Special edition ice cream: Selecta Shoyu Caramel

I was buying some ice cream the other week and was browsing the available flavors at a convenience store. I spotted this limited edition flavor from Selecta (Wall's in other countries). It's a Japanese themed flavor that practically hints at a form of salted caramel. The salt being substituted by shoyu or soy sauce, which is a common ingredient in Japanese cooking or used as a dip for food like sashimi or sushi.

Selecta's limited edition Shoyu Caramel

The featured ingredients are caramel, shoyu and cashews. The base ice cream is vanilla.

The ice cream was okay. It is basically salted caramel. There was a hint of shoyu but it was not strong. I'm not sure what the maker's objective was when they made this and decided on the name. Perhaps more on the novelty side? 

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Mangoes galore!

Our mango tree yields a good number of mangoes every year. However, we noticed that we have an especially high yield and larger fruits around every other year. Sometimes, it took 2 years before a good yield. The best yield and harvest since we moved to our upper Antipolo home was in 2020 during the pandemic. We had fairly good yields the last two years so this year we expected to be an average harvest. The fruits this year were not as big as the previous years' but there were a lot that survived since the flowering days in March. Fortunately, the fruits grew before the late March rains that usually destroyed flowers. 

Part of this year's harvest from our tree

Our dog Boots usually sits near the pile as if guarding it from the cats and other animals roaming our garden at night.

Here's Boots again beside the mangoes we were sorting to give away to family and friends.

The skin was still green but they are ripening rapidly.

More mangoes to give away

Selected mangoes for our consumption were placed near the dining area

We suddenly had mangoes dominating the fruit table. We usually have bananas and citrus on this table.

More on mangoes in the next post! 

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Kuro Ramen at Ippudo

Last weekend, we had lunch at Ippudo to satisfy our ramen craving. We usually have our ramen at Ramen Nagi and occasionally Ippudo, Hokkaido Ramen, and Ramen Kuroda, in that order as their branches are most accessible to us. Our daughter also loves ramen so its not difficult to decide to have ramen for lunch or dinner.

Ippudo's Kuro Ramen 

The ramen was really good and I wouldn't mind having this regularly for the richness of the taste including the torched chashu. I still think Ramen Nagi's tamago is better though so if Ippudo can match that then this ramen will be close to perfection for me. I thought though that the taste may not be for everyone especially those who like the lighter ramen in terms of broth and ingredients. Baka nakaka-umay for others. Perhaps it's still better to have different ramen from time to time while remembering the "go to" or favorites from each ramen shop/restaurant.

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