An eyeful of ice cream

There’s a particular look on the faces of people about to attack a buffet. It’s one of grim determination, a purposeful resoluteness that almost always hints of self-imposed starvation or extreme hunger prior to coming to the buffet. It’s a look that discourages chitchat or idle action. A hungry man coming to a buffet can be very intimidating indeed.

It’s different, however, when it’s an ice cream buffet. The determined look is still there but, this time, glazed over with a certain disbelieving fascination, as if unlimited access to more than 15 flavors of ice cream grants a free pass to being a child all over again. At the Ice Cream Bar’s Buffet Thursday buffets, it certainly is.

The idea is insane but extremely attractive. The Ice Cream Bar, the hip new destination in the Rockwell area, indulges everyone’s inner child every Thursday of December by giving ice cream lovers the chance to create their own creamy combinations and sample nearly each flavor of FIC (Fruits in Cream) ice cream, the local gourmet ice cream brand that has become a beloved treat in the few years it’s been on the market.

Buffet Thursdays features 15 FIC flavors each week (although best-selling flavors tsokolate, strawberry and vanilla will be regulars) alongside an impressive array of fun toppings (bananas, cashews, cornflakes, pinipig, chocolate chip cookies, crushed Oreo, crushed pineapple, streusel, barquette, cranberry and blueberry filling, peaches, and cherries) and luscious homemade syrups (chocolate sauce, butterscotch sauce, strawberry syrup, and mango syrup).

It’s the ultimate invitation to indulge your sweet tooth. If the toppings and syrups aren’t incentive enough, the Ice Cream Bar has also included pastries and cakes in the spread. Pair your ice cream with warm apple pie or gooey brownies fresh from the oven. In keeping with holiday requirements, the buffet also includes little bibingka cakes, which the bar recommends should be taken with their queso or ube ice cream (even both).

Being faced with an ice cream buffet for the first time can be a bit daunting. Most people get too caught up in their excitement and rush into their ice cream rabidly, piling on the toppings and drowning their ice cream in syrup. But this kind of approach can wipe out the craving fast.

There’s a strategy to approaching a free-for-all ice cream spread. The Ice Cream Bar’s marketing head Joanna Francisco and I were mulling it over one Thursday night as we watched ice cream aficionados take on the buffet for the first time.

• Treat it like any other buffet that has choices for appetizers, main courses, and desserts. Start out with the light, not too sweet flavors as your “appetizers;” I recommend black sesame, green tea, or strawberry.

• Go easy on the toppings and sauces. These fill you up fast. Just drizzle and sprinkle enough for each scoop that you take.

• Don’t mix the overly-sweet flavors, such as the butterscotch and caramello con pastillas, in one dish.

• Save the pastries such as the brownies and bibingka for your last few comebacks.

• Don’t rush. Expect to stay for a couple of hours to fully maximize all the choices. Enjoy the ice cream.

This line of attack enabled me to finish up five hefty, topping-filled scoops of ice cream. (I was told the record that one night was nine.) I think that’s the most ice cream I’ve had since I was seven years old. And I loved every single spoonful of it.

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The Ice Cream Bar’s buffet price is P295 (ice cream and toppings) and P345 (ice cream, toppings, and pastries). Kids below 12 years old can also enjoy the same offerings, at a discounted price of P200 (ice cream and toppings) and P 240 (ice cream, toppings, and pastries). Buffets go on each Thursday of December from 3 p.m. to 12 midnight.

The Ice Cream Bar is located at Joya Tower, Joya Drive, Rockwell Center.