Cuisine Scene: Frozen Treats
We may all scream for ice cream but, as the weather gets warmer, who doesn’t also love to eat a frozen treat? Whether ice cream, frozen yogurt, ices, snoballs or fruit pops; contained in cups, cones or between a couple of cookies, Long Beach offers so many ways for you to stay deliciously cool.
ICE CREAM & FROZEN YOGURT ON THE BOARDWALK
This Shoreline Village mainstay provides a delicious accompaniment as you shop, stroll, jump on or off a boat or bike, or visit the nearby Aquarium of the Pacific. As the name suggests, Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt on the Boardwalk (429 Shoreline Village Dr.) offers many flavors of gourmet ice cream and frozen yogurt as well as fruit smoothies. There are splits, sundaes, and sprinkles along with 25 toppings you can add to a cone or cup.
HUG LIFE
Hug Life (2707 E. 4th St.) is an “anti-dairy ice cream ‘n stuff” store, located on Retro Row. Seeing as how it's next door to Coffee Drunk and directly across the street from Page Against the Machine, you can imagine this as the new core of another cool configuration complementing the vintage stretch of 4th Street. Employing dairy alternatives such as coconut, soy and oat milk, Hug Life makes such exciting flavors as Vietnamese Coffee, Mango Chamoy and Matcha Monsta, sacrificing nothing in the way of flavor or gooeyness. Root Beer Floats, Cookie Sammiches and build your own milkshakes, it’s all good.
LONG BEACH CREAMERY
Founder Dina Amadril started her ice cream journey at home, mixing flavors in a Kitchen Aid blender. Eventually she moved her business out of her kitchen and now has three locations, two in Long Beach: Downtown (222 E. Broadway) and Bixby Knolls (4141 Long Beach Blvd..) The Creamery’s success is in Amadril’s original principles: handcrafted quality, inventive flavors – Peach Sorbet to Burnt Caramel– infused with local, organic ingredients. Innovation is a constant; witness the shop’s cannabis-inspired line of products including Pineapple Express and OG Kush Chip.
SomiSomi
Serving ah-boong, a dense, flavor-rich soft serve ice cream popular in Korea, along with such flavor staples as green matcha, purple ube (yam) and black sesame, SomiSomi’s (3900 Atlantic Ave.) popularity is likely tied to what their ice cream goes into: taiyaki. This hollow pastry comes in the form of a large-mouth fish, its interior painted with the likes of Nutella, red bean paste or stuffed with cookies, cheese, etc. An amazing tasting and looking experience.
FLUFFY’S SNO-BALLS
Fluffy’s Sno-Balls (1208 Long Beach Blvd.) has quickly become a local success story. Recently named by Yelp as the No. 1 frozen treat shop in California–No. 5 in the nation–its popularity owes a lot to attention paid to quality and flavor. Fluffy’s 12.5-pound blocks of ice, created on site, are shaved so finely by employees that sno-balls have a uniquely creamy quality. Speaking of unique, the shop not only offers such classic flavors as strawberry, coconut and orange, but also another 50 options ranging from kiwi to dill pickle to wine cooler.
AFTERS ICE CREAM
In less than 10 years, Afters has made a name for itself, in part because of its “Milky Bun,” a warm, glazed donut stuffed with one of its signature, handmade ice creams. Of course, the ice cream is what it’s all about, and it usually comes with a twist, so classic Cookies and Cream comes with a salty twist, Chocolate Chip comes with vegan chocolate and Jasmine Milk Tea and French Toast Churro just sound awesome.
LA MICHOACANA HELADERIA TRADICIONAL
Ultra clean and bright, La Michoacana Heladeria Tradicional’s (1168 E. Anaheim St.) decor matches with the hues of its ice cream, which pops from the refrigerated case in eye-catching splashes of green, red, yellow, etc. It is ultra-smooth, clean and crisp ice cream that tastes and feels like food. Fresh fruit – strawberry, lime, mango, watermelon – is integrated into both its ice cream and paletas, the popsicle-like offerings that look familiar to many, but may feature unfamiliar ingredients in such forms, i.e. one of the shops most popular paletas contains chile and cucumber. It’s really good.
SNOCORNER
Located just across from Poly High School, SnoCorner (1701 Atlantic Ave.) specializes in New Orleans-style shaved ice. Their snoballs are shaved so finely that the ice appears powder-like, making it not only easy to dig into, but also easy to mix with the more than 20 flavors offered, like pink lemonade, horchata, and watermelon. The snoballs can be pumped up even more by adding condensed milk or soft serve ice cream, something they really recommend you try.
