Not a sno cone

Shave ice stands are everywhere in Hawaii. While I have not taken to shave ice made with local fruit flavors, I am a fan. I lean towards peach and root beer.

I have written about shave ice on a previous trip, but I decided I would take a little more time and try to be more informative.

So here is a picture of the partially eaten peach shave ice I had yesterday. Shave ice is the consistency of snow and created by shaving rather than crushing ice. It is more accurately a snow cone than the sno ones most of us consumed back home.  I like the style in which the ice is shaped around ice cream. Last year the ice cream was macadamia nut, This year vanilla. I will have to take a larger sample to determine if this is an island preference.

You can find rankings for shave ice stands like you can find rankings for coffee, brew pubs and pizza back home. We hit most of those ranked in Kauai and thought we were at the #1 on the Big Island yesterday. Evidently, the ratings differ because this list says it was #2. Shave ice critics have different criteria. I think a focus on local ingredients gives you an edge. "Homers"

There must be an interesting back story for the Scandinavian shave ice store, but the web site was not helpful. Probably some folks from the midwest who escaped for the winter and just never made it back home. I do think there would be an opportunity for web developers here. Like teachers, there is  plenty of opportunity but low pay in an expensive housing market.

I did make the effort to try to understand the origin of shave ice. Evidently, it comes from Japan where they first used a sword to shave "snow" from blocks of ice. It kind of makes sense it would end up in Hawaii. The diversity of the population is high and the mix of nationalities is very different from the midwest.