ordered.

Pretty: like a green jade ball nestled on a bed of crushed pearl.

It looks like an avocado ice cream, yes? Since my office cam phone was too low-tech to capture that pretty verdant decadence, I should now tell you that it looked leafy green.

So I had my first spoonful.

• I tasted that certain leafy-ness typical of green tea minus the overt bitterness, but it was most subtle. And it was pleasing that way.

• Its sweetness was not overpowering, light in texture and taste. Its texture borders that of Gelatissimo's offerings and classic sorbet. This is perfect for people who get "umay" easily; also for people who'd rather take their green tea in morphed forms (green tea frappe-lovers, ganyan).

It tasted like EBI TEMPURA at first, so it was quite a shock when it actually turned out to be palatable when combined with the ice cream. If Teriyaki Boy would continue to sell this, they should fry separately the tempura flakes for their green tea ice cream.

But what the ice cream lacks in fat (given that its "green tea" daw), it makes up for in the oily tempura flakes.

• However, the crunch of tempura flakes goes well with the creaminess of the concoction. It was quite surprising, actually: usually, the crunch of a cold sweet treat, such as ice cream--comes from nuts, or for frozen yogurt--cereals. With this one, from tempura flakes--batter-y, salty, crunchy. Eaten together, it is like eating fried bread with cream ala-North Park, albeit cold. Like a cold, creamy donut. :)

Light.

This might not get liked instantly by many, but it is one of those treats which you acquire a taste for.

Ano beh P78 na nga lang eh! Plus its Arce Dairy. I asked ate waitress if it was exclusively made for Teriyaki Boy. She said the ice cream is available in the market, and they just tied-up with Arce Dairy.

Those pictures are taken by moi, thanks to my hand-me-down low-tech 2.0 megapixel cam-phone.