Frank Timmons’ Blog

Like most Thai neighborhoods, our neighborhood has a number of vendors who make daily or weekly rounds selling various goods. We are visited every morning by a lady who delivers drinking yoghurt, and also a drinks vendor who sells various hot and cold beverages including coffee, hot chocolate, and a selection of flavored drinks.

This afternoon the kids and I decided to have some Thai Ice Cream. The day had been a hot one, as are most days here in Tropical Thailand. The Ice Cream Man drives a modest motorbike with a side car upon which is the stainless steel ice cream tank. The tank is a double walled tank, with ice in the outside chamber to keep the ice cream cold. The motorbike has a large beach umbrella to keep the sun off of both the vendor and his valuable ice cream.

Typical homemade Thai Ice Cream is a bit different from store bought varieties. I am certainly no expert on Ice Cream, but I find the homemade variety to be richer with a less sticky feeling in the mouth. I believe both the Coconut and the Chocolate flavors are made with coconut milk. The chocolate has a very light chocolate flavor and is quite good, though I personally prefer the coconut flavor.

The kids and I typically have our Ice Cream served in plastic cups. In typical Thai fashion, some sticky rice is put into the bottom of the cup, then scoops of Ice Cream are added. The ice cream is then topped with some small kernal dried corn and some condensed milk. This is a very refreshing way to cool down on a hot Thailand afternoon. Each cup of Ice Cream costs 10 baht.

A few days ago the kids and I were swimming at the neighborhood pool when I saw the Ice Cream Man drive by. He stopped just outside the pool fence and dismounted his bike. Turns out that he had driven over a screw which had punctured his very well worn rear tire. He took over my life guard duties for a few minutes while I walked home to get a tire pump from the house. Unfortunately, the tube refused to hold any air, so he had ride on the flat tire to the motorbike shop. Fortunately the bike shop is just a few dozen meters up the road from our village, so the wheel and tire survived quite well. Today the Ice Cream guy told me that the new tube cost him 130 baht (around $5 US), which is a significant expense for an independant businessman such as himself. The bike still had the same well worn tire, which I am sure will give many more weeks (or months) of service, given the perpetual slow speed at which our Ice Cream Man makes his daily rounds.

Thank You Mr. Ice Cream Man for your delicious and refreshing Ice Cream. Hope your daily rounds continue to be profitable and safe.

Frank T.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 12th, 2007 at 6:38 pm and is filed under Thailand, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.