ROAAAAD TRRRIIIIIP!!!!

Ice cream shops seem to be sprouting up all over Melbourne at the moment. Lygon St is starting to resemble a strip mall of Italian style Gelataria's while a certain bouncy sounding chain of ice creameries featuring youthful staff wearing t-shirts emblazoned with double entendres is spreading across the city like a virus. Sure, sure, these places can make a decent ice cream cone, but none of them exactly blow me away in the flavour originality department. Surely there's someone out there who's not afraid to take a few risks, think outside the ice cream container and try something totally out there?

Well there just might be. Some time ago I read about this fellow by the name of Jock, who runs an ice cream shop on Victoria Avenue in Albert Park. I've been wanting to sample his work for a while, ever since I heard that he has created a Black Sticky Rice flavour. Woah! Originality like that puts my crappy little chaicecream experiments to shame!

So, on a grey and windy saturday afternoon, my friend Kat and I made the long trek across the river to visit this famed shop. One entire wall of the store is deveoted to awards received at the Royal Melbourne Show. Interestingly enough, multiple flavours seem to have won exactly the same prize in exactly the same category in exactly the same year. Suspicious, but in any case, paper certificates don't mean much, cos when it comes to ice cream, the proof is, quite literally, in the pudding.

I had:
Black Sticky Rice - A rich custardy affair with chewy black rice grains scattered throughout.
Cinnamon - Deliciously sweet 'n' spicy.

Date - This was good, but incredibly rich - perhaps a little too much, especially in combination with my other flavour choices.

Kat had:
Black Sticky Rice
Lemon Cream - Sweet, creamy, citrussy joy. We both agreed this was the pick of the bunch.
Coconut and Lime - I tried to make this not long ago and it turned out quite well. Jock's is much better.

So it's all round deliciousness really, and at just under $5 for three scoops it can't be beat.

Jock also has a large amount of flavours in take home packs in the fridge as well, not all of which are available in cone/cup form at the moment. I'm hoping he has some sort of circulation thing going on, because I desperately want to try the baked apple and orange with rosewater next time. Oh yes, and there will be a next time. Some things are worth crossing the river for.