After I'd been in Taiwan for about half a year or so, a friend took me to have the then best ice cream in Taipei. On our walk to the place, we passed by two or three really upscale ice cream places and each one I would ask "is this it?" and the answer was always "nope."
Eventually we got to the place, but instead of being an ice cream shop, it was just a normal store, with a soft serve machine in it. I scoffed, but it actually tasted good, and after eventually tasting those more "gourmet" places, that this actually was the best ice cream in Taipei.
The store itself is I-Mei, which is a Taiwanese store that sells various packaged cakes, sweets, and frozen foods. I actually mentioned them a few months back when talking about how I used to enjoy their yogurt covered raisins. They have a tiny few stores around the city, but mostly you can buy their things at any supermarket, for actually cheaper than you can get at their own store.
Meaning the real draw of their stores is the ice cream. I often recall the dance I did with the one near an old job, where if i wanted vanilla, than that day they only had chocolate, and vice versa. Well recently one opened up in my neighborhood and I was excited to have some ice cream again. But of course now, it's terrible.
I couldn't put my finger on it until I went to the supermarket and started looking at all the various Taiwanese brands of ice cream. For each brand I looked at their ingredients and for each one it said "milk powder" instead of "milk." Eureka! That was it. This is why all Taiwanese ice cream brands are horrible, it's because they are made with creamer instead of milk. It's why their ice cream tastes like whipped cream. And unfortunately it seems like I-Mei's ice cream no longer uses milk. Sigh.
