Guillermo Medina, an Air Force technical sergeant, stopped by the small Oasis Ice Cream Parlor on Coronado Avenue recently for his favorite orange sorbet – his second visit in two days.
Medina, who has been an Oasis customer for 20 years, traveled this month to visit his mother in southern San Diego, as he does twice a year, from his home in San Antonio.
"This is probably the best ice cream I have ever tasted," Medina said while his mother sat in the car. "I'm here every day I'm in town. My mother didn't want anything today. She's not as addicted as I am."
Such is the devotion of fans of the fresh fruit frozen ice bars, sorbets and ice creams – famous all over Mexico – that are made "Michoacan-style" with a top-secret recipe by Juan and Juanita Andrade. The Andrades founded the Oasis nearly three decades ago, and today they still operate the small shop with a fan base that runs generations deep.
The Andrade name is synonymous with the small town of Tocumbo, Michoacan, in central Mexico, where the first fresh-fruit and homemade "La Michoacana" ice cream shops were opened in the 1940s by Juan Andrade's great-aunt and great-uncle.Thousands of shops now exist all over Mexico.
Juan Andrade hails from Tocumbo and is part of a large family of ice cream makers. He said many of his aunts, uncles and cousins in Mexico are in the frozen flavored ices and sorbet business. Juan and Juanita Andrade guard their recipes. They say fresh fruit is the No. 1 ingredient.
"We make it by hand, the old-fashioned way with no preservatives," Juan Andrade said. "It's the way we like to do it."
The Andrades work out of their small, nondescript frozen-dessert refuge, which sits in the middle of a strip mall at Coronado Avenue and Saturn Boulevard in Nestor.
For those craving fresh lime or mango sorbet, creamy chocolate or banana ice cream, or even a pepino con chile paleta, a cucumber and chile flavored ice on a stick, the Oasis has been the place to go for the past 27 years.
Roy Woodard of Nestor stopped recently to have his favorite cantaloupe shake for a midmorning snack. He said his girlfriend got him hooked on the fresh melon concoction.
"It might sound weird, but if you taste it, it's great, so fresh," said Woodard, an Army recruiter originally from Texas. "I've tried the trail mix, and the strawberry and cream is awesome. I love this place. I'm here every other day."
The Andrades opened their ice cream parlor in 1978. Business has been good, helping two of their four children who wanted to go through college. Not only have Mexicans homesick for the Michoacan-style ice cream visited, their children have as well.
Over the years, more non-Latinos, such as Claude Janowicz of Imperial Beach, began discovering the mom-and-pop shop. Janowicz said he's been buying from the Andrades for 25 years. The Andrades say half their customers speak Spanish and the other half English.
"My husband introduced them to the fruit ice cream, and they really loved it," Juanita Andrade said. "Before that, they used to only want vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. Now, many American people like the fruit."
Janowicz said he also likes the prices. Fruit-only paletas are $1.35 and milk-based paletas are $1.45. Both the sorbet and ice cream are $1.15 for a single scoop. A pint of ice cream is $4.75 and milkshakes start at $3. A mixed-fruit salad topped with granola and honey starts at $4.
Fresh sorbets and ice creams are made daily. Hundreds of colorfulpaletas are stacked in the parlor's large freezers. Some flavors, such as mango, are seasonal. Juan Andrade travels nearly every day to downtown San Diego to buy the "very best fresh fruit," even when some is out of season.
In a small back room, Juanita Andrade peels the fruit by hand and begins preparing it to mix with their secret ingredient, which they will only say is in a special cream they have prepared especially for them in Los Angeles.
Sometimes they make lime, watermelon or honeydew melon sorbets and ice creams. Sometimes they make tamarind, peanut butter or coffee-flavored frozen treats. For the adventurous, there is the spicy cucumber or the spicy chamoy (apricot pulp) with lime.
Elena Palma, 21, of Imperial Beach visited the store with her sister and niece. She raved about the cantaloupe sorbet she was eating and bragged about trying every flavor in the store.
"I remember when they first made the peanut butter," Palma said. "It was good. When the mango is in season, it's great. Everything is superb."
The Andrades do a brisk business most weekday afternoons with students from nearby Marion Catholic High School, Emory Elementary and Mar Vista Middle School. Sunday also is a popular day. Lines often form outside the store. Some customers sit inside or take the one plastic table and chairs outside. The parlor is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.
Some customers from out of town or out of state buy paletas by the dozens, packing them in dry ice for family back home. Others borrow a small pushcart from the Andrades and fill it with paletas for children's parties.
The Andrades say they love their work because ice cream always makes people smile. They have customers who used to come in as children who now bring their own children.
"We're kind of old, so it makes us happy that people are still coming for our ice cream," Juanita Andrade said. "They always say, "We love it' and, 'This is the best ice cream anywhere.' "
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Source: http://legacy.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/metro/20050616-9999-6m16oasis.html