VillaNieve (Puebla, Pue; Mexico) ¡Helado For Lunch!

An Afternoon In Puebla


It was our 3rd day in Mexico and we were to waste no time, we were off to Puebla. We arrived at the Centro Camionero ‘Capu’ at 15:00 sharp. We took an ADO bus from Centro De Autobuses ‘Del Norte’ that left at noon and it was a rather scenic ride over, curvy toll roads surrounded with thick greenery of all kinds proved to be my endless entertainment all through the trek.



Corn Fields Forever


Upon arriving to Capu, I was nothing short of famished by the enduring drive. I had a breakfast of Mexican champions too, some leftover broccoli-like Huazontle fritters my uncle made me the night before. But I was in Puebla, and my mind tends to always over rule my stomach in matters like these.



Homemade Huazontle Fritters


We asked around and got directions to how to get downtown Puebla. I hadn’t done much research for where to eat so I was on my sans-technology own. I tried to make due with asking some of the local handicraft vendors on where they liked to eat but the places they had veered me to were more of the touristy type of places. I came for the food of the people.



Locals, Don’t Do Me Wrong Now


But my metabolism is that of a little boys and I had to get something in my system fast. Luckily, I had spotted this silver signage touting “VillaNieve Desde 1958” in that same touristy area (San Francisco) so decided to whet my appetite with a scoop of local ice cream. I think its actually a chain but I figured it had to be good since their was nothing but guys my age who were sharing Ice Cream with girls outside.




VillaNieve For Lunch


Inside, the layout was built like a traditional gelato shop. The mounds of frozen happiness were shaped thick, high and curiously carved with the water based ‘nieves’ on the right side and cream based ‘helados’ on the other.



A Gelato Shop In Puebla


It was overwhelming and I sampled away until the girl at the counter gave me the stink eye but I decided to stay on task and get a cup of Tamarindo nieve while my little sister took the more luxurious route and got ‘blueberry’.



Tamarind and Blueberry: Sibling Ice Cream Rivalry


Oh man was this stuff rich. I don’t know how they do it but just like sorbetto’s, this water based stuff was damn creamy. I was happy to see small remnants of mashed tamarind pulp in my scoops, and it was actually quite tart. But behind the tartness was enough sugar to almost stun my tongue. My sister’s blueberry was like 10x as rich as mine, with the texture of melted rubber and frozen butter. A little strength was needed to scoop out the stuff, crazy thick! It reminded me of the customary Buenos Aires Helado that Argentineans indulge in daily when I was there.



VillaNieve Viscosity


The ice cream probably had as much calories as a full meal but I was still hungry and it was time to get serious about lunch. It was time to hit up a fonda.

VillaNieve

4 Callo Oriente
Ciudad De Puebla
(Inside Plaza of Convento De San Francisco De La Ciudad De Puebla)
Mexico