Meet Kulfi’s Falooda, the Popular South Asian Dessert Drink
Image: Amber Day
Kiran Cheema calls Kulfi, the frozen treat shop she owns with husband Gagan Aulakh, a “complete fluke.” She started by making kulfi at home for friends, then selling it at farmers markets and pop-ups, then at a tiny shop on Alberta and, finally, a larger one on N Williams.
Today, Kulfi sells its namesake frozen treat—a thicker, richer version of ice cream often served like a Popsicle—as well as traditional ice cream, with flavors like saffron pistachio and golden milk honeycomb. But the wildest item on the menu has to be the falooda, a popular dessert throughout South Asia that combines ice cream or kulfi with syrups, basil seeds, jellies, and something you’ll almost never find in American ice cream shops, noodles.
The final kaleidoscopic creation is like a cross between boba tea and ice cream float. In summer, the shop goes through around 300 a week.
Nuts A sprinkling of ground cashews, almonds, and pistachios for a bit of crunch.
Ice cream Typically, the ice cream matches the syrup—mango with mango, rose with rose—while the dairy-free version gets a coconut cream base with mango. But customers often mix and match ingredients. Cheema’s a big fan of rose and saffron as a pairing.
Jelly Vivid red, faintly strawberry-flavored gelatin cubes bounce and jiggle in the cup.
Noodles Here’s where things get neat: thin wheat noodles chopped into short segments so they can be easily slurped through a straw. Cheema says they add more texture than flavor, not unlike tapioca beads in boba.
Milk Sweetened milk (or a mix of coconut cream and almond milks for the dairy-free version), swirls the whole thing into a colorful maelstrom.
Basil seeds The seeds soak in water for about 10 minutes until they soften and develop a jelly-like halo, not unlike chia seeds in a drink.
Syrup Sweetened syrup at the base of the cup serves as the backbone flavor. The shop goes through a lot of Rooh Afza, a rose syrup; mango falooda uses a mango puree.
