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Indian flavours rule the freezer cabinet at Icy Spicy in Parramatta. There’s ice-cream inspired by gulkand (rose petal jam), gulab jamun (syrup-splashed fried semolina balls) and the tart tropical zing of green mango. Some Icy Spicy scoops are confetti-hit with extra flavour, such as the pink guava ice-cream showered with vibrant chilli-salt seasoning.

With 32 flavours in rotation, you might think the “Spicy” in the business name comes from hotter options. Such as Silly Chilli, featuring “red chillies, soaked, boiled, cooked and churned into ice-cream”, says co-founder Indrajeet Magar. There are literal warning signs when the flavour’s available, alerting customers to its no-joke fiery intensity.

But the “Spicy” in Icy Spicy refers to the eatery’s other specialty: momo (dumplings) with punchy chilli chutney. Available in a rainbow of flavours, from spinach-green to aloo-cheese yellow, the momo can also be served as a “burger” with lettuce and cheese.

These are more like mini bao sliders than a supersized Big Mac – so you’ll have room to try other appealing options from Icy Spicy’s all vegetarian menu.

There’s fried beetroot momo, its vivid filling matching its bright-pink casing, which crackles with a brilliant dim-sim-like crunch. That’s the standout flavour, according to local writer Andrew Levins (whose @parramattafood Instagram account introduced me to Icy Spicy). I also love the sharp bite of the pepper mushroom momo, and the gingery charge of the Schezwan dumplings. Both have multicultural influences. The pepper mushroom momo is inspired by “a vegetarian quesadilla”, Magar explains. The spiced Schezwan flavour reflects the cuisine that developed in India (along with this spelling of Sichuan) after the 18th-century arrival of Hakka-Chinese workers in Kolkata.

Other migration trails shape Icy Spicy’s momo. The eatery exists because Magar and his co-founder Rohit Sanga missed food from their Indian homeland. Dumplings surfaced on the menu because Sanga’s wife, Inkumit Lepcha, prepares them. The momo at Icy Spicy is “very Indian style”, says Magar, with a base of cabbage, onion, coriander and butter that’s tailored to various flavours, from masala paneer to the kid-friendly aloo cheese, with its soft potato-cushioned filling.

Magar and Sanga were “cricket buddies” when they decided to merge momo and ice-cream into a business. Sanga brought his wife’s dumplings to the grounds and “everybody polished it”, Magar recalls. The “Icy” side sees Magar evoking his Kolhapur upbringing. The brilliant pink guava ice-cream, blanketed with chilli seasoning, recalls eating fresh-cut fruit sprinkled with salt and spices in India. The bracing green mango ice-cream benefits from that high-contrast chilli powder dusting, too.

One drawcard of Icy Spicy’s freezer cabinet is the Alphonso mango. Icy Spicy sources pulp from Ratnagiri for this flavour, and given how rare it is to taste the Alphonso here, it’s worth ordering a scoop to size up the hype. Writer Myles Karp memorably described the Alphonso as tasting like “the souls of 10 mangoes” concentrated into one fruit.

This was one of the six flavours Icy Spicy launched with in Seven Hills in June 2021, just before Sydney’s four-month COVID lockdown. Community demand led to a second shop in Parramatta, and Icy Spicy now has outlets in western Sydney, Victoria and Queensland. Magar suspects it’s because ice-cream is a “happy food” – but so are the other menu items, from the “Maggie-Masala” that’s a wonderfully spiced take on instant noodles to the colourful spectrum of momo worth returning for.