Q: Until last year, there was a tiny shop in Allston, MA, called Fun Food Snackery. They had an amazing treat called Summer Snow. Unfortunately the shop has closed down and I've never seen a similar dessert. It was shaved ice, which was incredibly smooth and soft, topped with chopped fruit, syrup, and a scoop of ice cream. The syrup may have been coconut milk.
Does anyone know of this dessert or have a recipe for something similar?
Sent by Jen
Editor: Jen, wow! That sounds (and looks) delicious. We are unfortunately at a loss, though, as to how to reproduce this. We would suggest finding a way to make your own shaved ice and start playing around with coconut syrups and such.
But maybe a reader can be more helpful — has anyone made anything like this at home?
Related: A Snow Cone-Like Cocktail from the 1950s
(Image: Flickr member XiamenCast)
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It sounds like a lot of icy desserts many asian countries have. If the syrup seemed like coconut, you could make a coconut syrup easily by heating coconut milk and sugar to taste (maybe a cup per can of coconut milk?). Some recipes call for condensed milk. Other desserts even have both the shaved ice and a scoop of ice cream. You can use a combination of fresh and sweetened jarred/canned fruit, depending on what you want. You can't really go wrong here. I would look up icy dessert recipes from different countries--Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, and many others--to get some ideas.
I just did a google seach of "asian icy desserts" based on soco's response and found this link that might be helpful as a starting point: http://www.menuism.com/blog/2009/08/07/cooling-off-with-asian-shaved-ice-desserts/
I'm with soco and AlisonCJ that this is likely an americanized riff of a south asian treat. The one that ends up in my RSS feed the most often is the Korean version of this, Patbingsu. Here are a couple of posts that have been on Serious Eats in the past:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/08/how-to-make-patbingsu-korean-shaved-ice-recipe.html
http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/06/snapshots-from-south-korea-patbingsu-a-popular-shaved-ice-dessert.html
My first thought was condensed milk but who knows? I recommend Korean patbingsu which you can see what's in it by following the link provided above by AlisonCJ. I grew up eating it every summer and it is the best dessert ever!
I used some Google-fu and suspect what you're looking for is Hawaiian shaved ice. This stuff is very very fine & powdery and often served with a scoop of ice cream. The reviews on the Yelp page for the defunct Fun Food Snackery mentions Hawaiian shaved ice (another search shows you may be able to find this at Hula Moon Cafe in Rockport).
The syrup on top is probably condensed milk (available at any market). If you go to an Asian market/neighborhood, you may even be able to find a cheap hand-powered ice shaver. That's what my family had when I was a kid (in Los Angeles). You use a large block of ice so the ice shavings are more fine. Chinese cuisine also has a shaved ice dessert called "bao bing". If there are any Taiwanese cafes near you, you may be able to find it there. They will typically have a wider variety of toppings but also a coarser shaved ice.
This is definitely just another version of a popular Asian dessert. In the Philippines, we call it halo-halo (literally "mix-mix") and it includes sweet beans, fruit, condensed milk and shaved ice, among other things. If you go to an Asian grocer, you could probably find a similar syrup (or it may have been the syrup poured from a jar of preserved fruit, like jackfruit, or something similar).
I can confirm that this is Hawaiian shaved ice - I've had it in Hawaii several times, and there's a Hawaiian restaurant in my hometown that specializes in it (although they made theirs with vanilla frozen yogurt). Nothing better on a hot summer day!
Oh, I remember the Fun Food Snackery! I'm pretty sure the "syrup" was sweetened condensed milk. If you want to make this at home, you can find ice shaving machines at Asian grocery stores. If you want to eat something similar at a restaurant, you can try the shaved ice desserts at Jojo Taipei, also in Allston. =)
It's actually a pretty common Korean dessert! Try the patbingsu at Color Korean Restaurant (in Allston). It's very similar - includes green tea ice cream, fruits, and sweet syrup on top.
Trust me, you're not going to be able to get soft shaved ice like that at home short of buying a big ice shaving machine like they probably used. A cheapo ice shaver in any store's summery aisle right now is closest but its still going to be icier than I think you want.
The syrup sounds from what you're saying like it was just cream of coconut or (probably cheaper for them) coconut snoball syrup mixed with condensed milk. I'd try that.
YUMMMM!!!! I definitely loove this dessert in the summer! =) good luck with recreating this delicious recipe!
Sounds like it could be some variation of Korea's summer dessert: pot bing soo?
http://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=pot%20bing%20su&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi
The best shave ice place in Hawaii said that maybe more important than than the big fancy machine is the ice. They order it from people who do it so that it shaves really fine. I saw on Diners, Dives... a place in Texas that freezes their own ice using a special liquid to get the same result.
'Snow Cap' in Hawaii is Sweetened Condensed milk.
It's probably a Taiwanese dessert called tsua bing. It's (1) shaved ice (very fine, I have no idea how they do it), (2) carnation sweetened condensed milk, and (3) whatever toppings you like (usually ice cream scoops, fruit, red or green mung beans, taro, and all sorts of jellies). I've had it several times in Houston and Austin. It's sweet and cold and delicious. Always too big for just me, so I share it with friends. Here is a link to a Wikipedia page that attempts to describe it for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baobing
It's a Taiwanese dessert called tsua bing. In Chinese, it's Baobing. It's shaved ice, carnation sweetened condensed milk poured on top, ice cream scoop(s), and toppings of your choice (mung beans are AWESOME on it! but also plain old strawberries, bananas, mangoes, etc. taro is popular as well).
Here's the closest link I can find that might describe it better for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baobing
Oops, sorry about the multiple posts. There must have been a glitch of sorts! It said there were zero comments until 1 minute ago!
Totally Hawaiian shave ice! The syrup on top of the flavor-syrup is usually sweetened condensed milk, and they call it "Kauai cream" there. And it's great with Haupia (coconut) flavored ice cream on the bottom. My favorite place there is Local Boys in Maui- maybe look them up and see if you can order their machine? It's all about the ice shaving machine- otherwise it's too crystallized and snow-cone like instead of powdery. That's cool that Allston had it for a little while at least.
Shave ice was originally shaved by hand using a metal hand plane-type tool (http://www.amazon.com/Old-Fashioned-Plane-Type-Shaver/dp/B000FH8GD6). Instead of going the modern route, maybe you can find one of these—definitely easier to store. The big machines are essentially drill presses that have been customized a bit. Maybe you can DIY that? Biggest advice: don't buy anything that crushes, grates, or pulverizes the ice. It's gotta be a blade or blades....