On sunny Sunday Ulfie and I decided to go on a Banksy walk around North London. It was something we'd wanted to do since arriving and since Ulfie's days in London are running out we thought we would take advantage of the bright skies and warm weather. We went all the way to Bethnal Green just to hunt down the "Yellow Line Painter" above. Sadly, it is slowly being covered over by other meaningless graffiti and washed away by time. Nevertheless we snapped some photos and headed to Camden where legend said there were at least 3 Banksies to behold. After a long walk along the canal, we found nothing but the spot which may have once been home to a Banksy. Fail. Sad.
Lucky for us, we were already in Camden, which is a great neighbourhood to hang out in regardless of the reason. It was Sunday, too, which means that the market was in full swing and the streets were alive with people. We walked through the stalls and shops a bit before stumbling upon something better than we could have dreamed of. Chin Chin Laboratorists. I had never heard of it, which is interesting because I consider myself an ice cream connoisseur. At any rate, a sign in the window dubbing it London's best ice cream pulled us into the queue to join the other eager patrons in waiting. The bumping music in a nearby clothing stall kept our spirits up as we waited for about 15 minutes for our turn at the mixers.
I guess I should explain. Chin Chin Labs is one of many ice cream shops that have recently popped up selling something called Nitrogen ice cream. Chin Chin claims to be Europe's first nitrogen ice cream parlour, but I'm not sure if I believe it. However, first or not, Chin Chin stands above all of the rest because these folks have actually got it down to a science. They do 3 or 4 flavours at a time, vanilla, chocolate, and whatever happens to be the "special" and "flavour of the week." Delightful. They mix the stuff up right in front of you in a row of Kitchen Aid mixers and pour in liquid nitrogen (which is, as the guy with the super protective glove said, "boiling cold") and voila, ice cream. Not just any ice cream, though. It's the creamiest, smoothest, most flavourful ice cream this tongue has ever had the fortune to sample. Perhaps I'm going a bit over the top. But seriously, it was divine.
So we chatted with the guy mixing up our individual batches of ice cream, and he told us how it worked and what they do. The Watermelon Sorbet, which was the "special," is apparently made of nothing but watermelon juice. It tasted like it too. Have I mentioned it was divine? In an effort to reduce my rambling, simply feast your eyes on this:
