“Shave Ice”, (aka; snow cone, snowball) could possibly be Hawaii’s official dessert. We don’t know anyone who doesn’t like a good shave ice on a hot Hawaiian day, especially after you spend an entire day at the beach, which is exactly what happened this weekend.
While visiting Waianae, we decided to visit The Shave Ice Truck, a new food truck that frequents Nanakuli Beach Park on the weekends. The purple van (originally owned by Fairycakes, and simply called “Lola”), still stands out with its new bright colored logo and curb appeal.
Shave Ice traces back to Japan, and was popularized in Hawaii after the Japanese plantation workers immigrated to the Hawaiian islands. Large blocks of ice are “shaved” very finely (just like snow) so that the syrups that our poured on top can be absorbed by ice.
We rushed to the window when we realized 3 other cars parking at the same time! Jaf wanted a “rainbow”, which consists of strawberry, banana and vanilla. The three colors blend nicely to give the effect of a rainbow. Lou Lou wanted passion fruit, guava and bubble gum (I know), but she had the option to choose 3 flavors so she chose that combination with ice cream for an additional 75 cents.
The menu is simple; Child: $4 and Adult: $5, and you can choose up to 3 flavors, with the most popular being; strawberry, vanilla, banana, coconut, mango, guava, bubble gum, passion fruit and pina colada. They even had “special” shave ice that was much more elaborate, which we also tried.
There were add on’s like the snow cap (sweetened condensed milk), azuki beans (sweet japanese beans), mochi (sweet rice flour dessert) for an additional 75 cents and the li hing mui powder for FREE which is very popular sweet, sour and salty flavoring originating from the li hing mui seed.
We ordered our shave ice and enjoyed ourselves as we cooled off under a tree. Everyone around us were doing the same.
You can find Shave Ice at various outlets around Oahu, but when in Nanakuli, visit The Shave Ice Truck!
Find Hawaiian Shave Ice here… and Enjoy!! 🙂