Rio Ice Cream

Rio Ice Cream sits on Point Pedro Road in Nallur, a few minutes' walk from the Kandaswamy temple, and has been operating from the same junction since 1965 by widely-cited local accounts. It is the closest thing the peninsula has to a single shared dessert institution: most Jaffna families have been coming here for two or three generations, and the place fills in the long evening hours when the temple crowds spill back through Nallur.

What sets Rio apart from a generic ice-cream shop is the use of local fruit. The standard catalogue of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry is there for the children, but the flavours that people come for are the ones that draw on the produce of the peninsula: palmyra, custard apple, mango, avocado, jackfruit, and the seasonal fruits as they appear. The palmyra and the custard apple are the ones to try if it is your first visit.

The shop itself is straightforward. Fluorescent lighting, a long counter, plastic seating, a queue that moves quickly. The standard order is a single scoop in a cup or a sundae of two or three flavours. Cash works everywhere; card payment is sometimes accepted at the main counter. There is a takeaway window for those passing through.

The best hours are between six and nine in the evening, after the heat has gone out of the day and the families have come out. Earlier in the afternoon the place is quieter and the seating is easier to find; it is rarely closed.

For visitors, Rio is a useful counterpoint to a heavier meal. Pair it with an early-evening visit to the Nallur kovil, a thali at Mangos a few hundred metres away, or a walk along the Point Pedro Road to soak up the ordinary rhythm of an evening in Nallur.