Dipping into the Best of Both Worlds

When you crave ice cream on a hot summer day, you probably don’t stop to ponder the importance of its structural integrity — but Liz Mok certainly does.

The 25-year-old is set to open the doors to Moo Shu Ice Cream & Kitchen by early July. The tiny shop, located at 477 Bank St., is brimming with delicious, two-bite-sized ice cream truffles.

“In design school, we had this saying, ‘Turn your flaws into your feature,’” says Mok, who holds a degree in industrial design. “If ice cream melts and refreezes, if it’s exposed to air, it can crystalize and taste stale. When you protect it with chocolate, that doesn’t happen, unless it melts completely; if it softens and refreezes it doesn’t lose its quality.”

Mok says the truffle format of her ice cream also encourages customers to take a chance on a new flavour. “I like the truffles because they’re small,” she says. “People are more willing to try the flavours because it’s only two bites.”

Each truffle is a flavour adventure; the entrepreneur’s creativity shines through in her one-of-a-kind flavour infusions. Mok frequently draws on her Cantonese heritage and memories of growing up in Richmond, B.C., when concocting new combinations.

“When I moved to Ottawa, I realized how much I took for granted the kinds of flavour profiles and ingredients that were so easily available to me in Richmond,” says Mok of the huge Asian community in the Vancouver suburb.

Currently, her Hong Kong Milk Tea truffle is her top seller. It boasts a secret blend of black and red teas, oversteeped and blended with evaporated milk for a hint of caramel.

“Chinese people love desserts, but they also hate it when it’s too sweet,” explains Mok. “I always find that when I go out for ice cream. I started making ice cream because I wanted to experiment with flavours that I used to eat a lot in Richmond and Hong Kong.”

She explains that in Chinese culture, there are two types of bitter — pronounced as “gum” and “fu” in Cantonese; the latter being what most people think of as bitter. “The bitterness in tea and chocolate is considered ‘gum,’ she says. That citrus, tannin-y flavour is what Chinese people love, it’s refreshing almost. That’s a really sought-after flavour in foods and desserts.”

The Good Morning Yuzu truffle profiles the Japanese lemon, yuzu, balanced with tannins from black tea. Mok says she’s constantly experimenting with new flavour infusions.

“I always have 50 pints in my freezer that I’m testing,” she says, adding that her skills have definitely improved after four years of making ice cream. “I have a better instinct now of when I should add a certain ingredient because I’ve done so many — most are a derivative of each other. I have the yuzu ice cream; now anytime we do a citrus, we just use the same method — we just switch out the fruit.”