Guava ice cream

Guavas remind me of my mother’s stories of Hawaii and Singapore, where exotic fruits grow so bountifully, neighbors leave crates of fruit by the sidewalk to share with any passerby.  My childhood memories of guava, however, center around Houston's ethnic grocery stores and the special treats my sister and I would get on family outings.

Every weekend, my parents and uncle would bring my sister and me for dim sum brunch in Chinatown.  After stuffing ourselves with fried and steamed delicacies, we would stop in the Chinese grocery store to buy noodles, sauces, barbequed meats, and vegetables for the week.  Specialty ethnic grocery stores are now one of my favorite things, but when I was young, I disliked that they weren’t as large, colorful, or well lit as the megamart grocery stores that stocked all my favorite sugary cereals. 

Guava juice was a special treat that my parents would buy for us to placate us while they shopped.  The bumpy, green, vaguely pear-shaped fruit that was pictured on the juice box intrigued me, as did the bright pink Chinese bubble letter characters that I couldn’t read.  All I knew was that this juice was pink, super sweet, and oh-so tasty. 

Today, the taste brings me back to those memories of sitting in a shopping cart with my sister, sipping on a green and pink juice box while my parents planned the multi-course dinner they would cook that night.

The dairy of the ice cream tones down the guava’s sweetness, creating a subtle flavor.  If paired with a mango sorbet, the nuance of this flavor might be overpowered.  But placed inside a cream puff or on a meringue shell, this guava flavor could be a sophisticated, unique dessert that whisks your guests’ imagination to a tropical land or a childhood memory.