Kochabi Ice Cream @ Gurney Plaza, Penang.

Sudah potong? I can't agree more that ice cream potong or more commonly known as ice potong is no longer ubiquitous. The traditional hard ice cream bears the half-English, half-Malay name as a result of how it is made. Potong simply can be defined as cut and an ice potong is actually extracted out from a big block of flavoured coloured edible ice by means of cutting before being eventually stuck with a stick. Nowadays, ice potong's are nowhere to be found other than the small, narrow and cold Kochabi Ice Cream kiosk brimming with electric-powered refrigerators which is located at the lower ground floor of Gurney Plaza, opposite of Memory Lane and next to Shihlin. For your information, Kochabi is a Chinese term (古早味) which means the traditional taste of the old times. Established in 2002 and with a modern factory in Simpang Ampat, Kochabi not only has the monopoly on ice potong's but also manufacture natural fruit-flavoured soft ice cream, without any preservative.

Tell you what, i am working for them now, promoting their ice cream at the Gurney Plaza kiosk and that is the minor reason why i am making this review. The major reason is of course i don't have time neither to splurge on mouth-watering food nor feel the romantic restaurant atmosphere. To date, the Kochabi ice potong series contains 10 different flavoured ones: red bean, yam, cempedak, durian, mint, corn, strawberry, green gram, soya bean as well as orange and the best part is the RM1 price tag. Where could you find ice potong easily and with a price of RM1? True to form, the all-time best seller award goes to red bean which is a hearty blend of azuki beans, water, coconut milk etc. Mint is good, green gram is alright and i strongly recommend the aromatic, lip-smacking yummy cempedak flavour. They do sell this traditional stick ice cream in packages such as Personal Pack (RM3 - five shorter, thinner sticks of strawberry, red bean, vanilla, corn and orange flavours), Family Pack (RM8 - a total of 24 cubes of cut ice potong of cempedak, red bean, durian, corn, yam and mint flavours, like the one always given in Chinese wedding dinner) and Multipack (RM10 - 10 sticks of each flavour, including orange). They are having a promotion in which you will get a free soya bean-flavoured ice potong with any purchase of 10 sticks of ice cream. Do take note that orange one only comes with the packages and is not for sale alone.

Soft ice cream wise, they do only have yam, cempedak, durian, corn and vanilla but disappointingly, i have never tried any of them. There are two options, cup (RM2 - bigger scoop of ice cream, mixing of two flavours is allowed) or cone (RM1.50 - smaller scoop of ice cream, no mixing of flavours).

Posted in: Dessert,Gurney Plaza,Malay Cuisine