Anthony N.
Yelp
Growing up is hard and awkward enough, but you have no idea how much it sucks growing up as an Asian or Hispanic kid unless you lived it.
Especially a first generation Asian, because your parents are straight up Fobs and they're your parents so you can't do anything about it.
You get stuck eating weird Asian foods your parents got from China town or Wet-Min-Tuh (Westminster) when all the kids have Lunchables and chips like Pringles. They get PB&J sandwiches and I get Banh Mi with weird ingredients like that pork sausage gio and smears of chicken pate in it. My lunch bag was always a grocery bag that smelled like fish sauce, while everyone had cool Power Rangers or Mutant Ninja Turtles lunchboxes.
When you ran outta glue at home, your parents wouldn't do the rational things a normal average white American parent would do like run to the nearest Staples or Office Depot, No, No! Don't be silly! All they did was go to the kitchen and get a bowl of rice and show you how smearing it on the paper and attaching it together was just as good as glue, if not better because it dried super fast and was free!
When Broadway (if you remember, which I'm sure you guys do) had a sale, my mother would buy all sizes and tell us we'd grow into them. They'd stay in her closet for years, I was never allowed to wear them til some unforeseen special event came along and only then were they dragged out. All I wanted was normal Levi's and Adidas gear where they weren't spelled Adios or Leves. All i wanted was a tomadachi like my friends had and all I ever got were cheap knock offs from Chinatown that broke in like a week.
I truly believe my interesting childhood is what made me who I am. I don't think I would have quite the same personality and experiences if I didn't, so I learn to appreciate such things.
Somehow this place brings me back to my wildly entertaining childhood. The man reminds me of my mother, smiling, bright, and effervescent. Selling his knock off wears of ice cream, with interesting flavors just as Tara's, Ici's, or Humphry's. However, taste-wise, it is like an LA Gear knock off. Vaguely reminiscent, but just not the same.
Sure there are interesting flavors like Cheese, Jackfruit, Corn, mango, tamarindo, Cinnamon, Garlic, and Rose Petal. But the just didn't measure up in taste, texture, consistency, and flavors.
The consistency of the ice cream was slightly icy and chunky (might have been the cheese), while others were smooth and creamy. Some of the flavors felt overworked and not perfected, the cinnamon ice cream was like when you first use cinnamon, you think you want a lot because you like the smell of it, until you realize that its only good in combination with sugar. There was just too much cinnamon and tasted almost chalky. The coffee ice cream was creamy and smooth, but the flavor just felt monotonous and lackluster. The cheese was okay but kinda chunky and icy, I got it because the proprietor sounded really proud of it and I didn't want to hurt his feelings since he reminded me of my mom. The jackfruit was hard to decipher what it tasted like, but not like any jackfruit I've ever had.
I really wanted to like it, the owner was so sweet and friendly I truly wanted to give them a good star rating. He reminded me of my mother, and I didn't want to hurt his feelings. At least the ice cream was cheap at $1.25 a scoop, and $2 for a scoop in a cone. Maybe I'll come back and visit, I saw a Churro cart outside the Fruitvale Public Market that was frying up delicious smelling fruit stuffed churros!
