Deep in the heart of Camden is the newest funkiest ice cream parlour yet. Their special twist is making ice cream using liquid nitrogen, previously something only seen before by various celebrity chefs. The principle is pretty simple, you use liquid nitrogen which has a boiling point of -196°C to rapidly freeze the ice-cream mixture and you get microcrystalline ice-cream which is super smooth in less than a minute.
The husband, Ahrash Akbari-Kalhur and wife, Nyisha Weber owners are very keen and interested in answering any questions from the naturally inquisitive onlookers (and us). Their objective is to bring high quality ice cream, previously only available at selected restaurants (he cited Heston and Adrian Ferra as examples) to the general public at street prices (£3.95 a scoop including 2 toppings).
I was more interested in the name and Nyisha explained it was from old English where people said "chin chin" instead of "cheers". Anyway they have only three flavours on offer - two of them are constant (Madagascan vanilla and 66% Valrhona chocolate) while the third flavour changes every three days. The rotation on our visit is Alfonso mango with black pepper.
After placing our orders, Ahrash poured the ice-cream mixtures into his Kitchen-Aid mixers.
He then dispensed some liquid nitrogen from the dewar.
Switched on the mixer, poured the liquid nitrogen into the mixing bowl. We couldn't really see anything at this point as everything happened in a cloud of white mist as the liquid nitrogen vapourises.
Tada, nitro-ice cream in seconds!
We then moved on to the next counter for toppings. Liquid sauces first: blueberry, raspberry or caramel; then solid toppings: violet marshmallows, chopped nuts, candies...
We tried the dark chocolate and mango, both of which were very creamy, smooth and light at the same time without any of the iciness sometimes seen in traditional ice creams. The chocolate was of the rich dark type while the mango had lots of mango-ness without the artificial sweetness sometimes seen in mango products.
They also have some cupcakes on sale while adding that they have plans to expand the range by having cocktail flavoured ice cream (sounds like a winner to me!) and ice cream sandwiches (ditto!!).
Chin Chin Laboratorists
49-50 Camden Lock Place
NW1 8AF
London
Official website
The husband, Ahrash Akbari-Kalhur and wife, Nyisha Weber owners are very keen and interested in answering any questions from the naturally inquisitive onlookers (and us). Their objective is to bring high quality ice cream, previously only available at selected restaurants (he cited Heston and Adrian Ferra as examples) to the general public at street prices (£3.95 a scoop including 2 toppings).
I was more interested in the name and Nyisha explained it was from old English where people said "chin chin" instead of "cheers". Anyway they have only three flavours on offer - two of them are constant (Madagascan vanilla and 66% Valrhona chocolate) while the third flavour changes every three days. The rotation on our visit is Alfonso mango with black pepper.
After placing our orders, Ahrash poured the ice-cream mixtures into his Kitchen-Aid mixers.
He then dispensed some liquid nitrogen from the dewar.
Switched on the mixer, poured the liquid nitrogen into the mixing bowl. We couldn't really see anything at this point as everything happened in a cloud of white mist as the liquid nitrogen vapourises.
Tada, nitro-ice cream in seconds!
We then moved on to the next counter for toppings. Liquid sauces first: blueberry, raspberry or caramel; then solid toppings: violet marshmallows, chopped nuts, candies...
We tried the dark chocolate and mango, both of which were very creamy, smooth and light at the same time without any of the iciness sometimes seen in traditional ice creams. The chocolate was of the rich dark type while the mango had lots of mango-ness without the artificial sweetness sometimes seen in mango products.
Chocolate with blueberry sauce and hazelnut
Alfonso mango with black pepper ice-cream with raspberry sauce and chopped pistachio
They also have some cupcakes on sale while adding that they have plans to expand the range by having cocktail flavoured ice cream (sounds like a winner to me!) and ice cream sandwiches (ditto!!).
Chin Chin Laboratorists
49-50 Camden Lock Place
NW1 8AF
London
Official website
Now...maybe I should put this into good use!
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