Adventures in Shave Ice II

Went back up to Hale'iwa today and tried Aoki's Shave Ice - which was not-crowded and right across a gravel lot from the always-crowded Matsumoto.  

First, they weren't crowded with tourists.  Which we aren't any more. :)

Second, they had more pleasant seating out front.  And just seemed cleaner than Matsumoto.

Third, they had some interesting flavors - including Blue Hawaii, which might be one of my top-5s now: coconut, pineapple, vanilla, and blue.  That and the ubiquitous lilikoi, the standard by which I will judge the island's shave ice.  I am also looking forward to trying the coffee, cream soda, and butterscotch syrups.

They were a little weak on the syrup, which is sometimes fine - because the sugar crash after Matsumoto can be rather unpleasant.  And they have a darling little antique cash register on the back counter.  And a penny-squisher.  Word.

Adventures in Shave Ice

So I think my newest goal is to make a thorough investigation of the island’s shave ice and determine which one, truly, serves the best. 

Made a visit to Matsumoto’s up in Haleiwa with a friend earlier this week, and while it’s popular and very tasty, it’s also always crowded with tourists, the benches outside smell like garbage, and the staff is hit-or-miss on friendliness.  I ordered a combination of lilikoi (passionfruit – always present on my shave ice), coconut cream, and white cake.  The last two flavors were virtually indistinguishable. 

At Matsumoto’s, you can get regular ol’ shave ice (not a snowcone – it’s much finer, like real snow, and are almost always formed into grapefruit-sized portions.  But you can also have them put ice cream under your ice.  Or sweet azuki beans under your ice.  Or both ice cream and beans.  I tried the beans once.  Once was plenty.  No beans in my shave ice any more – no ice cream, either.  Just pure ice.  Almost everyone in line was getting sweetened condensed milk poured on top.  Not only does it look weird, I’m just dubious about the fruity-ice-dairy combo.  I don’t adore sherbet, barely tolerate ice cream sodas, and am pretty sure I don’t want ice cream at the bottom of my shave ice.  But, others have told me it’s delicious, so perhaps I need to give it a try, if nothing else but to say I have (see also: beans).

There are many other shave ice purveyors on O’ahu, however, and it’s time to start discovering them.

Meanwhile, I am rediscovering my home ice-shaver!  This is one of those gifts I wasn’t too sure I really needed or wanted, but turned out to be pleasant surprises (see also: yogurt-maker).  Anyhow, with milk fetching confiscatory prices in Hawai’i, I might not be using my ice cream maker as much as I would like.  Ice, however, is cheap and plentiful.  The syrups, however, can get a little pricey.  I did find a store in Pearl City that sells them for $1.99, but they’re full of high-fructose corn syrup and preservatives (something I’m not too Michael-Pollan about, but if I can avoid them, super).  Surely I can make my own. So I got on the google-box and started looking for snow-cone syrup recipes.  With pennies for the cost of the sugar and Kool-Aid on sale for 10 cents a packet, this beats the supermarket syrups by a long shot!  And it’s crazy-easy.  I cranked out 5 batches in just under 20 minutes, all for less than the price of one commercial syrup bottle.  I’ve been a fan of crushed and shaved ice from the days of my Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine (which produced just a Dixie cup of shaved ice after minutes of hand-cranking), so I’m easily satisfied by a dessert of a bowl of snow flavored with a little sugar syrup.

Shave Ice Syrup

¾ c. water

¾ c. sugar

1 packet Kool-Aid (unsweetened); 1 t. extract; half a dram bottle of flavoring

Boil the water and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat.  Add flavoring and stir.  Cool your syrups in the refrigerator, then pour over shaved ice. Store in the refrigerator. (Chilled syrups don’t melt the ice so quickly, anyhow.)

It’s essentially just flavored simple syrup.  And this stuff is sweet and flavorful – which it needs to be, so the ice doesn’t water it down too much.

For this go-round, I made Grape, Strawberry, and Pink Lemonade with Kool-Aid; Vanilla and Coconut with extracts.  I used my clear vanilla for this, but added a drop of neon blue food coloring to distinguish it from coconut, which I tinted bright yellow-green.

Chemistry? No, sugar syrup!

Next up: Almond, Cherry, Pineapple, and my favorite, Lilikoi (as soon as I can figure out the proportions with my pre-sweetened passionfruit drink mix).  Later: Maple, Banana, Lime, maybe a vanilla-peppermint or an Earl Grey syrup?  Lemon-elderflower would be awesome, if only we had an Ikea here for the elderflower.  Maybe someday I can move behind the candy-like esters of artificial flavoring and try reducing fruit juices into syrups, but – oddly – that has an air of the inauthentic.   Plus, those would surely taste cooked.  All the more reason to keep with the Kool-Aid and the extracts. :)

My most recent combo: vanilla-coconut

Restaurant Review

I picked my parents up from the Sanford airport last night - a strange little airport, with lots of British low-cost carriers and signs that warn visitors to look left before crossing - and found a cute little restaurant in an area of town I've never before visited.  

I'm going to start a new tag of posts - reviews.  I'm always quick to give an opinion, and it's good to keep a collection of local places worth visiting.

Two Blondes and a Shrimp

112 E. First St.  Sanford, FL

I found reviews for it in Chowhound.com, and it looked reasonably-priced and had a wide enough menu to please anyone.  Eclectic little restaurant with bar and patio for music.  Quirky waitstaff, exceptionally friendly.

We started with Candied Bacon and Texas Nachos.  The candied bacon was, well, meat candy: brown-sugar glazed crispy bacon strips with a touch of black pepper.  The nachos were usual fare, if not a little over-sour-creamed (even if you like the stuff, which I don't) on cheapy tortilla chips, but with barbecue instead of mexi-beef.  A nice, sweet touch.  Fresh, fluffy biscuits for the table.  The appetizer special last nightwas Oysters Rockefeller, but I couldn't convince anyone else into them.  But I was happy with the bacon!

I had Pecan Chicken, with molasses and pecan crust (skin-on, unfortunately); grilled asparagus; and the Grits-of-the-Day, tomato-basil flavor.  The grits were good for a few bites, but the flavor was just overpowering after that -  it's the same phenomenon as pumpkin ice cream.  I just dig that they have grits du jour, I couldn't pass it up.  Wish I'd had more asparagus instead - it had great flavor, and just the right tenderness.

My dining companions had the same Pecan Chicken, but with garlic mashed potatoes and applesauce (over-cinnamoned for my taste); Bourbon Pork Medallions with corn-on-the-cob (tasted almost... brined, and looked like it had been left in the field for a while - unless it's some kind of heirloom corn) and the same asparagus; and Cola-Glazed Baby Back Ribs with the corn and hoppin' john (white rice topped with black-eyed peas).  We couldn't bear the thought of dessert after all that, though the server did tempt with key lime pie.  Next time!

In all, a good value and a friendly little restaurant with good live-music potential.  

4 flamingoes of 5, particularly if you're picking someone up at the airport.