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One of the most worthy things to celebrate this summer may be that the expensive and unpalatable "ice cream assassins" that once filled the entire freezer have finally left the market. With related topics such as "ice cream returns to the 5 yuan era" becoming hot searches, the revival of affordable ice cream seems to be a foregone conclusion.

Before the young people could be happy for too long, the ice cream assassin fell, and the "Hermes of ice cream" stood up again. Gelato, which "cannot afford to eat three balls with a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan", quickly rose to the top and became the code for traffic.“Handmade ice cream”These five big words are the selling point that has captured the young people firmly.

△Gelato’s popularity on social media platforms occasionally makes people wonder: “How many years will I be sentenced to if I don’t eat this stuff?” . (Photo/unsplash)

Handmade ice cream, which focuses on being "healthier, more natural, and fresher", is rapidly becoming a new favorite in the market with its personalized characteristics.When it comes to handmade ice cream, you wouldn’t know unless you asked, it turns out that people in Xinjiang are secretly enjoying it so well.

This ice cream is so delicious that it can beat Gelato and Haagen-Dazs in the hearts of Xinjiang people. It is also full of childhood memories: Yili traditional handmade ice cream. It is a must-have among the delicacies that children who grew up in Xinjiang cannot live without. Friends who traveled to Yili also said that it was a loss for everyone that this Xinjiang-only product did not become popular nationwide.

01

Unique taste of Yili

How unforgettable is Yili's traditional handmade ice cream? Some people even traveled thousands of miles to bring this taste to the far south, using the hometown ice cream as an anchor to build a new life.

In Foshan, Guangdong, there is an authentic Ili ice cream shop, and everyone is welcome to come and taste the Ili flavor at any time. The shop itself is not large, and you will be surrounded by overwhelming sticky notes as soon as you enter the door, as if the "Amway" tone left by previous customers lingers in your ears.

Right next to the door, you can see the red background and black words "Voice of the Shop" which is equally eye-catching - please don't use gelato thinking to judge the shop. The reason is also clearly written: "In terms of concept, formula, method, taste, etc., they are completely different."

△ (Photo/Strawberry Crisp)

Yili traditional handmade ice creamIn June 2023, the Yili Prefecture Culture and Tourism Bureau announced the fifth batch of representative projects of prefecture-level intangible cultural heritage, and the traditional ice cream making skills of Horgos City, an intangible cultural heritage project, were listed among them.

Located on Liuxing Street in Yining City, Xinjiang, Gulandam, known as the "most popular traditional ice cream shop on the Internet", is a representative of this intangible cultural heritage project. The name of the shop "Gulandam" comes from the heroine of the famous old movie "The Visitor from the Iceberg", which means "flower of ice and snow".

In this regard, Mr. Ma said,This local ice cream that they grew up eating was made in almost every household when they were young., a taste that is closely linked to childhood memories and life, is the precious meaning carried by traditional ice cream.

Mr. Ma named his Yili ice cream shop "Wuer Tianshan", which means: Tianshan is the unique soul symbol in the minds of Xinjiang people, and of course it is "unique". Another meaning is Mr. Ma's recognition of his own products, and our ice cream is also unique.

△The color of the store name is also the familiar "Yining Blue". (Photo/@我系凡哥-麦长青)

Since its opening, the store has developed new flavors of ice cream once a month and rotated them. Now there are about 20 kinds of ice cream on the shelves in random rotation. But none of the flavors are "popular". Mr. Ma explained, "We want to try to make some flavors that are not available on the market. Too much homogeneity makes it difficult to create unique flavors."

Although you can't eat classic flavors such as vanilla, matcha, taro paste, and strawberry here, you can instead eat the "Four Permanent Kings": traditional original flavor (milk), cocoa, rose black tea, and River Valley Manor.

△Ice cream from Yili, Xinjiang. (Photo/Visual China)

Ice cream is just a carrier. When Xinjiang people make ice cream, they also give it more hidden taste characteristics, making people feel as if they can be transported to Xinjiang with just one bite. This is not just talk. For example, the owner's favorite flavor "River Valley Manor" is added withXinjiang local dry wine"It's not as strong as liquor, so it won't make you dizzy. After you finish it, there will be a light aroma of liquor slowly emanating from it."

There is also the mint ice cream currently on sale. Different from the common "thin" ones on the market, the store mixes fresh mint leaves and local dried mint specially shipped back from Xinjiang to create a rich flavor instead of simply being cool and refreshing.

In order to fully replicate the taste of his hometown, from milk, the most important raw material for making ice cream, to the various nut butters and dried fruits on the table, almost all of the products produced in the store are of "pure Xinjiang origin". Every once in a while, Mr. Ma needs to purchase a bunch of Xinjiang ingredients.

△ (Photo/Strawberry Crisp)

The shelf life of Yili's traditional handmade ice cream is about one week. The store usually sells out a bucket of ice cream in 3 to 4 days. There are also many repeat customers, which can be seen from the messages on the sticky notes in the store, "I've come for the 4th/5th/7th time"...

As the only authentic Yili ice cream shop in Foshan, will there be many fellow Xinjiang people coming to "support" the business? Faced with this question, Mr. Ma thought about it and answered "not really", old acquaintances are just neighbors, and those who are farther away, there are often customers driving from Shunde, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, etc.

In the small bowl of ice cream, Xinjiang and Foshan seem very close. The mint flavor is very popular, and Mr. Ma later realized that mint is also a common spice in the south.He decided to launch the newly developed Xinjiang traditional tea flavored ice cream in the fall because it "tastes icy but warms the stomach", which coincides with the medicinal tonic principle of Guangdong herbal tea.

△There is always a "tea" that belongs to you. (Photo/unsplash)

Perhaps it’s because people who live life seriously can always find similar flavors no matter where they are.

02

Juicy ice cream and Yili

Standing outside the door of "Wuer Tianshan" and looking inside, you will see the largest Easter egg painted on the window, which represents the traditional production process of Yili's traditional handmade ice cream.

The process of making this delicious ice cream is not complicated. In fact, the traditional ingredients of Yili ice cream are only three:Xinjiang local milk, eggs and natural sugar (white sugar/honey), absolutely no additives.

The ingredients that have been sterilized by high temperature are mixed and mixed, and then poured into an ice-making machine called "Folma". The machine is divided into a "copper liner" for holding the raw materials and a large wooden barrel on the outside. Ice cubes can be put into the gap in the middle, and some coarse salt is sprinkled on top to accelerate the cooling. Then, under continuous rotation, a portion of "traditional ice cream" is made.

△ (Photo/Strawberry Crisp)

With the development of technology, most traditional shops use upgraded machines to make ice cream, but the natural taste remains the same.

Although everyone loves the "dopamine" color scheme, the popular ice cream on the market also focuses on how bright the color is and how strong the taste is.But Yili’s traditional ice cream has a “light” aura, “without any additives or pigments”. The color of the ice cream is not conspicuous and has no visual impact, everything is light.

△ Quietly surprise everyone with the taste. (Photo/Strawberry Crisp)

Perhaps this is also the biggest charm of Yili. Abandoning its ostentatious reputation, you can seriously taste the flavor of Yili, a place with a simple and elegant style. “If you haven’t been to Yili, you don’t know the beauty of Xinjiang” can also be “If you haven’t been to Yili, you don’t know the deliciousness of Xinjiang”.

It is indeed a bit too thin to describe Yili as "beautiful". Yili's diversity lies in its cultural depth.

Mr. Ji Xianlin once said: There are only four cultural systems in the world with a long history, vast territory, self-contained systems and far-reaching influence - China, India, Greece and Islam. And the only place where these four cultural systems converge is Dunhuang and Xinjiang in China.

△ Xinjiang scenery is always the best Amway artifact. (Photo/My Altay)

The superior geographical environment has made Yili a place where many ethnic groups live together since ancient times. Historically, it was an important town on the Silk Road. The cultural depth of Yili comes from this fusion.

Bi Shumin, a writer, was born in an old Russian-style house in Bayandai Town, Yining City. Her mother told her: "Yining, where you were born, is a city of flowers and poplars."

In the eyes of countless Xinjiang people, Yili is this sunny, warm and green hometown.

△ (Picture/pixabay)

Mr. Ma moved to Guangdong from Xinjiang with his wife and children four years ago. The idea of ​​opening an ice cream shop in Yili was a decision made after careful consideration by the couple. "We had already thought about what we were going to do when we were still in Xinjiang." Or perhaps, this is also a kind of destiny and persistence of Xinjiang people.

The boxes of Xinjiang brand milk stacked up on the floor of the shop always remind people of a Kazakh proverb: "Milk is the food of Kazakhstan." Milk from afar is the spiritual food of Xinjiang people.

Writer Wang Meng, who once lived in Yili for a long time, recalled the life at that time, saying that although it was bitter, it was still sunny overall. "Xinjiang culture is like a jacket to keep out the cold and a bowl of hot tea for those in adversity."

A bowl of Xinjiang ice cream full of Ili flavor is also a rare pleasure in life.