I have not fully recovered from the Rainbow Bagels Saga when a friend tempted me to go to the newly opened ice cream waffle joint called Eggloo. 

We braced New York February weather and stopped in our track near Eggloo. There on Mulberry Street was a long line of people waiting to buy their egg waffle cones. Since we could not stand the cold, we went home and came back the next week, calmly observing the choices available written on a blackboard.

Egg waffles are made from eggs, flour, sugar and milk, cooked between two waffle irons containing semi-spherical molds. Eggloo patrons choose waffle flavors from original, matcha green tea, or chocolate with fillings of either fruity pebbles, M&Ms, cookies & cream, mocha or diced almonds. The shop has savory egg waffles such as Chinese sausages and pizza for those who would like to stay away from sweets.

The next step is to choose a scoop of ice cream: vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry. Since its opening, Eggloo has added soft ice cream to its selection. Next come a selection of 2 out of 12 toppings: sprinkles, chocolate chips, fruity pebbles, blueberries, mocha, M&Ms, pocky, cookies & cream, almonds, strawberries, condensed milk and chocolate syrup.

Colorful mound of ice creams and toppings make Eggloo creations instagrammable and they became a social media sensation. The pairings of flavor (sweet or savory), texture (soft ice cream and crunchy toppings) , and temperature (hot waffle and cold ice cream) also make the egg waffles unique.

Egg waffles are very popular street food in HongKong, called gaidaan jai. In fact, Mike Tan and David Lin co-founded Eggloo in New York based on reminiscences of egg waffles stand in China Town. They asked Jessica Tam, a wedding cake specialist, to join as a dessert expert to complement their business acumens. Mike Tan states that Eggloo is planning to experiment a lot more.

As Eggloo’s popularity skyrocketed, my curiosity of how the egg waffles fare in its original place increased. A few weeks after visiting Eggloo, I made it to Oddies Foodies, a tiny ice cream parlor and desert place in Wan Chai, Hong Kong that has gone viral due to its desert creations.

Its owner, Winnie Pang, is a graduate of the Le Cordon Bleu in France. Winnie says Oddies Foodies is constantly bringing new creations to its customers and keeps creating funky, different flavors to what the market offers.

The menu on the wall shows three choices of eggettes, the popular terms for egg waffles there: Night Wolf, The Mob and Shades. On a glass wall there was an illustration for Red Velvet Eggette.

Fusion eggettes at Oddies Foodies ranged from savory (kimchi, chine sausage, ham & cheese) to sweet (pineapple pastry, brownie choc chips, and vanilla rice pudding).

The choices of pairings and my matcha craving made me settled for The Mob, a concoction of black sesame mocha eggettes, served with Italian low fat milk gelato, apple yuzu jelly, home made matcha ice cream, citrus crunchy flakes and drizzled with rich matcha sauce.

Oddies Foodies is distinctive for its combination of eggettes and Italian low fat soft gelato, with choices of original (milk), 66% dark chocolate, and mix.

The Mob did not disappoint me, although some patrons say their favorites is Night Wolf, a mixture of Italian low fat twist soft gelato, served with bread crumbs, caramelized banana ice cream, passion fruit panna cotta, brownie and chocolate chip eggettes, sprinkled with crunchy flakes.

Egg waffle, eggette, bubble waffle, gaidaan jai, or whatever you call it, is a desert phenomenon not only because it is a comfort food for some, but also because of its jazziness in social media.

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Text & Images: Maira Niode