Oakland: Nieves Cinco de Mayo - hot tip on cool hand-churned Mexican Ice cream, nieves artisanales de garrafa

[rworange]

Thanks to the ever-intrepid hhc for sending me this link about Nieves Cinco de Mayo. Remembering I mentioned Nieves Cinco de Mayo once,hhc emailed me a link to today's East Bay Express article.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-08...

It's not the place on International near High Street, but a different. place. It is in the Fruitvale Public Market. I haven't tried it yet, but it seemed like a good tip to alert Chowhounds who might be in that area.

From the EBE "Six days a week, his stall has up to ten flavors on display — all churned by hand. Let that sink in: entirely handmade ice cream, frozen in a contraption that amounts to little more than a metal bucket and elbow grease. "

John Birdsdall writes that it takes the owner, Luis Abundis, an hour to manually make each batch.

So 10 batches a day ... 10 hours of manual labor ... cost $1 for a scoop. Don't anyone mention Ici to Sr. Abundis.

Milk rather cream is used and Birdsdall calls the fresh corn fantastic. Other flavors mentioned are the minty yerba buena, rompope and ciruela (prune). There are some standard flavors too.

Hours are on the Place record.

-----
Nieves Cinco de Mayo
3340 E 12th St, Oakland, CA 94601

[milklady]

Wow, what a great tip. I will definitely try it and provide a review in the next week.

[Ruth Lafler]

Darn, I read that this morning and was going to run over there after work and "scoop" the board.

Anyone who wants to meet me there and try a bunch of flavors should drop me an email at the address in my profile. Note: this is right across the street from the Fruitvale BART station.

[rworange]

Aw, sorry, but I was hoping it would catch your attention and you'd stop by.

Any chance of trying the escamocha at El Oasis mentioned in the article ... "Think fruit salad, drenched in strawberry sauce that's nothing more than the clear liquid that seeps from heavily sugared strawberries. The fruit salad itself ... mango, pineapple, ... papaya, ... skin-on Fuji apples and bits of strawberry. But the sauce unites everything in a babydoll-pink stain, not to mention an intense strawberry perfume that seems to generate its own humid breath. Simple, but the effect is hyperlush.'

I don' know, I'm kind of interested in trying the Jaimaica raspado at El Oasis.

-----
Nieves Cinco de Mayo
3340 E 12th St, Oakland, CA 94601

El Oasis
3612 International Blvd, Oakland, CA 94601

[Eat_Nopal]

I am glad you mentioned Raspados... I haven't seen many (if any) in my neck of the woods... I have been craving Rompope for YEARS! I am going to break down and make granita from the bottle of Coronado Rompope I picked up at Bev Mo a few weeks back... pretty soon.

[Ruth Lafler]

There are a couple of places in Fruitvale that have raspados, and Melanie had at least one she liked in Santa Rosa. I've been to El Oasis, but I'm not much for tropical fruit, so I didn't try the fruit salad.

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/44902

Okay, I did try one of the fruit salads -- now that I reread my post, I remember. Anyway, the two branches of Cinco de Mayo (not the ice cream place) also have raspados. There's even a taco truck that has raspados -- I see it parked near the Coliseum when I go to weekend baseball games (halfway between the Coliseum and the largely Mexican flea market on Coliseum Way).

-----
Cinco De Mayo
4300 International Blvd, Oakland, CA 94601

Cinco De Mayo Taqueria
3438 International Blvd, Oakland, CA 94601

[Ruth Lafler]

Here's a link to my report: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/434073

I also wanted to note that driving by the Cinco de Mayo Taqueria noted above, they've changed their name to 16th of September.