Shaved Ice Cream

The first time I had shaved ice was on a trip to Taiwan with my husband. We went to a shaved ice store called Mango King, as well as a stall along one of Taiwan's numerous street markets. Every night, Taiwanese streets come alive with vendors selling all sorts of food. This includes snake soup, a Taiwanese delicacy I had the privilege of trying one night. Taiwan's street markets are one of the most interesting and fun things to do in Taiwan. Shaved ice is a popular Taiwanese dessert, easily found at street markets or local stores. Much as it sounds, shaved ice is ice that has been shaved and then placed into a bowl with numerous self-selected toppings, such as condensed milk, jelly and bubbles.

Recently, my husband and I found our first "trendy" shaved ice place in Manhattan. I put "trendy" in quotation marks because while there are shaved ice stores in Flushing or Chinatown, this is the first store that I have seen that has tried to take shaved ice mainstream. Called SNOWDAYS, and located close to the NYU campus, this establishment offers even better shaved ice than the kind we had in Taiwan. It is a thicker, almost creamier texture, which makes sense because according to SNOWDAYS' website they use milk in their shaved ice. At Snow Days, you can try one of their inventions or make your own flavor. My husband and I went the make your own combo route and got the Sweet Milk shaved ice with Condensed Milk and cornflakes as a topping. The cornflakes give the shaved ice some much needed texture and crunch. The combination was delicious. SNOWDAYS' motto is "Make Every Day a Snow Day" and I couldn't agree more. My husband and I will definitely be going back to SNOWDAYS and we'll be bringing friends!

The best part about SNOWDAYS is that they serve their shaved ice cream in these cute little monster cups. Pictured above is Sweet Milk shaved ice cream with Condensed Milk and cornflakes.