We All Scream for . . . Squid Ice Cream?

Eighteen years ago, Manuel Da Silva Oliveira had a small snack bar that offered just four ice cream flavors.

Then he saw a television show about a Brazilian who made avocado-flavored ice cream, and Oliveira got an inspiration that has brought him fame--as an unparalleled creator of bizarre ice creams.

After watching the show, Oliveira went to work trying to re-create the avocado concoction. “I lost 45 kilos [99 pounds] of ice cream because it kept crystallizing,” he recalls. “After 50 kilos [110 pounds] I achieved it.”

He introduced more new flavors, and business took off. Today you can wander into his Coromoto ice cream parlor and ask for some tuna fish ice cream. If that doesn’t suit your taste, you can always try onion, spinach or a perennial favorite, fried pork rind.

Oliveira’s inventiveness has won him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as owner of the ice cream shop with the most flavors. At last count he was up to 709.

“I wanted to create something that didn’t exist in the world,” says Oliveira, a mirthful 68-year-old who proudly proclaims that most people, including his wife, called him crazy when he started.

The Portuguese immigrant’s shop is a local landmark, with flavors like carrot, tomato, shrimp, squid, bean, trout, spaghetti, corn, rose petal, garlic, champagne and chili pepper (yes, it’s hot).

Amazingly, many don’t taste as disgusting as they sound. The trout is creamy, sweet and not unpleasant--unless you don’t fancy chunks of fish floating about in your ice cream. The same goes for the shredded beef.

“You think it can’t possibly be true, but when you try it the combination is delicious,” said Elizabeth Sanchez, an engineer on vacation who stopped by recently to try a scoop of shrimp and a scoop of beer. It was good, she said, even though “you feel kind of strange” eating it.

Later, she had a mix of coffee and liqueurs dubbed “Coffee and the Scent of Woman” after a Colombian soap opera.

When Oliveira first started out, professors at a local university, fearful the bizarre ice creams could be dangerous, sent students to smuggle out samples to be tested in laboratories. The professors never released their findings, and customers kept pouring in.

Oliveira says his recipes, all with natural ingredients, are a family secret. The only other people who work in the store are a daughter, a nephew and a son-in-law.

He cooks the fish, spaghetti and meat in the back kitchen, then mixes it with ice cream. Oliveira says he has no problem selling all the flavors he makes.

The Coromoto--named after Venezuela’s patron saint--also offers more traditional flavors such as chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and coconut. They’re mainly for children, who often are “scared” by the unusual flavors, Oliveira says.

Not all 709 flavors are offered every day. Customers choose from a rotating menu with 60 flavors. The top sellers are corn, rose petal, trout and a concoction Oliveira recently came up with called “France-98” in honor of the World Cup soccer competition in France. It includes champagne, brandy, wine, almonds and other nuts.

The business has attracted visitors from as far away as Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the United States and Russia, who also come to this picturesque city of snow-capped Andean mountains to ride the world’s longest and highest cable car. Photos and cards from customers along with a list of all the flavors fill the store’s walls.

On his best day ever, Oliveira says he sold 1,800 cups of ice cream in eight hours--about one every 15 seconds.