Japan 2012: Shaved Ice

As a kid, my favourite thing to eat in the summer time was shaved ice!  In one of my grandmother’s many parcels sent to us, she gave us a koala shaped, hand cranked, shaved ice machine.  We would make shaved ice and top it with condensed milk or different japanese fruit syrups like melon or strawberry and even my mom’s homemade anko (crushed red bean paste).  It wasn’t until I went on my first summer vacation to Japan did I really discover how much of a phenomenon shaved ice was in Japan.  So refreshing, they had so many elaborate versions of shaved ice in restaurants that are topped with various ice cream flavours and syrups.  They also sold packaged shaved ice at convenience stores – my favourite was lemon or melon flavour with vanilla ice cream – 100yen at the 7Eleven around the corner from my grandparents home in Sagamiko (just outside of Tokyo).  Because it was still the winter season, on this trip, I wasn’t able to find some of the unique shaved ice concoctions but I did find shaved ice.  My favourite: the “matcha” shaved ice!