From the outrageously weird to the still weird but legitimately good, Bangkok has a penchant for creating odd ice cream flavors. Shabu chain Shabu-Bootueng is the latest to dabble in ice cream alchemy with its new, midnight-blue shabu-shabu broth-flavored ice cream.

 

 

Turning hotpot into a cold treat, and blurring the line between savory and sweet in all the right (or wrong?) ways, the “shabu black soup” offering is precisely as it sounds: shabu broth transformed into an ice cream, at least in spirit. Fortunately, the ice cream does not include popular shabu add-ons like sliced pork, seafood, or mushrooms, but it does come with a warning that it’s “so good you won’t be able to stop” eating it.

 

A cup of this unusual creation currently goes for B39 (B49 normally; B100 for three cups) at any branch of the budget shabu buffet chain.

 

This is not the first time we’ve seen unexpected flavors in our ice cream. We’ve tried Yora’s Fish Sauce Caramel (B100 per cup), which gives the decadent treat a subtle umami quality and a salted caramel-like taste, as well as their Chilli Rocky Road, made with chunky chili-laced marshmallows. In perhaps darker times, we’ve also borne witness to dark soy sauce-flavored ice cream from Dek Somboon and, more recently, fish sauce and cough syrup flavors at 10010 Bar. 

 

Try the shabu ice cream for yourself at any Shabu-Bootueng branch, which includes spots in Ari-Saphan Kwai and Phattanakarn, as well as several out of Bangkok in central provinces like Singburi, Suphanburi, and Nakhon Sawan.