The Best Shave Ice

For many that live in areas where season's actually change, you have snow cones in hot weather. For us locals in Hawaii, where it's summer all year round, we have shave ice. Unlike snow cones, shave ice has very soft ice. It also retains the flavored syrup better than snow cones. Ultimately, snow cones are no competition to shave ice.

Many tourists go to the historical North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii to get the "best" shave ice. There's usually long lines of locals and a majority of tourists waiting to get a taste of the infamous Hawaiian snow cone. You'll see many of them hanging out outside the shave ice stores with their colorful array of flavored ice. Because I was born and raised on the island, I've had the opportunity to visit close to all of the shave ice vendors. I, too, traveled to the North Shore to get what I thought was the best shave ice.

(Here's my top 2 places, if you wanna skip the rest of the reading: 1st choice- Shimazu, on N. School Street in Honolulu; 2nd choice- Ewa Seed Shop at the Ewa Shopping Center in Ewa Beach.)

Twenty plus years later, I stumbled upon a "hole-in-the-wall" type of joint in Honolulu that had a "Shave Ice" sign outside. It was another hot day, and we were quite a long ways from the North Shore. I thought, "What the heck. Shave ice is shave ice. They're all the same." Let me tell you, I was blown away. First thing I noticed, they had a lot more flavors to choose from. Secondly, the small size was bigger than the large size that I remember getting from anywhere else. Yet, the price of a small was still the price of a small. And the taste! The ice was much much softer than any from the popular North Shore vendors. And somehow, it takes longer for the ice to melt and for the juice to fall to the bottom. The flavors were also better by far! I introduced the place to my coworkers. They were hooked as well. Shimazu (the name of the place) is on N. School street, on the right side of the one-way street. You'll see a sign that reads "shave ice" and has a picture of it. The place and parking can be inconvenient. But, definitely worth it. Seems only the locals know about this little "secret."

Flavors I recommend at Shimazu: strawberry cream, melona, peaches and cream, banana cream, any other cream flavor, green milk tea royale (my fave).

The next place I recommend for awesome shave ice is in Ewa at the Ewa Shopping Center, called Ewa Seed Shop. It's another very small shop located towards he back of Foodland. Their ice is also one of the softest I've had.

This weekend, my family and I decided to take a drive to the North Shore for some shrimp and shave ice. We visited one of the busy famous shave ice shops. Boy, does that place get a lot of business! Anyway, it was a long line. But, we only waited 15 minutes. I was bit disappointed because the flavor choices weren't as great as Shimazu. I figured it doesn't matter since this is "the best shave ice" on the island. So, we sat to enjoy our treat. Mind you, the portion sizes were much smaller than we usually get at our "secret" spot. Our 4 year old, who usually eats close to all of a small size, barely ate or drank half. The rest of us couldn't finish either. We were quite disappointed at the quality of the flavors and the ice. None of us enjoyed the flavors we got. The ice was rougher than we're used to. And, the syrup all sunk to the bottom. So, after only a few minutes, we'd have chunks of unflavored ice.