A taste of ... Boston with Krishna Botica from Saan

Krishna Botica recalls the delicious mix-in ice cream first popularised in the 1980s. Photo / Getty Images

My family moved to downtown Boston in 1985. As a wide-eyed 14-year-old from Onehunga the shock was both cultural and culinary.

From my fifth-floor bedroom window, I could watch the antics of the uni students dancing on their fraternity and sorority house rooftops or playing gridiron on the streets below, even over fallen trees during Hurricane Elena.

Krishna Botica went from growing up in Onehunga to living Boston as a teenager. Photo / Getty Images

Finding a park was a 30-minute exercise any day of the week and it took another five minutes to execute the nine-point parallel parks to get in. My walk to the subway to get to school came with a warning… "Don't stop to talk to the vagrants!".

Orange juice came in a frozen cardboard package of concentrate and lunch at school was a hot meal from an army-like canteen. I came to love Cape Cod kettle chips a decade before they arrived in New Zealand.

Steve Herrell in his Massachusetts ice cream store in 1996. Photo / Getty Images

It was Steve's Ice Cream parlour that stole my heart though. Gourmet ice cream was taking Massachusetts by storm and Steve's was the best. "Mix-ins" was the rage: your flavour du jour was slapped on to a bench, pressed into a two-centimetre thick slab and your favourite lollies, nuts or fresh fruit were folded in before being flipped into your pottle. My favourite combination was "Cinna-nana" (cinnamon and banana ice cream) with M&M's mixed in. It's easy enough to make at home 30 years on and the flavours bring back memories of that time.

- Krishna Botica is the co-founder of Cafe Hanoi, Saan and Xuxu Dumpling Bar

Cinna-nana ice cream with M&M's

Don't let summer pass you by without trying Krishna's delicious, easy recipe for ice cream. Photo / Getty Images

1½ cups of milk
1½ cups of cream
400g can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup mashed ripe banana. Very ripe bananas are the best! Frozen ones are fine to use too.
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Simply combine all the above ingredients together in a blender and blitz! Transfer the mixture to a freezer-friendly container, place in freezer and stir every four hours till frozen. When you're ready for a treat, mix in your favourite lollies, scoop into your favourite bowls and garnish with extra cinnamon.