Bite Of The Day: Homemade Ice Cream At Purple Yam

Anna Gustafson -

With no air conditioning in our apartment and the humidity deciding it needed to really step up its game yesterday, we set our sights on something very cold last night: ice cream at Purple Yam (1314 Cortelyou Road, between Rugby and Argyle Roads).

Chef Romy Dorotan makes his own ice cream and is super creative with his talents, whipping up everything from scoops of tsokolate (Filipino hot chocolate) to Champoy ice cream — both of which Purple Yam recently posted on its Facebook page, making us immediately drool.

The Champoy ice cream. Photo via Purple Yam
The caramelized turon with tsokolate ice cream. Photo via Purple Yam

Chef Romy has a wide variety of homemade ice creams and sorbets, ranging from purple yam and avocado to coffee and vanilla bean ($3 a scoop). His sorbets include guava, coconut, raspberry, mango, and passionfruit (also $3 a scoop).

And while all of those are delicious, we definitely encourage you to check out his specials as well; last night we tried the restaurant’s entirely new endeavor — blue cheese, mascarpone and corn ($4) — and a favorite they’ve made before, the chocolate with sour cherry ($4). The conclusion? Delicious.

The blue cheese, corn and mascarpone ice cream.

Our waiter called the blue cheese and corn dish “unique” — and it certainly was, but not in a euphemism for bad sort of way. The cheese and the corn — a combination I never would have dreamed of in ice cream — perfectly complemented each other and the mascarpone made everything blend well and softened the edginess of the blue cheese. Plus, Chef Romy told us the corn came from the Cortelyou Greenmarket, which is awesome.

The chocolate and sour cherry ice cream.

While the blue cheese and corn is definitely worth trying, the chocolate and sour cherry was my favorite. The chocolate tasted dark, almost like a mousse, and the cherries were the perfect accompaniment, giving it a light boost of flavor that didn’t overpower the chocolate.

Have you tried Chef Romy’s ice cream lately? What would you recommend?

Purple Yam is located at 1314 Cortelyou Road, between Rugby and Argyle Roads. It is open for dinner from 5:30-10:30pm Monday through Sunday and serves brunch on Saturday and Sunday from 11am-3:30pm. For more information, you can visit its website and Facebook page.