When it comes to ice-cream as Thai dessert, it is unlikely for eateries in Bangkok to think beyond typical sweet scoops of coconut cream served with familiar toppings like roasted peanut, tubtim krop (water chestnut treat) or lod chong (worm-liked green rice flour jelly). Now, the new café in Ari is now creating a buzz by coming up with creative and delicious form of frozen delights that intelligently infuses Thai elements like nothing you’ve seen before.
With the old-fashioned name that may sound rather like a grandma’s favorite eating spot, Onedee Café has the visual that looks non-different from other coffee spots dotting the hip Ari neighborhood. But it’s here you’ll find the frozen scoops unlike any other. You can enjoy the ice-cream as in parfaits that replicate Thai delicacies like khao niao na khung — the savory sweet dessert featuring salty-and-creamy moon sticky rice and shredded shrimp topping — in the form of salty-sweet coconut cream ice-cream that balances amazingly with two other accompanying elements (B99). There’s also a frozen delight inspired from the popular teh tarik, the Malay milk tea known in Thai as cha chuk, coming with a scoop of subtly-sweet milk tea, crispy mataba and a dash of Taiwanese touch from tapioca pearls (B99).
Our favorite, however, is the ice-cream version of khanom tarn, the cake-liked dessert whose bold flavor and color are benefitted from palm fruit. Here, the ice-cream version surprisingly boasts the mixture of sweet, salty and creamy notes, uncannily identical to the original version, and served alongside khanom tarn itself. Wicked!
Apart from the ice-creams, the café also serves espresso-based coffee with typical selections as well as more adventurous choices like palm sugar macchiato coffee (B85 for hot/B95 for iced) with a touch of caramelized palm sugar.
With the execution we have hardly seen before in local ice-cream parlors and with even more surprising flavors in the pipeline, we can’t help pinning this humble spot as one of the most exciting café opening this year.
