My Fulbright Year in Taiwan

Now that the weather is warming up, it’s time to start enjoying a local treat, shaved ice 挫冰.

If you’ve ever made snow ice cream by putting syrup on clean snow, then you have some idea about this food. You use a machine to shave a bowl of snow from a block of ice, which may be made of plain water, sweetened water, or even frozen milk (my favorite). Then you choose what you want on it.

I like traditional and simple: sweet mung beans 綠豆. Evan likes mango.

You eat it with a spoon, like ice cream. It’s a great way to cool down on a hot day. And because it’s ice-based, not cream-based, it has a lot fewer calories than ice cream.

This is a super-deluxe ice: chocolate syrup, sweet red beans in the middle, and a scoop of chocolate ice cream on the top.

Yummy!