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Rainy season this year has been pretty dry and hot in Japan, and I am feeling that people will start craving for kakigori or shaved ice a lot earlier this summer!  With such an instinct of mine, I am going to write about shaved ice today!

Shaved ice is traditionally made both in store and at home in Japan, and almost all households in Japan have their own shaved ice maker at home especially those with kids as it is a great fun to make one and it can also be a great help to feel cooler during hot and humid summer.  We typically use syrups and condensed milk to season shaved ice, and typical syrups include green tea, strawberry and lemon flavoured ones.  I do remember my mum always keep one during summer, but what if we crave for shaved ice in the middle of night and you couldn’t find any syrup to use?  Yes, we have to use some improvised syrups!  But what will be the best?  To answer your question, I found an article which tried to find a good seasoning which can be used as a syrup substitute.

"rhosoi" some rights reserved. flickr

For example, white coffee goes pretty well with shaved ice (sweeter the better, it seems) while coke isn’t very good.  A little surprise but red wine was pretty nice and refreshing, too??

"ayustety" some rights reserved. flickr

Hmn, so it doesn’t not necessarily mean that everything goes OK if it’s as sweet as generic syrups.

I realised that the writer of the article was a bit of challenger here; he also tried some condiments…  As far as I read, nothing will be widely accepted apart from sugar. (Don’t worry, he obviously didn’t mention that saysauce is good for shaved ice here! lol)  But he seems to find that tonkatsu sauce can be acceptable as you can kind of find sweetness in the sauce if you pour it over shaved ice…???

"kattebelletje" some rights reserved. flickr

Err, I probably wouldn’t do tonkatsu sauce myself but if you want some savoury one you may like it??

Also, sweet yogurt seems to be pretty good.  For savoury ones, sweet seasoned mushroom and kimchi (!!) seems to be good to go with shaved ice.  Hmn, I’m sure I would love those last two with nice and hot rice!!

Anyway, shaved ice can be a lot healthier than ice cream depending on what you eat with, and little savoury ones may be good when you loose appatite due to heat and humidity.  Maybe!

What do you think about today’s article?

If you have your favourite shaved ice flavour, please let me know 🙂  I also look forward to hearing about your country’s typical summer dessert like this!

Source: web R25

This is JAPAN Style!