When students need to escape the heat and have a sweet treat, they don’t need to venture farther than the plaza on the corner of Barranca Avenue and Route 66.
There they’ll find a quaint little ice-cream shop called Roll N’ Chill Ice Cream. Once inside, students will be greeted with warm smiles from co-owner Jackiy Dong or his wife Ivy Dong and a variety of handmade, Thai style ice-cream options.
This would be the perfect snack to enjoy on a hot day- and that’s exactly what I did.
The shop offers an air-conditioned hang-out area, free Wi-Fi and fourteen different ice-cream flavors. The couple claim that their top three flavors are Monkey Business, Cookie Monster and Strawberry Shawty.
“Monkey Business is the classic. A lot of people love it, but the top one is Cookie Monster,” Jackiy Dong said.
The best part is, for only $5.99 per cup of ice-cream, one can have unlimited toppings which range from sprinkles, chocolate chips, giant marshmallows and even flavored boba.
The flavor I chose to sample was Cookie Monster, which consists of handmade vanilla ice-cream mixed with crush Oreos, condensed milk and chocolate syrup. With unlimited toppings, I got a little adventurous and chose strawberries, lychee flavored boba, Oreos and fruity pebbles.
What made the treat exceptional, I believe, was the condensed milk that gave it a certain sweet flavor that I’ve never experienced with a typical ice-cream shop. The fact that it’s handmade and delicious will definitely have me coming back to try the other flavors.
Jackie Dong believes his shop has something better to offer because their products are healthier than other ice-cream shops.
Ivy Dong emphasized that the products they use are gluten free, the fruits are freshly picked and the creams are homemade.
Aside from the ice-cream being extremely delicious, the most enjoyable part was watching Ivy Dong make the ice-cream. She started by pouring the cream, sugar and chocolate onto a frozen metal skillet and began chopping and scraping the ingredients around until it fully freezes. Then she scraped the ice-cream into rolls and put it into a cup.
A typical ice-cream shop gives a scoop or two, but with Thai styled ice-cream that’s offered, Ivy and Jackiy give customers an opportunity to have an entirely different cultural experience.
“This ice-cream is very popular in the world so, I have to bring this ice-cream to this neighborhood, for the students,” Jackiy Dong said.
Although Roll N’ Chill has been around for just over a month, the couple have plans to add new items to the menu, such as waffle ice-cream sandwiches and they have plans to open up a new shop within the next year.
Any Citrus College student that brings their student ID gets $1 off their purchase.
