Dylan PatelFounder and Chief Analyst, SemiAnalysis · The semiconductor-AI stack

Hand-Spun Dreams: Why Fidel Cortés Jr.’s Street Nieves Might Lure SF AI Researchers to NYC

27 Nov 2025 · 1 min

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1:25

Fidel Cortés Jr. has been hand-spinning Mexican ice cream on a New York street for twenty years with just fruit, water, and cane sugar. Each batch takes two hours to spin. The hosts taste mango with tajín and coconut, marveling at the freshness and the family operation behind it.

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We're in New York trying the viral Mexican ice cream. They call it nieves in Mexico. It's essentially a Mexican ICEE. It's run by this dude, Fidel. He's been on this block with his family making the same homemade hand-spun ice cream for 20 years. Each canister takes 2 hours of nonstop spinning. He's putting everyone to work back there. It's literally 3 ingredients: fresh fruit, water, and cane sugar. And they rotate the flavors depending on what's fresh. All right, we're gonna start off with their mango. Oh yeah. Oh, fuck yeah! This has got to be one of the most refreshing desserts in the entire world. You got chunks of actual fresh mango in here, and the tajín on top gives it a little spice, and you can just taste the love in it. That ice cream truck has a lot of balls pulling up to this corner. He's got to get the fuck out of here. All right, next up we have coconut. This consistency looks so luscious. I knew it. I need to go give that man a hug.
The coconut is insane. Well, after that, I gotta try the coconut.
It's really inspiring seeing you and your wife and the kids out here working so hard. I want to buy the next 50 ice creams for people that come, so can you charge me for the next 50?
All right, let's do it.
Keep doing you, Patel. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.