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Summer Shaved Ice Special

Posted on August 7, 2007
Filed Under Taiwanese |

Dear Readers,
It’s time to kick it up a notch here on 50meals!
Here’s what I’m going to do, but I’m going to need your help.

First of all, I think it’d be awesome if you guys sent in your pictures of you eating hard core food. We’ll do a post featuring you, the readers! Feel free to include a dish along with a picture of you! Not only do you get to see yourself on 50meals.com, you’ll get to see other readers! You can even write a note to introduce yourself, and hey, if you have questions, I’d be happy to answer them.

Additionally, I’m going to print out a few hundred business cards to give out to you, and the idea here is two fold: You can share with your friends and tell them about the site, and secondly, when you visit any of the restaurants you’ve seen on 50meals, you can give the waiter/ress the card and say “I found you on 50meals.”

The idea here is that when owners realize how many people are coming to them because of this website, we can work out something along the lines of discounts for 50meals readers or some other goodies. You can E-mail me and I will send out 10 cards to you. There, that’s two ways you can own a piece of 50meals.com. Sound good? Let’s do it. Let’s share our passion for good food!

E-mail your photos and business card requests to KevCheng (at) 50meals (dot) com. Please include a real name and address.

Now, onto the midweek special
Gah, summer. It’s so hot. Consider this entry my survey of shaved Ice, a Taiwanese concoction of fruits, condensed milk, and a mountain of ice that was literally shaved off the block on a spinning machine. Shaved ice has sustained generations of Taiwanese people through their luridly humid summers. There are tons of places out there, especially in the San Gabriel Valley, but I wanted to cover the best stuff I can find, so here are three restuarants’ shaved ice collection in one entry.
Be warned, some of this stuff is pretty damn good and you might end up driving endlessly to the San Gabriel Valley throughout summer.




We start with a famous favorite in Arcadia. Sinbala is famous for their Taiwanese sausages and small eats. But as Ms. Penny recommended, their shaved ice features “black sugar” — which, I suspect, is similiar to our American brown sugar. It’s less refined cane sugar and retains quite a bit of calcium and iron and a slightly richer flavor. This is the combo shaved ice.



Passion Fruit and jelly shaved ice at Tea Station. The yellow jelly you see here is a product of the Ficus Pumila plant, processed and solidified as jelly. Passion Fruit syrup is poured onto the top of the pile of shaved ice and voila. Ten-Ren is a famous brand of tea in Taiwan and Tea Station is their retail restaurant and store here.




Tea-Station serves a seasonal Mango Shaved Ice. Fantastically sweet and flavorful, deliciously cold and refreshing. I got hooked on this a few weeks ago and must’ve had it three times in the last month. This was drenched in condensed milk and the mango is packed on. I love it.





Tea-Station also has a red bean shaved ice. It’s a classic and for good reason. Red bean is a great dessert ingredient and is always a solid choice for your shaved ice.




Mango shaved ice at Pa Pa Walk. I like this one better than the one at Tea Station. Actually, Tea Station’s version is more tangy, and Pa Pa Walk’s version is sweeter and smoother. Maybe it’s the mango they had on that day, but I like my desserts smooth and comforting. Believe it or not, this is the small version of the shaved ice, ($4) the large version is piled twice as high and is quite a sight to behold.($7)



This is the star of our show today, this is the Green Tea Red Bean shaved ice at Pa Pa Walk ($7) and it’s just downright ridiculous. As you can see, it’s covered in red beans along with boba and sweet rice balls on the sides, plus one giant scoop of green tea ice cream melting away on the top. This is decadent dessert Taiwanese style. Hard Core. Deviant. Shaved ice. Hurry, eat, it’s falling apart as we speak…

Sinbala
651 W Duarte Rd. Ste F
Arcadia, CA 91007

Tea Station has various locations all over Southern California.
Tea Station Website

Pa Pa Walk was Meal #21
227 W. Valley Blvd, Suite 148-B
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 281-3889

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