Salep Ice Cream Cafe opens in Ronkonkoma

There may be no treat more universal — and universally loved — than ice cream: Sweet, creamy and cold is, apparently, something every culture can agree upon.

But that’s not to say that ice cream is the same in every country. Turkey has a long tradition of blending salep, a finely ground powder made from orchid roots, into the milk, cream and sugar to produce an ice cream, "dondurma," with a distinctive texture that is a bit stretchy, a bit chewy, but entirely delicious.

And Salep is the name of a new ice cream shop where Gulden Durdu is bringing a little bit of her ancestral home, Turkey, to Ronkonkoma.

"Americans love ice cream," she said. "My goal was to introduce them to a different taste."

Only a few of the flavors are made with salep — and they tend to sell out quickly — but many more of them highlight eastern Mediterranean flavors such as baklava, Dubai chocolate and a suave, seductive tahini. Other flavors include banana-Oreo-peanut butter, maple walnut, black cherry and chocolate brownie. One generous scoop is $5.05; floats, shakes, sundaes and splits range from $8.19 to $13.40. (Cash prices are lower.)

You may notice a certain subtlety of hue here as Durdu uses no artificial colorings: Her strawberry, made only with the fruit, is a pale pink; her pistachio barely green — though it is studded with roasted nuts.

The production of dondurma is more time consuming than that of traditional American ice cream. And, truth be told, the texture of Salep’s salep-infused offerings is only slightly different since there’s no one on staff here who has mastered the art of kneading, beating, pulling the ice cream to achieve maximum stretch.

Still, her Turkish customers appreciate the effort. "They ship Turkish ice cream to the United States," Durdu said, "but it’s very hard to find someone making it from scratch."

While she spent most of her career in the financial industry, the ice cream shop is a return to her culinary roots: She grew up in her father’s bakery in Brooklyn. Durdu's brother owns Prestano Bakery, in the adjacent shopping center, so their father still keeps his hand in the business of making sweets.

Salep, which opened in July, is a bright and welcoming place done up in white, soft pink and blond wood. When you’re inside, it’s hard to picture that this freestanding building used to be the old O’Brien’s Pub. There are plenty of tables and chairs where you can enjoy not only ice cream but also coffee (espresso, Turkish, lattes, etc.) tea (including matcha and chai lattes), smoothies and lassis, crepes, waffles and baklava. In fact, why not have a piece of baklava split and filled with ice cream?

Salep Ice Cream Cafe, 920 Johnson Ave., Ronkonkoma, 631-285-3432, Instagram: @salep_icecream. Open Sunday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.