Ice cream is pleasurable to children and adults alike. We
all prefer to have it melt in our mouths rather than out in the air. In a
hot and humid country like Thailand, ice cream melts so fast it is
impossible to leave it for only a few minutes.
This worry came to an end when a Thai entrepreneur came
up with a new innovation which makes ice cream not melt, even when hot water
is poured over it, as he claimed.
His ice cream recently burst into the awards circle by
winning the first runner up prize at the Rice Innovation Awards 2011, a
competition held for the fifth time in the Thai capital. It is of course the
country’s latest food innovation.
Marut Chalotorn, the rice ice cream innovator at Foodies
Plus, says it not only is un-melted, but also has the special quality of
being able to be shaped as high as 15 inches.
The dessert, with a texture similar to that of a pudding,
is made of Thai Hom Mali fragrant rice (jasmine rice) flour, soybean, milk,
and other usual ice cream ingredients.
As Marut tells it, his adapted ice cream-making process
involves changing ice cream’s ingredients with white rice flour able to hold
its form and dissolve in cold water.
Those who feel like trying out the new ice cream should
‘stay tuned’ as the product will hit markets soon. The price per scoop is
set at Bt29, or about one US dollar.
The rice innovation competition is sponsored annually by
the Thai Rice Foundation and the National Innovation Agency (NIA). Both
public and private sectors join the contest to honor Thai entrepreneurs
coming up with rice innovations in their products and production processes.
Another product winning a similar prize in the
competition’s industrial products category was an instant cream powder made
from rice bran oil produced by the Thai Edible Oil Company.
Designed to appeal to those who favor health foods, the
product has neither saturated fat nor cholesterol-prone trans fat, but has
high gamma oryzanol, which helps reduce cholesterol and contains
anti-oxidant properties.
Sadly, this year’s competition, despite receiving 36
entries, found no winner, for none of the competing products passed every
criterion indicated by the judging committee.
As rice is the staple food of Thailand, having rice
variations is a great way of transforming the commodity into other forms in
order that rice consumers have more options when it comes to grain products.
And now this goody can appeal also those without a special affection for
straightforward plain rice. (MCOT)
