Cool Summer Treat

A couple of weeks ago, when one of C's colleagues was in town, he introduced us to a pretty funky food place that I might blog about at some other time. He was born in Okinawa and has some real interests in things Asian (for all sorts of reasons) and therefore was a willing partner in my need to have a shave ice since it was too big to have on my own. Not to mention that the soaring temperatures in this town would have made it impossible to eat this thing while still in ice form.

I had my very first Asian shave ice twenty years ago in Okinawa while I was "backpacking" around the Ryukyu Islands. I remember it being a welcome refreshing cool down to a really hot day in the city of Naha. It is basically a large pile of shaved ice with a variety of toppings. Unlike the American shave ices that have flavored syrup added, these ices tend to be more substantial. This one has sweet red beans and mung beans (also sweet) with colored giant tapioca at the base of it. Other variations included a scoop of ice cream at the pinnacle, vanilla syrup all over the pile, or pineapple chunks. Given that it is ice and therefore has no flavor at all, you could embellish it with almost anything.

This mountain reduced itself to some serious mush really quickly, but not before C (the colleague) and I ate all of the beans and most of the ice. One of the reasons to actually like summer in this very hot city.