How comes fried ice cream isn’t associated with US cuisine?

35 comments

1. Interesting, I’ve only ever eaten it at Mexican restaurants.

2. Because it’s not something the average American will ever try. It is at best a novelty here.

3. It’s not that common. For some reason, Mexican restaurants come to my mind for it, but I could be mistaken.

   It’s considered a novelty, and is older than stuff like deep fried butter or deep fried candy bars. Baked Alaska comes across as fancier, but even that’s not that common.

4. Not sure I’ve ever heard of fried ice cream before. How do they stop it from melting when they fry it?

5. I love fried ice cream, but I’ve only ever seen it at Texmex restaurants.

6. It’s been eclipsed by the “ice cream of the future” Dippin Dots.

7. Fair foods are not typically eaten outside of fairs

8. It isn’t? I remember it being pretty common in New England when I was growing up.

   Or maybe it was just my family? Got me thinking now lol

9. I’ve only seen it in Mexican restaurants.

10. The Wikipedia article for fried ice cream would be a good place to start, before going to social media. It answers a lot of your questions.

11. Yeah, I was about to say, I thought it was an adaption of a Mexican or other Central/South American dish.

    Didn’t realize it was American at all. I’ve only ever seen it offered at Mexican or other Tex-mex places really.

12. It’s not super common, more of a novelty thing.
    I mostly associate it with Tex-Mex.

13. Fried ice cream is Mexican though.

14. It’s mostly a state fair novelty thing here. It’s not a staple.

15. I always associate it with Mexican restaurants

16. The Mexican version is better IMO. Lighter, crisper batter.

17. I’ve never seen it at an Asian restaurant, only Mexican restaurants. Unless OP means it’s served at restaurants in Asia then I’d guess it migrated from here with the American military.

18. I’ve only ever seen it at Mexican restaurants, and I have no idea why. Wish we could have been of more help to you!

19. I’ve never even heard of that

20. I’ve only ever seen it at Mexican restaurants. I’ve eaten at a lot of Asian restaurants in the US and across Asia…. never seen it there.

    I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten it. Maybe once when I was a kid at… Chi Chi’s

21. Baked Alaska?

22. Y’all know that not all Americans are of European descent, right? What exactly do you think you’re referring to when you say “US cuisine”?

23. There was pre ice cream type dairy stuff. Booza was invented in the 16th century in Syria.

24. It’s not associated with Chinese restaurants here. It’s on a ton of Mexican restaurants desert lists.

    It was made popular through a very popular (Americanized) Mexican chain called Chi-Chi’s in the 1980’s. Other Mexican restaurants started adding it to their menu. Maybe because they just tried it out, maybe because enough customers had eaten at Chi-Chi’s, they associated fried ice cream with Mexican so they were asking for it? For whatever reason, Chi-Chi’s was the most recent popularization of it, and it spread to other Mexican restaurants, even though Chi-Chi’s has been gone for a while.

    We do have so many fair foods that don’t have a lot of culinary representation, but most of use instantly think of Americana when they come up. We also have so many fusion foods that we don’t think much about it.

25. I ordered it once as a kid and it was just ice cream with corn flakes. What’s up with that

26. I’ve never had fried ice cream, I’ve only heard of it extremely sparingly in my 40 years

27. I’ve only had it at Mexican restaurants. There was a really good local Mexican restaurant I remember dearly from my childhood years that served it. It was also the place that I learned what habanero is and started my lifelong addiction to spicy food.

28. TIL fried ice cream is a thing

29. Many things at ethnic restaurants in the US are american inventions. Chow mein, fortune cookies, fried ice cream, etc

30. Asian?? I’ve only ever seen them in Mexican restaurants!

31. Just to put it in a topline reply: It’s essentially fair food. A lot of “OMG, did you see what’s considered food in America?!” stuff like that is basically there as a stunt. While I’ve had fried ice cream myself (Mexican restaurant, 80s), it’s not something everyone has often enough to elevate it to ‘cuisine’.

32. Wow…I’ve only ever seen it in Mexican restaurants.

33. Surly if you fried ice cream you’d get, er, cream?

34. Like others, I only associate fried ice cream with Mexican restaurants.

35. The only place I see it around where I am is at the Renaissance Festival.