Sand and Stones

This is ice cream?

Apparently so.

My dad is currently in Russia for work and sent us that picture. Apparently it's ice cream that has the literal translation of "silica and stones." I tried Googling it, but to no avail. The picture is from somewhere in St. Petersburg.

Is it a common, normal Russian dessert? I'd guess not, though Google can lie.

Is it really ice cream? Yeah, my pops wouldn't make it up.

Was it a fluke thing presented to my dad to be impressive since his company deals within silica and the like? Potentially, though rocks for ice cream may not be the way I'd go about it...

The mystery of rock-looking ice cream has yet to be solved, but apparently it's Russian.