Ice Cream with Loti

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If you grew up in Singapore, you will understand when I say that an Ice Cream Loti sandwich is one of the best ways to eat ice cream.  When I was young, one of the very feeewwwww sweet treats that my dad permitted me to have was ice cream with loti, only because he himself was crazy about it.  (In case you didn't know, 'loti' is the Singaporean Hokkien way of saying 'roti', which means 'bread' in Malay.  Which goes to show that we Singaporeans are good at not just mangling the English language but also Malay).

Ice cream with loti was usually sold by ice cream vendors from their push carts as they made their rounds around housing estates and near schools.  Like sharks, once the ice cream man's bell started ringing, children from around my HDB estate would make their way down in double quick time to congregate around his cart. My favourite flavour was Raspberry Swirl, and I had the choice of either having it sandwiched between 2 wafers, or in a slice of rainbow coloured bread, or occasionally, sweet white bread.  Like my dad, I would choose to eat mine with bread 90% of the time. I love the feeling of the cottony soft bread against the ice cold ice cream. Soft and sweet and cold - those ice creams bread sandwiches were some of my best childhood gastronomic memories.

Being able to find the right bread is essential to enjoying this snack. This became harder after those commercially produced square loaves from Sunshine and Gardenia started invading our homes (that was also around the time that I started throwing bread out of my window).  Breads which you get from western bakeries are also not suitable, as the western palate is more accustomed to breads with a firmer, coarser texture.  Whereas we like our bread soft and super fluffy.

Fortuitously, as we were having tea along Upper Paya Lebar Road yesterday, my sharp-eyed friend P spotted this Hainanese bakery that made traditional bread. I have been duped by many a so-called 'traditional' bread bakery in HDB heartlands before. Often, the bread just looks traditional but turns out to be dry, tasteless and coarse textured.  Thankfully the bread from Jie Bakery & Confectionery is the real deal - fluffy, tender and cottony soft. They sold small brown crusted loaves which you could ask to be smothered in homemade kaya or peanut butter and margarine. And the best part was, they also sell rainbow coloured loti! My friends and I have happy memories of demolishing 2 tubs of ice cream and a whole loaf of rainbow bread over our Ice Cream Loti supper that night.

My only problem now is, we would really like to have more of this traditional bread rather than the characterless and tasteless Gardenia bread that is our breakfast staple.  But I can't make the trip to Jie Bakery every other day, since I live on the Western part of the island. Besides, their bread doesn't keep for more than 2 to 3 days. If you know of a good bakery in the west, tell me!!

And if you live near Upper Paya Lebar, do yourself a favour and buey loti (buy loti) from them:

Jie Bakery & Confectionery 
123 Upper Paya Lebar Road

Tel: +65 6281 1377

Opening Hours

24 hours
(Closed on Fri mornings)