We Want Shaved Ice!

Shaved ice is the ultimate refreshment on days when the temperature rises above 25ºC and all you really want to do is hang out in the pool. Although, this list is pretty refreshing in itself too. We’re listing all the shaved ice you can find around the world. Because from Costa Rica to Pakistan, many countries have their own variation.

Raspado

In Mexico, you’ll find raspados everywhere: cups of shaved ice (raspar means to shave in Spanish, hence the name) drenched in syrup and lechera (condensed milk), topped with finely chopped fruit. The syrup is often homemade, which makes it thicker and richer than the chemical supermarket variety. You can opt for a simple raspado, but also for, say, a mangoyada: a cup full of shaved ice with typically Mexican sweets, chamoy sauce (a sweet-and-spicy sauce made from apricots, tamarind and guajillo peppers) and pieces of mango. It looks like this:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiXSfrLjPXO/?tagged=mangoyada

Granizado

You’ll find them especially along Costa Rica’s long beaches: vendors selling shaved ice from their rickety stalls. Shave the ice, pour cola syrup (which, incidentally, doesn’t taste like cola) and milk powder over it, top with condensed milk: that’s it. Those who want something more spectacular should travel to the Puntarenas peninsula and choose a churchil: a granizado with the same ingredients, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and sticks of cookie dough.

Piragua
In Puerto Rico, you’ll occasionally come across a small cart by the roadside, painted red and yellow, somewhat like a miniature house. It belongs to a piragüero—that’s what shaved-ice vendors are called there. For a dollar, the piragüero rapidly shaves some ice from a large block kept in the cart, then scoops it into a cup. One small detail: using a special hollow mold, they make a point on top of the crushed ice. Then syrup goes over it. You can choose from many varieties: fruit flavors, such as watermelon and guava, as well as syrups flavored with anise and ajonjolí (sesame).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhCUySnluv4/?tagged=piragua

Chua bing

In Taiwan, you eat super-fine, snow-like ice shaved from a frozen block made with milk. It comes with loads of toppings. Think red adzuki beans, green mung beans, tapioca balls, cubes of ai yu (lemon jelly) and roasted peanuts. Also essential: lots of ice-cold fresh fruit, especially mango, kiwi and strawberry.

Patbingsu

When it gets really hot in South Korea, patbingsu suddenly appears everywhere. Shaved ice with pat (red bean paste). It often comes with additional toppings: tteok (Korean steamed rice cake), jelly cubes and frozen milk, for example. Fun fact: the ice is so popular that in summer it also appears on the menus of many fast-food chains, including McDonald’s and Burger King.

Kakigori

Kakigori is a mound of very finely shaved ice in a bowl, drenched in sugar water or syrup and sometimes topped with condensed milk. In Japan, you can buy the simple varieties on virtually every street corner. Although it’s typically street food, in recent years there have also been more and more dedicated shops where you can buy kakigori. They go all out with flavors such as yuzu (a Japanese citrus fruit), green tea and candied chestnut.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjS5f00gZmV/?tagged=kakigori

Halo-halo

In the Philippines, halo-halo means something like mix-mix. We understand why the dessert has this name, because all the ingredients—shaved ice, sweet beans, condensed milk and canned fruit—are meant to be mixed thoroughly. It often also contains jackfruit, corn, coconut pulp and halayang ube, a kind of purple jam. FavorFlav’s Emma tried it and has a clear opinion: ‘Weird! It’s because it contains all those red beans. You really have to be into that.’

https://www.instagram.com/p/BitR3-3HHBP/?tagged=halohalo

Nam kang sai

In Thailand, they go big: the vendor stands behind a gigantic stall with dozens of containers full of toppings. Cubes of mango, brightly colored tapioca balls, cooked white rice, roasted chestnuts—nothing is too crazy. This is what it looks like. You can of course choose the toppings yourself, but anyone suffering from choice paralysis can simply ask for a ruam mit, in which case the vendor chooses for you. They scoop them into a bowl, add a scoop of shaved ice and fill the bowl with coconut milk and sweet syrup.

Gola Ganda

In Pakistan, the ice isn’t shaved but crushed using a special machine that you have to turn. The result is the same: crushed ice. It’s placed in a mold (often simply a cup) and pressed firmly. Insert a stick, pour syrup over it, turn it upside down and remove it from the cup. And there you have an ice pop. In Pakistan, they call it gola ganda; in neighboring India, it’s called chuski. There, the ice is also sometimes shaved by hand.