Life is sweet…

I got a notification from wordpress yesterday, wishing me a Happy Anniversary! Oh? The day went past without my noticing it, 7th March (it was the 7th in the US yesterday) which means that I’ve been doing this for 8 years now, beginning in 2008 and still going strong, I guess – coming up to 3,000 posts and almost 2 million views, with over 360,000 visitors and a current total of over 80,000 comments. Not bad, eh, this old guy? Wink! Wink!

Well, coincidentally, we dropped by this place…

Nica gelateria, Sibu 1

…in town so perhaps I can consider that to be a mini-celebration of sorts. This is not exactly new and by now, many would have dropped by here already – it had its soft opening quite sometime ago before Chinese New Year.

All this while, I had never had the chance to go and check it though but on Monday, I had to drive all the way to get my girl from her school as she is having something on here in Sibu – yesterday and today. She was supposed to follow a colleague back, one who commutes daily as his family is in Sibu but he took the day off because the kid was down with fever. When we came back to town, I asked my girl if she would like some gelato and she did!

So there we were…

Nica gelateria, Sibu 2

…my first time here. This is actually an extension of or a spin-off from this place that I do like and frequent quite a lot. Obviously, they have been doing so well that they have decided to set up a new place specialising in macarons…

Macarons

…mille crepes…

Mille crepes

…cakes and coffee…

Coffee

…and of course, gelato…

Gelato

My girl did stop by a couple of weeks ago and she bought three scoops home – the salted caramel, cream cheese and pistachio and yes, we did enjoy all of them very much, a lot more than the ones we had here sometime ago.

This time around, I chose the Volcano Gelato (RM19.80)…

Volcano Gelato

…3 scoops and I picked the cream cheese, banana and salted caramel.

My girl went and poured the chocolate in long thin lines on the gelato…

Chocolate

…and it hardened instantly…

Hard

…upon contact with the cold. Hmmmmm…interesting!

For one thing, the way it was served, one would need to eat the two scoops on top first before one will be able to get to the scoop at the bottom and for another, I do think they would need to look into their quality control – we loved the salted caramel before but this time around, we found it a tad too salty and there was only a slight hint of the caramel taste. The cream cheese was nice and I loved the banana!

My girl has the double scoop Brussel waffle (RM17.80)…

Double scoop Brussel waffle

…and she opted for her favourites – the cream cheese and the salted caramel but of course, the latter was a disappointment that day…and we did not like the waffle either. I did hear word going round that the waffles here were not nice and a friend mentioned on Facebook that theirs are not the regular ones that we know and love. He said that theirs are “yeasted waffles”, whatever those are and when he had it, the smell of yeast was so very strong that he did not enjoy it at all. Well, it was not strong on the yeast when we had it but it was salty and not anything we would want to have again.

My missus had the clown gelato (RM15.80)…

Clown gelato

…and she loved the mango flavour that she picked.

Actually, you can sample all the flavours available…

Tonda

…before deciding on what you want. They are kept in this display freezer called the tonda (I understand there are only 2 in the country, one in KL and the other one here so that means it is the only one in East Malaysia) at a specific temperature…

Digital thermometer

…and they will let you try each of them on those little plastic spoons like at those ice cream places. I actually liked the teh tarek (the brown one) but they were running out of that at the time so I did not order it…while the peanut butter made me think of me poking my finger into the bottle and taking out some to eat just like that. They do not have this for the proper freezing process required at the old place so that was why the gelato I had there was served hard and I had to wait a bit before I could eat and enjoy it.

I noticed an interesting phenomenon while I was taking a photograph of the digital thermometer. The digits kept running and changing and when I looked at the real thing, the figures were, in fact, constant. I asked the guy and he did not know about this – he even tried with his smartphone camera and yes, that same thing happened too! Actually, it was negative something, – 14 or somewhere around there. If I am not wrong, they did say that ideally, it should be kept constantly at -12.

I did order their coffee, the long black, cold (RM7.90) and I thought it was good but no, we did not order any of the lattes or whatever. Iced water was on the house and yes, they do charge the 6% GST here…unfortunately.

Well, if you are wondering what the differences between gelato and ice cream are – no, they are not the same, you can take a look at this chart here…

Gelato facts

…that I got from their Facebook page. Well, others may want to differ but I would prefer it with macaron, the way I had it once at the old place…

Author: suituapui

Ancient relic but very young at heart. Enjoys food and cooking...and travelling and being with friends.

31 thoughts on “Life is sweet…”

  1. Happy 7th blog anniversary mate! 🙂

    That’s a long time to be blogging with one post up every day. Great work!

    I personally like both gelato and ice cream for the reasons listed, ice cream is “better” for purists since the higher butterfat means it’s creamier. Hokkaido ice cream is superb for this reason. Some people also enjoy the soft serve texture that comes from putting more air bubbles inside.

    However, gelato is good too, it’s just “harder” and healthier so that’s why it took off more than 10 years ago. It was all the hippies in Australia who were raving about the lower butterfat gelato which still tastes good in Little Italy in Melbourne so I went and tried it. It was okay but just like milk I often find myself going for the highest butterfat ones.

    No skim, low fat or 1% milk for me. I won’t even take 2% milk. It’s only 3.5% full fat for me, they have a lot of 3.8% and 3.9% milkfat ones here too which is amazing.

    Thanks. It was the 8th though, on the 7th of March.

    Yes, some people like it creamier/fatter – I think I am one of them too…and I love soft serve ice cream as well. Gelato shouldn’t be hard though if they freeze it right – that was why when I had it at the old place, it was hard. They did not have the right equipment there. Here, it is fine…can dig in as soon as it is served.

    1. Oh, I meant it’s harder in comparison to soft serve ice cream.

      You’ll love ice cream more then. Me too. Gelato is ALWAYS less creamy than ice cream coz the butterfat content is lower. I have heard a lot of people say to me that they prefer gelato coz it’s creamier and that doesn’t make sense at all.

      I think a lot of them are just used to eating local “ice cream” (which has a lot of vegetable oil and palm oil and no real butterfat coz the last is expensive) so they don’t have a proper benchmark.

      Ice cream should always be A LOT creamier than gelato, but gelato is “healthier” coz it has less cream but consequently has less butterfat. They’re both good though. I just prefer ice cream usually unless the weather is hot like summer in Italy and then a less creamy iced confectionery like gelato would go down easier since it’s more thirst quenching.

      Anything that is healthier is not so nice. Hehehehehe!!!! It depends on the brand – I am not all that fond of the very expensive branded ice cream but I had some really nice extra creamy ones in NZ, I would go for those instead of gelato, that’s for sure and at those prices, it will be a long time before I drop by again. It’s nice but no, it’s not so nice that I would keep running back for more, far from it.

  2. Happy blog anniversary, STP! Never fail to write and post every day. Keep up the impressive work.

    Gelato! I love it more actually. It is healthy and creamier than ice cream but then again, it is individual preference.

    Ooohh. The smart phone camera playing trick with the thermometer? Interesting.

    Thank you.

    Yes, I was trying to catch the negative reading but all the photos turned out positive. I wonder why that happened.

    Indeed, individual preference. Like chocolates and cakes, I love them rich and creamy but not too sweet…never mind the calories. Hehehehehe!!!!

  3. Congrats on your 8th blog anniversary. Great work & keep going. Who say old people are good for nothing, eh?….and sure this proves them wrong. Am sweet tooth person & surely I like them all but for my age, I need to control & cut down on sweet thing. Personally, I prefer ice cream to gelato, mille crepes to macarons & cakes.

    Thanks, I’m like fine wine…getting better with age, eh? Hehehehehe!!!!! 😉

    Same here, must control the sugar intake, anybody at my age. For one thing, ice cream is a whole lot cheaper – even though some will insist it is not as nice, not as healthy and all, the difference in the enjoyment derived is minimal and one will not feel the pinch…unless one goes for the branded ones.

  4. Happy anniversary to your blog 😛 I’ve never tried macarons, I’ve seen LOTS of them, but belum try beli lagi.. First, I heard they’re really expensive.. Second, I heard they’re really sweet.. I know they’re made of egg whites though.. Looks simple but very hard to make.. Even chefs from Food Network failed baking macaroons !

    Thank you.

    There are some not so sweet ones but best to share, just buy one and a few can enjoy at the same time. I would not say it is anything sensational, the ones I had, but it is nice.

  5. I’d like to try this out, they seem to have interesting flavors. I started blogging in 2008 too, time flies T.T

    You did? Gee!!! But you’re not as old as I am, at least. Started young. Hehehehehe!!!!! You’ll have to hop over one fine day if you want to try the ones here. 😉

  6. Happy 8th Anniversary!!! I will love those cakes…

    Thanks. Come, come…you can eat all you want, so cheap…in your currency.

  7. what a colourful signage, NICA very eye catching indeed..

    ice creams to celebrate your blog’s anniversary eh? 🙂 congratulations for being so passionate in blogging for 8 years straight! keep it up!

    Thank you. Yes, nice colours, the sign – the place is nice too, so clinically white.

  8. Congratulations. What a great achievement!
    When my kids were little, we used to buy this chocolate thing called “Ice Magic” which will harden when dripped on ice-cream. Haven’t had that for years, but should still be available in the supermarket.

    Thank you. Started soon after I retired so I have all the time in the world to keep this going.

    Have not seen anything like this – that was why I found it interesting. 😀

  9. heheh, you’re about 10 months older than me, in terms of blog birthdays 😀 yay, i love ice cream and gelato … i could definitely run rampant here and gobble up a lot of scoops … salted caramel and pistachio sound like good flavours 😀

    Greek yogurt was good too. On the whole, all good, some better than the others – only the peanut butter…tasted like peanut butter, straight from the bottle.

  10. Life is indeed sweet!! I love this post! hahahaha.. You left me salivating.. thank Goodness I have a tub of London ice cream in my fridge! I must go and scoop up a double now!! Notice that you ordered the most expensive one… well, seems this retiree is not so “poor” after all…. hmmmm…..

    I thought I would try three at one go and there is no need to go again for a long long time – old retiree cannot go often unless got people belanja. Plus I would not say that it swept me off my feet – jangan tak cuba, at least I have tried and know what it is like so people cannot say I am so jakun. Yes, I saw your ice cream on Facebook – this is gelato. See the chart, not the same wor…so when are you coming to Sibu? I’ll take you here to try…and then you can belanja me! 😉 😉

    Seems that one can just order by the scoops, single, double, triple…no need for all the frills – I did not know at first. Dunno the prices though, did not check but I guess it would be cheaper that way.

  11. Well, Happy 8th Blogging Anniversary! Gelato or ice cream, I will eat happily hee..hee…

    Thank you. I bet you will love it here then, seventh heaven.

  12. Wah, their desserts look very yummy la! I am a very big fan for desserts like this, hehe!

    You would love this place then. More for the young, I think…and trendy. 😉

  13. wow…wow…wow… that’s a place for sweet tooth ! Looks at the desserts and ice-cream!! And, crepes and macarons too. Oh …if I bring my kids there, they will be super delighted!
    And, congrats on your blog’s anniversary!! Keep on blogging, food mayor of Sibu!

    Thank you.

    Yes, great place for kids and those with a sweet tooth. Personally, I am more into things savoury…and local, old man mah. I love the deep fried kompia with filling at their old place.

  14. That is so nice. I never get notified of my blog’s anniversary since I started blogging in 2008 😦

    I’ve keyed it into my handphone anyway, I get a reminder every year.

All opinions expressed in my blog are solely my own, that is my prerogative - you may or may not agree, that is yours. To each his/her own. For food and other reviews, you may email me at sibutuapui@yahoo.com

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