absolutely delicieuse!

I have been rekindling my friendship with Mae-Lae, one of my best friends from high school who also happens to now live in my neighborhood. For our second outing (yesterday), she suggested that we go to Delicieuse French Ice Cream Artisanale, a Filipino-owned store that serves artisanal French ice cream. Apparently, Mae-Lae had been searching for independently- owned shops in the area, and she found this place. But when she was telling me about it, she actually didn't even know the name; she just knew it was a French ice cream place on Artesia & Inglewood that was only open to the public on weekends. (Later, when the owner asked how we heard about the place, Mae-Lae couldn't even remember what search terms she used to find the place because she wasn't looking for ice cream necessarily.) Fortunately, when I searched for it, I was able to find it right away.

Our plan was to have lunch there and have ice cream for dessert. I pretty much read the whole website, and I was very excited to go there. The cafe menu looked good, and the ice cream menu looked incredible. The place itself looked cute, too. Plus, I was very excited that the owner/ice cream maker is Filipina.

We had a little bit of a late start because I got lost on the way to Mae-Lae's house. We eventually got to the place. This is what it looks like from the outside:

You really have to know this place exists because the storefront doesn't really scream to be noticed. I've actually passed by this area a number of times, and I've certainly never noticed it.

Alas, when we got there, we were immediately disappointed. A note on the window stated that, as of March 2011, they don't serve lunch anymore. And we were both hungry, as it was almost 2pm at that time. Fortunately, there was a Chicken Dijon nearby, so we didn't quite have to die of hunger looking for lunch. We walked over, had lunch, and walked backed to have some much-anticipated ice cream.

No one was in the store when we got there. (As previously mentioned, the store is only open to the public Friday-Sunday; the rest of the week is devoted to wholesale. Without lunch, I imagine that most people just buy their ice cream and go.) Patricia Samson, owner and ice cream maker, was manning the counter.

Mae-Lae, ever the talker, was making lots of conversation, and I was trying to fiddle with my camera. (I couldn't quite get my manual settings correct, so I gave up and went automatic. Also, took pictures with my compact camera.) This is what it looks like inside:

So, though Patricia has a over a hundred original recipes, there are really only about 12 flavors available at a time. (There are other flavors that are available by the pint, though.) However, she mentioned that she had just made a batch of strawberry basil sorbet that morning that should be ready. I think that was the first flavor we tried. It was very strawberry-y, but you can definitely taste the basil. Later, when we actually ordered this as one of our flavors, we decided that the basil brought out & enhanced the strawberry flavor.

Then, we got to tasting the other flavors, which are shown in these pictures.

Being the Filipinos that we are (well, half of Mae-Lae is Filipino anyway), we made a beeline for the avocado sorbet and mango ice cream. While we were tasting, Patricia was talking to us about the ice cream/sorbet--how they are all natural and do not use ice cream bases or syrups, that they contain no artificial coloring or preservatives. An older couple came in while were tasting, and Patricia explained what artisanal French ice cream is -- that it's a designation that you can only use if you meet certain standards (you can find out more about it on the website).

These are all the flavors, as I remembered them, along with some thoughts on them:

Sorbets

• Pear William: We actually didn't taste this until the end of the day, when we came back to buy some pints. It was so full of pear. As Mae-Lae said, you can taste the crunchiness of the pear.
  
• Avocado: This was the first flavor we tried. It was so meaty--like eating the actual avocado, except it's sweet. Filipinos have a dessert where we take the avocado and mix it with ice and condensed milk. This tasted just like that, except this doesn't contain dairy and this contains so much more avocado. Mae-Lae observed that the sorbets were not at all icy, as she expects them to be. And she's right. The sorbets were just as creamy (texturally) as the ice cream.
  
• Lychee (I think it was sorbet): I'm not really big on lychee, so I didn't like this that much. But it did taste like lychee. A bit too sweet for my taste, if you can believe that.
  
• Lemon Basil (I think it was sorbet): We didn't try this. Probably after the strawberry basil, we thought that was enough herbs.
  

Cow's Milk Ice Cream

• Fresh Mint: We didn't try this.
  
• Vietnamese Rice: I actually wasn't sure about this flavor, but Mae-Lae was intrigued by it. This was good. It tastes like sticky rice. Patricia said that that was the idea.
  
• Caramel Fleur de Sel: I'm not a big fan of caramel, so I didn't like this that much. Mae-Lae liked it, though. Patricia mentioned that they make their own caramel.
  
• Mango: This was one of the first flavors we tried. Mango is my favorite fruit, and this did not disappoint. It was so good. It was like biting into an actual mango. Mae-Lae pointed out that the Vietnamese rice and mango ice cream together was like eating sticky rice with mango.
  

Goat's Milk Ice Cream

• Lavender: This was interesting. The first time Mae-Lae and I had some gelato, and we had tried the lavender flavor. She thought that that was like eating potpourri. This was nothing like that. The flavor was actually very mild, probably because the goat's milk is also a stronger base.
  
• Strawberry: This, too, was strawberry-y, but I think the goat's milk also exerted its own flavor, thus making the berry flavor milder.
  
• Dark Chocolate (I think it was goat's milk): This was excellent. Mae-Lae said she doesn't really like dark chocolate (sacrilege!), but she liked this one. I think she was saying she doesn't like it in ice cream because it usually doesn't capture the real chocolate flavor, but she thought this one did.
  
• Something (vanilla?) with Verbena (I think it was goat's milk): We didn't try this.
  

In addition to these flavors, I think we also tried the vanilla. I don't really care for vanilla that much--I think it's too plain. But I think Mae-Lae liked it. Patricia said that she doesn't use vanilla flavoring like other places do.

All in all, the flavors were very good. Then came the hard part of deciding what to get. We saw that there was a sample platter, where you could get 4 flavors. So, we decided to share that. We got: strawberry basil, avocado, mango, & rice.

We ate at the outside table, and we were in heaven. With every bite, we were basically saying how good it was. We already knew we were going to have to get some pints to go. While we were eating, we were already trying to figure out which flavors we should get for the pints.

However, we had some thrift shopping to do first, so we told Patricia we'd come back. And come back we did. There were actually a number of other flavors available for the pints (such as hibiscus, beer (made with San Miguel beer), and mixed berry), but since we hadn't tried it, we weren't sure about getting the pints. Mae-Lae got the Vietnamese rice ice cream and the mango sorbet. (The mango ice cream was the one we tried, but the sorbet was what was available pre-packed. I tried it later at Mae-Lae's house, and it's just as good, but more mango-ey and less creamy (obviously).) I got the avocado sorbet and the mango ice cream, which Patricia had to pack from the display.

I just cannot stop talking about this ice cream. I have been telling everyone about it on Facebook and even texted my sister about it. I will have to take her and her family there sometime soon.

Every time I think about it, my mouth actually starts watering. I had some yesterday and some today, and they both taste just as good. And they're not icy like other ice cream tend to get. I think this might be the best ice cream I've ever had, or at least in recent memory. And I've had a lot of ice cream, both here and around the world. So, so delicious!