Craving for some cooling, thirst-quenching food during hot humid day? Or looking for a comfy and suitable place for gathering? Why not patronize Mill Wheel, Malaysia’s first ice specialist dessert shop, which was also promoted by Ho Chak! TV program from 8TV?
Perhaps you might think this is another shop that sells ice kacang, or ice creams with fancy colored syrups on top of tasteless shaved ice. That was exactly my first reaction when a friend of mine insists that I should try out this shop. And to my amaze, I fell in love with the shop and the food the moment I stepped my foot into it.
First of all, it is not just any dessert shop that you can see at road sides, or even in shopping complex like One Utama. It is a combination of a dessert shop and a gift shop. Imagine yourself sitting in Memory Lane with a big bowl of ice dessert in front of you. Not to mention dining with teddy bears and colorful cards around you. That was a total new experience for me!
The owner of the shop Jim Reno Tan said that owning a shop like this has always been part of his dream. “Since I was young, desserts were always on top of my food list. And my favorite will always be cold desserts.” Tan explained enthusiastically, “Few years back, when I was in Taiwan on my vacation, I was surprised to see the amount of ice shops in Taiwan! It was then I came out with the idea of starting a business like this.” Tan says that Taiwan has the largest ice-eating culture in the world. Therefore he took the idea and came out with his own recipes.
“I know that Malaysians love ice kacang. Therefore, I wanted to create something people had never tried before, but at the same time, suitable for Malaysians’ taste.” said Tan while showing his menu to me. “My shop serves all sorts of ice, from the softest to the hardest. You name it, we have it.” “Oh, one very important thing,” Tan added quickly, with a grin on his face, “My desserts are ice, not ice creams. They are two very different things.”
I was confused by that statement but was soon overwhelmed by the numbers of ice desserts shown in the menu and couldn’t made up my mind which to choose. Apparently Tan already made the decision for me. He asked the waitress to serve me his shop’s specialty, ice cake. “This is Malaysia’s first ice cake, you can’t find it elsewhere.”
Yam Ice CakeWhen it was put in front of me, immediately I understood what he meant by ice cake, and not ice cream cake. From the side, the cake looks a bit like those sponge cakes that we can buy in bakery shops. But it is definitely not those ice cream cakes that we see in Baskin Robins or Haagen Dazs.
“It is spongy!” That was my first reaction. I was surprised that he can actually create a texture like that with ice! Moreover, the sweetness of the cake is very natural, unlike those man made flavors that will make you feel guilty eating it. Plus, the ice is so smooth that it melts right away in your mouth.
“This ice cake that you’ve just eaten”, explained Tan, “Was made from sea salt, which imported from France that contains over 80 types of minerals. And it was mixed with distilled water and flavorings and was frozen for approximately 30 hours before it was served. And I came out with 3 different flavors, yam, strawberry and mango.” Again, I was astonished by the facts that Tan just fed me. Isn’t it a great news for ladies who love desserts but are restrained from having it due to the needs of keeping a nice body shape? Moreover, you can get this magnificent ice cake with only RM 4.90 per slice! In short, this is a healthy and affordable dessert that everyone can enjoy!
In fact, all the ice desserts in Mill Wheel have the goodness of the ice cakes. For instance, similar ingredients can be found in the next specialty of the shop named 20, 30 and 40. “I came out with a series of shaved ice with different flavors that suits different ages of people,” described Tan, “20 has the mixture of lychee and watermelon, which I assume will be suitable for people at twenties. While 30 serves people around thirties with chocolate and strawberry flavors and 40 has the mixture of chocolate and milk tea.”
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40
“However, out of my expectation, 40 is the most popular one!” Tan laughed while the waitress served me 40. “As you can see, 40 has texture different from ice cake, but they are actually made from similar ingredients. It’s just that I need to put the huge ice cube into a special ice shaver to produce a texture like that.”
I was delighted to see the generous portion of this dessert. The ice has toppings of cereals, oats, nata de coco and love letters! Talk about luscious desserts and health conscious, Tan has it all! The texture of the ice is really special. It looks like ice flakes rather than the snow-like texture we usually see in ice kacang; and it feels like cotton candy, except it is cold of course. When the chocolate and milk tea melts in my mouth, I can only say that they are heavenly match flavors. This scrumptious delight only costs RM 8.90! The serving is big enough to share with two persons.
“That’s more,” Tan announced happily when he saw the satisfying look on my face. Next, Tan brought me his third specialty, Snow Cheese. This is something cheese lover must try! It might be a bit difficult to imagine how ice goes together with cheese, but I must say that they are perfect for each other. The cheese is so creamy and silky it feels as if it was carefully mixed with milk and butter. And the lychee flavored ice is so refreshing that I just can’t stop digging into the cup. There are other flavors available too such as strawberry, chocolate, watermelon, milk tea and mango. Each cup is only RM 5.90.
Apart from the specialties I just introduced, Mill Wheel also provides other must try ice products such as claypot salad snow (fruits with ice), Ice Tank (flavored ice with puddings and fruits), cold dog (ice sticks with buns) and side orders like cabonara spaghetti, ham toast, sausage platter and others.
Claypot Snow
Cold Dog 
Strawberry Snow Cheese
“I’ll come out with new products every few months,” said Tan when he was asked about his future planning, “I’m now experimenting on making ice steaks and ice dimsum. Hopefully they can be out in a few months time.”
“I planned to create a shop that serves everything that deals with ice. Besides, I will decorate my second outlet into an ice globe, with full blast air-conditioning, provide the customers with an experience of eating ice in chilling environment.”
You can visit Mill Wheel every Sunday to Thursday from 12 pm to 11 pm and Friday and Saturday from 12 pm – 1 am, at No. 72&74, Jln Metro Perdana Barat 2, Tmn. Usahawan Kepong, Kuala Lumpur.
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