I'm an Ice Cream Convert...here's my new favorite!

I love ice cream.  I always have and always will.  I'm the guy that you'll see walking around in a blizzard eating a soft cream.  Ice cream is an any-time-of-the-day snack.  One of the worst nightmares I've ever had was waking up lactose intolerant.

I think you get the picture.

As you can imagine, being in Japan is a dream for me.  Ice cream is everywhere.  Any conbini you go to will have a freezer full of the stuff.  Rest areas, tourist spots--heck, even museums (history and ice cream--that's a double win for me!).

Well, I recently discovered a new type of ice cream sold here in our local supermarket, and I have to admit, I'm a convert.  

If you're an ice cream connoisseur like me, you'll know that ice cream is just one variety of frozen dairy treat.  The categorization comes down to type of dairy product, amount of air used in making it, and the other types of ingredients included.  There's frozen custard, frozen yogurt, gelato, ice milk, soft-serve ice cream, and normal ice cream, to name a few.  I recently discovered that my local supermarket sells one other type: Dondurma, or Turkish ice cream.

Some folks know about Turkish ice cream as a popular street vendor snack served using long poles (often with fun and fanfare).  The use of salep and mastic (starchy, gummy plant-based ingredients) give the ice cream an springy, stretchy texture that is unique from any other ice cream in the world.

I've only had it once (in Kobe), but I really enjoyed it and have been on the lookout for other places ever since.  And then lo and behold, there it was all along, tucked away in the side of the ice cream freezer:

Right off the bat, I had to get some.  Here's the package up close:

[Note: for those searching for Halal ice creams, this is an option for you!]

And here's how the ice cream looked:

You can see how the texture is different from other ice creams, and I think that's one of its best features.  It doesn't hurt that it isn't overly sweet and that an entire serving is just a shade over 100 calories (for you health conscious folks out there).

A single serve tub costs 250 yen, and while I haven't seen this anywhere else in Japan, I'm sure you can find it in most international supermarkets in Japan.

Do you like Turkish Ice Cream?  Do you have any favorite Turkish ice creams in Japan?