Update: This business has ceased its operations.
Ooh My Gas Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream is an ice cream stall in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. This kiosk is located on Level 1 and is hidden under a flight of escalators.
Ooh My Gas claims to be the first liquid nitrogen ice cream stall in Asia. I am not sure how far this is true, but that’s what it says on its front panels.
A brief crash course on physics: Liquid nitrogen (LN2) boils at -196oC under standard atmospheric pressure, but using a pressurized tank allows it to remain liquid (and compact) at higher temperature. Liquid nitrogen has a wide range of cryogenic applications, but its use in food is only recent when the price becomes commercially viable. Nevertheless, each refill of the liquid nitrogen tank (like the one used at Ooh My Gas) costs around RM1,000.
The menu of Ooh My Gas has a number of popular choices. This makes my life easier because I often has trouble in picking from scratch. Besides regular ice cream, there are also gelato (Italian ice cream) and non-dairy soy version.
Our choice today is Rise N Shine (RM19.90) served in a large “Sexy” size. The fresh milk is blended with orange and mango, then rapidly frozen in a spectacular vapor cloud. Because liquid nitrogen is much colder than regular freezers, ice crystals are smaller in size. This allows liquid nitrogen ice cream to be creamier and smoother than its regular counterpart.
Our Rise N Shine ice cream is topped with freshly-prepared fruit jam, which we enjoyed very much. The mango-orange jam tastes so fruity that it is almost as good as eating the fresh fruits directly.
The price of ice cream here is quite expensive, but someone has to pay for the liquid nitrogen, right? Besides, this is Pavilion; nothing is cheap in this upscale shopping mall.