Creative, easy food trends have emerged for those that want to venture out and try different flavors without having to dive deep into a recipe. Most people experimented with Dalgona Coffee in early 2020, during the start of lockdowns in America. The newest food trend of 2021 is something you probably would’ve never considered to be an American trend: vanilla ice cream with hot chili oil. If you are one that isn’t intimidated to try new flavors, indulge in this sweet, spicy, and crunchy treat that combines the flavors of your comfortable vanilla ice cream with Chinese Szechuan Hot Chili Oil.
The most commonly popular pair for this is Lao Gan Ma’s spicy chili crisp and McDonald’s vanilla soft serve cone. However, we all know how often McDonald’s ice cream machine is “down.” So, I used just a store-brand vanilla ice cream, and it was just as good. The Lao Gan Ma brand is an icon in the Asian community, selling the spicy chili crisp that has deemed to be the best pairing for this food trend. It sits at around $7 on Amazon. However, if there is an international market near you, it may be a dollar to two cheaper as compared to Amazon. This condiment does contain peanuts, though, which adds to the crispiness.
This condiment is typically used in rice dishes, for proteins, or in soups to add spice to practically anything. The oil doesn’t have much of its own flavor though, it basically is just to add spiciness to whatever you’d like. So, with vanilla ice cream, the crisps add only crunch to the smooth and just a slight kick at the end of your bite. When you go in for your next bite, the spice goes away momentarily because of the ice cream, and the slight heat comes back again. It is one of the perfect toppings for those that love contrasting flavors and textures: sweet to spicy, soft to crunchy.
The next time you’re wanting to try something new, experiment with this delectable, easy dish! It’s inexpensive, and you can even try the hot oil with other dishes that you would like to eat spicy without having the flavors of hot sauce alter it. If you find that you dislike it, at least you’ll have a tub of ice cream you can cozy up with, and some hot oil that virtually never expires if it’s refrigerated.
-hcxo