Sweet and Sour Memories at Shaved Ice Shop
It was sunny today with such a sweltering temperature; therefore, we decided to have the refreshing shaved ice to cool down the torrid heat of summer. One of the best things in life is the enjoyment of eating shaved ice on summer days for students like us.
Speaking of the shaved ice shop, it is a unique and typical place of Taiwanese civilian food culture from the 1940s to 1980s no matter in the northern part or the southern part of Taiwan. Shaved ice shops actually had different names in the early times; some people called it "冰菓室", "冰店", or "冰館."[1] In the early times, shaved ice shop was not only a place for Taiwanese to eat shaved ice and fresh fruits but was also regarded as the "coffee shop" and "mess hall" at that time. As a result, a shaved ice shop has always been the top choice for us on account of the cheap price and the purpose of sociality. Owing to the fact that students didn't have much money, they loved to hang out with a bunch of friends at a shaved ice shop, especially after school time. It was a fitting and pleasant place for young student couples to date, as well as for friends or buddies to chat or talk about their peers' juicy gossip. For instance, someone who had a huge crush on some girl or boy or someone who cheated on the other man or woman. What's more interesting, in order to prevent one of their friends who knew the gossip from spilling the beans, other people would try to flatter him with treating drinks or snacks. Therefore, the one who knew everyone's juicy gossip tended to be the biggest winner.
The shaved ice shops not only provided the shaved ice but also various cool drinks. There are various flavors of shaved ice for people to choose from, such as snowflake shaved ice with jams, shaved ice with fruits, four-flavors shaved ice, eight-treasures shaved ice, red bean with condensed milk shaved ice, peanut with condensed milk shaved ice, mung bean with condensed milk shaved ice, pearl barley with condensed milk shaved ice, taro with condensed milk shaved ice, mango shaved, and so on. As for the cold drinks, shaved ice shops have papaya milk, taro milk, watermelon milk, pearl barley milk, etc. Aside from the flavored ones, we can also order shaved snow with adding different toppings like milk, red bean, peanut, mango, or aiyu jelly. They are all popular flavors that are usually ordered by students and youngsters.
Today, we went to a famous and traditional shaved ice shop, 小時候冰菓室, which was located in Da'an District in Taipei City. When we entered the shaved ice shop, we saw the traditional Taiwanese game, Hopscotch, on its floor. The tables, plastic chairs, and interior decorations were also full of the 80's vibe. In addition to its interior design, the shaved ice shop had something different from other ones. That is, it had the newest and most special flavored shaved ice like Matcha Strawberry shaved ice and Chocolate banana shaved ice which attracted everyone's attention intensely. However, the price of shaved ice was pretty high for us as a student to afford. Eight-treasures shaved ice (see Pic A) cost us $150 NTD and strawberry yogurt (see Pic B) cost us $120 NTD respectively. The shaved ice shop regulated that each one should spend at least $40 NTD, if we would like to dine in the store. Therefore, we decided to order the classic one, eight-treasures shaved ice, and strawberry yogurt. It was so blessed to have a bowl of cool eight-treasures shaved ice on such a hot day. The toppings on the ice with the mild sweet brown sugar water and the ice was like a match made in heaven when we ate them with a spoon of toppings and ice.
In the past, buying a bowl of shaved ice only took a student about $60 NTD. That's the reason why we could see that there were always a lot of students gathering in the shaved ice shop. If you want to know more about the scene or the atmosphere of shaved ice shops in the eighties, you may go watch the movie "Our Times" (我的少女時代) then you can have a deeper understanding of the traditional shaved ice shops. That's why the shaved ice shop had important meaning and memories to the people in the eighties, and most of them even regarded shaved ice shops as "Their Youth Times."
With the emergence of convenience stores, such as 7-Eleven, Family Mart, OK Mart, or Hi-Life and the new chain tea shops, such as Coco, 50 Lan, Milkshop, or TRUEDAN, more and more conventional shaved ice shops closed down gradually because they are not able to compete with them anymore. However, there are some traditional shaved ice shops that are still popular among people nowadays, especially for foreign tourists. For instance, the ancestor of mango shaved snow in Yongkang Street, ICE MONSTER, is a successful example of transformation from an old shaved ice shop to the modern one.
The most popular ice in ICE MONSTER is "fresh mango sensation" which has the fresh mango, mango ice cream with the mango shaved snow. For the purpose of being more competitive in the shaved ice market, ICE MONSTER offers various types of ice and beverages on its menu, including sensation, avalanche, sorbet, ice pop, dessert soup, creme fruit tea, and bubble tea. In addition, it keeps developing new flavors, such as unicorn sensation, bubble milk tea sensation, and black sesame ice cream to catch attention from the public and tourists. With the invention of creative and unique flavors and following market trends, that's why ICE MONSTER can meet great success and become a prevalent attraction for foreign tourists even until now.
Address: No. 39, Lane 51, Section 1, Da'an Road, Da'an District, Taipei City
Opening Hours: Mon.~Sun. 13:00~21:30
- ICE MONSTER (Branch: Breeze Song Gao)
Address: No. 16, Song Gao Road, Xin-Yi District, Taipei City
Opening Hours: Sun.~Wed. 11:00~21:30/ Thur.~Sat. 11:00~22:00
Written by Rebecca Wang
Reference
[1] https://www.xiaxiaoqiang.net/go-to-taiwan-in-summer/.html