Malai Ice Cream is on the Menu This Summer, by Erin DeGregorio

Why did the reporter get ice cream? Because she needed the inside scoop!

There’s nothing more satisfying than having that first spoonful or lick of your favorite flavored ice cream on a hot summer day. The Red Hook Star-Revue experienced that firsthand during New York City’s most recent heat wave during a trip to Malai Ice Cream (268 Smith Street).

Malai was the perfect respite as the heat index reached 99 by mid-afternoon on a cloudless, humid Friday last month—also coincidentally deemed National Ice Cream Month among other observations. We spoke with owner Pooja Bavishi while kids and adults alike walked in to stay cool with a much-needed delectable treat.

A first-generation Indian American, Bavishi founded Malai in 2015 after she discovered that the same South Asian spices of her childhood—ginger, rose petals, saffron, and cardamom—could be used to robustly flavor ice creams in a way that she had never tasted before. She set a goal as she sold her product at local food fairs and markets on the weekends. “I wanted—and still want—to make these flavors so mainstream so that it feels as typical and normal to pull a pint of masala chai out of your grocery store freezer, as it is a pint of cookies and cream,” Bavishi said while also pointing out flavors like lemon cardamom, orange fennel, and mango and cream.

In less than five years, Bavishi launched a wholesale business that began shipping nationwide and selling pints in select grocery stores and opened a “scoop shop” in Carroll Gardens for daily sales.

Soon after celebrating the one-year anniversary of the flagship store on March 2, 2020, however, Malai completely shut down for three months due to the coronavirus pandemic. Wholesale shipments luckily skyrocketed, and the shop reopened for to-go sales, sustaining the business and introducing more people to her non-mainstream flavors of eggless ice cream.

“Since day one, my favorite part of the business has been providing moments of joy in people’s everyday lives when they’re treating themselves to something at Malai,” Bavishi said. “We’re doing that through South Asian culture and awareness. I love it when I see people trying new flavors, especially one that they didn’t think they would like, and watching their faces light up.”

So, what has consistently been the most popular flavor since 2015? Rose with cinnamon roasted almonds according to sales and word of mouth. “Rose-flavored desserts, which are very common in the Middle East and South Asia, were things that I grew up with. Because I did not go to a single family get-together without having rose ice cream, I absolutely knew that I wanted something like that on the menu, but with a twist,” Bavishi explained. “Rose and pistachios, as well as rose and cardamom, are very commonly put together [separately in pairs], but I did rose and almond and rose and cinnamon. Customers expect this floral, perfumey kind of flavor that some may think could be off putting, but when they taste it, it’s actually sweet and floral in a non-overpowering way, with the cinnamon and almonds really cutting through in a way that’s really warming and comforting.”

Summer seasonal scoops on the menu right now include sweet corn saffron (based off of a corn pudding that Bavishi’s aunt in India makes), fig on fig (toasted fig leaves infused in the ice cream base and dried fig jam swirled in), and strawberry pie (a star anise ice cream base with a swirl of strawberry fennel jam and an Indian tea biscuit crust). Malai also serves homemade ice cream sandwiches, kulfi pops, and sorbets that include flavors like cilantro mint, lychee, and pineapple pink peppercorn (this reporter’s personal recommendation).