Out & About #138 | Bar Ape + Food Randoms

I remember reading about how Bar Ape was one of those food trucks that was particularly difficult to spot, yet still had quite the loyal following.
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Waltzing around the Sweet Jesus area (but not wanting to go for melty soft serve again), I spotted a row of vivid-hued, food-serving vehicles parked along King Street. The ever-so-popular M.E.N.U (spotted previously at Night It Up!) was present and serving a lineup consisting of no less than ten people; across the street was a very compact truck, sporting a muted bronze and sky blue paint job: it was Bar Ape.

I sauntered jaunted up to the two men casually resting within the vehicle, and was promptly acknowledged. As someone with little to zero knowledge regarding their business, I proceeded with ask for details on their products.
From my spontaneously-conducted on-the-spot research, I learned that Bar Ape specializes in unique (and rotating) flavours of gelato bars. All of their iced treats were crafted in-house, utilizing whole milk instead of cream, as well as a plant-based stabilizer as opposed to the traditional addition of egg yolk. It was especially nice to witness the incredible enthusiasm demonstrated in the tone in which the man described his products.

I ordered a Chocolate Orange Gelato Bar (orange sorbetto encased in a firm, chocolate shell) and a Chocolate Hazelnut Gelato Bar (hazelnut gelato covered with the same chocolate shell, but then further topped with chopped hazelnut pieces). Each bar was priced on par with Haagen Dazs - $5 each. (And, oh, it was cash-only.)

The bars were extracted from a mini freezer located within the truck and handed to me as soon as I had paid. Though, wanting to capture a few photos of the truck itself, the man offered to keep them chilled for me until I was ready to indulge.
At this point of my obsessive image-capturing expedition, I have become fairly accustomed to being caught in sticky, inconvenient situations where I have too many things to carry, and simply not enough hands to handle a camera simultaneously. His offer was probably one of the best things I've heard in the past several months, and I could not appreciate it enough! As the process was taking place, wandering pedestrians too became curious customers, yet I was still welcome to take my photos as Bar Ape continued with their business.

The bars were unveiled once I had set my equipment down - each was individually wrapped in wax paper-like packaging and was still very much firm to the touch. An aspect of gelato (and other frozen goods, for that matter) that I greatly despise is their tendency to melt rapidly. That being said, I was extremely relieved that the bars could be photographed and slowly savoured without showing any signs of disintegration.

While I cannot speak for the Chocolate Hazelnut, I commend the Chocolate Orange concoction for its ability to clearly distinguish between a refreshing, subtly tart orange sorbet and a crunchy shell exhibiting a deep chocolate flavour. The layers contrasted greatly, but complimented each other all the same. And while I have already mentioned this, it is important to reiterate that the bar did not melt quickly like the various other variations I've tried in my lifetime. (Munching on this induced such bliss!)

Unfortunately, the day I picked these up happened to coincide with Bar Ape's last stay at the location. As autumn temperatures are rearing the corner, they are now officially closed for the year. Thank goodness I had the opportunity to experience their wonderful gelato bars before season's end! I shall definitely be keeping an eye out for their future handcrafted gelato bars, as well as making sure to draw attention to their equitably beautifully-crafted wooden Bar Ape figure and colourful Italian-import truck.

The remainder of this post will consist of, as one can probably suspect, food randoms that had not been included previously.

Among these is a Sesame Sticky Rice Breakfast Pudding layered between various fruit (to supply both added nutrition and pops of colour), a less-than-formidable Green Tea Mooncake from T&T, and two attempts at brewing up my own Nutella Latte (as the one from Studio.89 really had me craving.

Though a few days late, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
And a big Happy Chuseok! to those that follow K-Pop and Korean culture as closely as myself (Hehe).