Fresher than the fresh.

[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]

It isn’t every day one stumbles across fresh fruit ice cream that is really fresh.

But that’s exactly what you get from the brothers Arif and Amjad who make what they call “roller ice cream”, produced on a unique roller machine

It works like this: The long cylindrical roller is packed with crushed ice, with the outer surface smeared with rose syrup flavoured milk. When Arif gets the roller moving, the milk freezes on the surface; while his brother holds chopped fruits on a large leaf right under the roller.

The fruit sticks to the now-frozen milk. When a customer turns up, the resultant ice cream is simply scraped from the roller and served in a disposable bowl.

The very first bite reveals the superior taste of supreme freshness that’s lacking in the industrial versions doled out at famous ice cream chains. The fruit-filled delicacy from the roller happily implodes in the mouth, then vaporizes into wholesome flavour. Roller ice cream is indeed a rare item–as are the machines. “We got ours some years ago from Sadar Bazar in Ghaziabad for 12,000 rupees,” explains Arif.

You’ll find the brothers’ cart parked in the evenings along the Mathura Road stretch between Ashram Flyover and the Subz Burj traffic island.

Summer’s joy

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