Like many American kids, my earliest exposure to shaved ice desserts came in the form of a snow cone, with neon, sweet syrup poured on top of it. It always gathered at the bottom of the paper cone and was slurped up past the increasingly insurmountable obstacle of those hard ice crystals. Did you ever finish all the ice? I even had a little icee guy kit that would shave ice to be served in those paper cones with that bright syrup. I think there's a picture of me and my neighbor, in suitable aprons and hats, serving the treat.
My first introduction to non-snowcone style treats was in a Vietnamese "ice cream" shop with my high-school buddy/prom date. This traditional treat was served with shaved ice, cubes of almond dofu (not tofu, it's more like solid pudding/jello), an array of sugared beans, and some kind of syrup on top. Sugared pintos? It worked, though I can only imagine that it was through blind faith in dessert that I took my first bite.
Mama has a pink panda handcranked ice-shaving machine but I can't recall ever making dessert with it, at least not since Chicago. But she dreams awake of the treats she had growing up, drizzled with palm syrup (I think) and sweetened condensed milk. Ma made them once at her house--delicious!
And then in Texas for Aunt Banana's wedding, Mama and I downed a freezing cold tamarind-flavored Mexican raspado in front of the Alamo. This wasn't just a tamarind-flavored snow cone--the ice and syrup melded so you finished the whole thing. Fantastic.
Piraguas, granizados, frio-frio. Bingsu, bao bing, kakigori, golas, chuskis. There's a whole world to explore!
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