Jessica and Cremetown

Location: Cremetown, Los Angeles, CA

Person: Jessica

Dessert: Original Cremia

At first glance, the machines look like a funky hybrid between a espresso maker and a soft-serve dispenser. Look a little closer, though, and you can see the intricacies of this system, of the milk that gets poured into the top in front of your eyes and comes out as ice cream just as fast. This is what makes Cremetown so special.

The employee who was helping us, a young woman with kind eyes and a warm smile, held a gorgeous cone under the machine and with a skilled flick of the wrist stacked a flawless zig-zag of ice cream atop the cone. I opted for the topping-less original option for my first taste, and as I dug the shovel-shaped spoon into the ice cream and plopped the bite straight onto the tip of my tongue, I was amazed. It was incredibly creamy and tasted more natural and less sugary than classic soft-serve. The flavor of the milk came through and reminded me of the feeling that comes with the first sip of ice cold milk on a warm morning.

Little did I know, the best was still to come. I went in for a bite of the cone and closed my teeth over the edge, expecting it to crack like a waffle cone. The actual sensation was much more pleasing than this, accumulating in a texture that resembled a thin shortbread cookie and a taste that resembled a madeleine.

Noticing the look of wonder that crossed my face, the woman behind the counter who had prepared the ice cream, asked me how it was. I ranted on about its amazingness and ended up striking up a conversation with this girl, Jessica. With my prompting, she told me all about the history of this dessert and of this shop. She said that although this ice cream is of Japanese origin, Korean dessert shops altered the type of milk that was used. Cremetown uses this Korean version of the creamy milk ice cream. Because it is becoming more popular in the United States, shops have been popping up all over Los Angeles. Cremetown, however, will always have a leg up over their competitors simply due to the fact that they were the first of these shops in the LA area. And with this distinction, I am inclined to believe that they are nothing less than the best! Jessica then proceeded to tell me that the cone, my favorite part, was baked in house everyday and had a surprise chocolate filling at the tip. Yay! Another thing to look forward to!

I neglected to choose a flavor to sprinkle on top of my ice cream at first, but after talking with Jessica, she highly recommended the coffee, claiming that its bitterness created a nice juxtaposition with the sweetness of the Cremia. She pulled a sieve out of the plastic container filled with fresh coffee grounds and covered my ice cream with a light dusting. It was out of this world and just kept getting better and better!

As I finished up my ice cream, I asked Jessica about how she came to work at Cremetown. With a friendly giggle, she recounted her story. She was born in San Francisco and moved to Korea when she was young, returning to California alone three years ago for her undergraduate education. After beginning this education at UC Santa Barbara, she decided that she wanted to move closer to LA, so transferred to a community college in LA, in hopes of being admitted to USC this year to study film and policy. She works at Cremetown part-time in order to support herself and her dreams.

This inspiring story paired with the delicious ice cream left me with a sweet taste in my mouth as I walked out of the glass doors back into the bustling LA streets.

And with that, here’s to Jessica’s dreams and Korean ice cream,                                                                                                             Anokhi