The Last Polka's Ice Cream

Date: 3rd July 2010, Saturday
Venue: The Bee, Jaya One
Occasion: Mini ice-cream tasting party
Halal: No (the ice-cream's pork-free though)
This is ONE post of this season where it's gonna be blogged on the day where I actually tasted the ice-cream! The ice-cream's HOME-MADE...you've gotta try it out - no kidding!

I love ice-cream...my friends at MSTB know this full well. When we first had 2 weeks of training at 2 hotels in KL, I had to have at least a scoop of ice-cream after every lunch...hahaha...I don't care if it's good ice-cream or not at that time! It's certainly of no comparison when it comes to the home-made French-style yet ala-Malaysian flavours ice-cream by The Last Polka team :)

I first read about their ice-cream through Meena's blog. I haven't tried their ice-cream before, so I thought I'll give their product a try. I wrote in to tell May & Ee-Vee, two lovely & friendly young ladies who make the ice-cream together & co-own the business, to request for invitation should they have any ice-cream tasting session at any time :) Good stuff - no doubts. Perfection is their goal.

The ladies are currently serving their orders through their website. At present, there are several pickup points i.e. Damansara Jaya, Subang Jaya, & , but you can find out more from May/Ee-Vee on their pickup points by emailing them :) A tub of 500ml costs only RM23.00 (for a tub of good stuff, it's worth the price paid!). You can also get the ice-cream per scoop at The Bee at Jaya One - it's RM6.50/scoop :)

The only person whom I know at the party (met previously) was Rebecca Saw a.k.a. The Nomad Gourmand & it was some good time of catch up :) 'Nuff said, here's what we got to try today at The Bee's, where they held their mini ice-cream tasting party.

Note: We weren't here to review the ice-cream, but just to try/taste it. So this post isn't written for the purpose of reviewing the ice-cream, but to just share my personal opinions & thoughts of my experience.

Flavours currently available to the public:

Mango
I know this doesn't look very appetizing...I was a 'lil too eager to taste it, thus I only remembered about taking a photo of this ice-cream after my 2nd scoop...hahahaha....lovely flavour. It's creamy, rich in mango flavour (it's real, not those essence or flavouring kinda taste!), & just nice in sweetness. My ah kor will surely love this!

Green Tea
We felt that the green tea would be better with more green tea itself. At present, the taste of green tea isn't strong enough to make you ask for more. It's no doubt better than most green tea ice-creams available in the market, but with more green tea, the ice-cream would go perfect with a Japanese meal :)
Black Sesame
The black sesame ice-cream had grains of black sesame in it, which would appeal to sesame seed lovers! I prefer my black sesame ice-cream to be smooth & fragrant (Somehow I still prefer the black sesame ice-cream I had at PJ Hilton!)
Malt & Peanut Butter
I have a rather strange habit of smelling my food before I taste it. Unfortunately, you can't really smell the peanut, plus, at first bite, you won't instantly say that "this is peanut butter ice cream" either! It's just "too creamy"! We found out later that this ain't the 'virgin peanut butter ice-cream'...rather, it's accompanied by malt! Mm...tickled me taste bud! Me likey...

White Coffee
"Kopi putih Ipoh satu....!" Yes, just as a small scoop of this ice-cream entered my mouth & touched my tongue, I was transported back to Ipoh Garden, where I had one of the best Ipoh White Coffee ever. That was an experience I had TWO YEARS ago, but oh, this white coffee ice-cream is a "time transporter"! It's so rich & packed with the goodness of coffee that the after-taste of coffee just lingers in your mouth for the "grand finale satisfaction". Lyd, Hans, Aaron, Fungi, James, Abi, aunty Anne, aunty Helen K...you've gotta try this!! Like what Kim (I just met her today) said, "You've gotta try their white coffee ice-cream! It's to die for!" Rock on!

Horlicks (the cup on the left...I forgot to take a close-up photo of it)
This ice-cream is another "time transporter"...I was reminded of the time where my dad just loved making us Horlicks "kao", I think everyday! I used to enjoy sucking on the Horlicks Malties sweets, & this ice-cream was a reminder of my childhood. Not bad, May & Ee-Vee! ;)

Flavours that the ladies are experimenting on & may put it up for orders soon:

Guiness (the cup on the right)
"Yei-yei (grandpa), you'll love this!! You don't even need to walk out to the coffeeshop to get your dose of Guiness Stout!"
If my grandpa is still here, I'm sure he would subscribe to a weekly tub of this ice-cream! How can I explain my experience to you? Erm...it's just Guiness Stout in ice-cream form - NOT Guiness-flavoured ice-cream! There's a BIIIIGG difference there, you know....I'm looking forward to the day where The Last Polka introduces their brandy, XO, rum & raisins, red wine...or any alcoholic ice-creams to the market! :D (nope, I don't fancy alcohol itself, but ice-cream's an exception!!)

Bacon
To those who hear this for the 1st time, their 1st reaction will surely be "Eeeeeuw....how can anyone mix something sweet with something salty & call it good??" Hah! The Last Polka will prove you wrong! I was actually rather excited to try this variant out; mainly because I've never heard of such a thing in the market!

Check it out!
What do you see? Yesh! Bacon bits!! *lip-smacking* I actually enjoyed this ice-cream :D It's a creamy vanilla (top) + fragrant cappuccino (bottom) base ice-cream with added beef bacon bits & bits of black pepper at the top of the vanilla ice-cream. Perhaps it's an acquired taste, but don't rule this unique ice-cream out before trying it once! I would love to buy 1 tub of this ice-cream & share it with my family & friends! It's an experience that you'll never get it anywhere else in Malaysia for now ;) (I can't say the same about the world though...haha)

Teh Tarik
"Ma chak, teh tarik satu...!" - yet another "transporter" ice-cream...this one brought me to a mamak stall/restaurant with really authentic teh tarik. You can really taste the tea and milk, harmoniously in the ice-cream! Oh, I think my parents will love this :D

Nutella (the cup on the left)
I love Nutella, so this ice-cream is something I would go for. However, on first bite, it doesn't remind me instantly that it's Nutella. Instead, the words that come to my mind are "rich/double chocolate" & "macadamia nuts" - 2 separate phrases/words - not the 1 word "Nutella". I guess it's because of the creaminess of the ice-cream, thus the prominent taste of Nutella got slightly covered up. May & Ee-Vee were actually rather concerned when they had to keep adding Nutella into their ice-cream to ensure that their customers really taste the Nutella in the ice-cream itself! *applause* Great effort, ladies! I still love this ice-cream no less! :)

Bandung Limau
This ice-cream is a "prototype/experimental" ice-cream. It's not perfected yet & according to The Last Polka co-owners, they added a bit too much of lime into the ice-cream, resulting to a more sorbet-ish ice-cream taste rather than the authentic bandung ais kinda taste (where you get from the mamak stalls). More attempts & I'm sure you both will succeed! :D

Wanna find out more about The Last Polka? Here are some juicy info for you :)
Co-owners: May & Ee-Vee
Website: http://thelastpolka.com/
Email: icecream@thelastpolka.com
Size: 500ml tub only
Price per tub: RM23.00


Ratings:
Presentation: * * * *
Price: * * *
Taste: * * * *
Service: * * * *


Overall:

**********
Rebecca & I also had the opportunity to try out the burgers at The Bee. We were told that The Bee's burgers are pretty good, so here's a short review on the burgers:

Note: We waited for quite some time before our food was served. I was rather surprise that the kitchen wasn't ready for breakfast/lunch even though it was already 12pm! *wergh*

Avocado Chicken Burger (RM16.50/serving with fries)
At first glance, the burger looks pretty good, especially when we were very hungry already. The big HOWEVER took place when we started cutting into the burger - *gasps* The chicken patty was either 1. over-cooked 'til dry OR 2. re-cooked (quite obvious that it's this probability). It was rather shocking. How could a burger patty go wrong??? It's just supposed to be ground meat or something like the McD's Spicy Chicken McDeluxe...the inside of the patty was dry & slightly "shred-able" already :S Eee....we definitely weren't satisfied & complained about it, no doubt. It's customer service man...Meena, who had the burgers after us said that they were not too bad...she said it must be because we complained that their burgers turned out alright after that *sigh*

The Bee Burger (RM18.50/serving with fries)
If you think that the chicken burger was bad, wait 'til you try my BEEf burger. "Macam burger gula-gula getah masin berperisa kerbau, tau??"

I was telling Rebecca how the burger tastes like...as usual, I described to her in "Ruth's Idioms" - "It's like eating "savoury chewing gum!" - you chew, chew, chew, then remove it from your mouth to discard =.="

It's not pure grounded beef, which to me is supposed to be moist, meaty, & CHEWABLE & SWALLOW-able, but wergh...there were too much veins/tendons in the patty that I can't swallow the meat :( I'm sad & not satisfied :( (I don't know why I was SO kind to not complain directly to the manager this time around, as I did at another restaurant). The beef bacon didn't help either. It was also a "savoury chewing gum", where I could just chew out the taste of the bacon 'til it goes tasteless, then remove it from my mouth & put in another piece of it. Oh, it was such a strenuous jaw-exercise for lunch...

Dry = Cry

The Bee
K-2A-G, Block K
Jaya One
No. 72A, Jalan Universiti
46200 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan.
Tel: (+603) 7960 2160
Website: www.thebee.com.my


*sigh* It's just my experience. Some people won't agree with me 'cause their burgers were alright (and I respect their opinions). Rebecca is a die-hard fan of burgers. With such an experience of the burgers here, the 1st impression is sure to stay...at least for a while...hahaha...

Should we tolerate the "it's just the chef's bad day" kinda food?

We're paying the same price, whether or not it's a good/bad day for the chefs...think about it & drop me a comment on your thoughts. I would love to hear from you ;)


The RUTHLESS Eater
- Ruth