The shaved ice man uses a small hand-plane to scrape the ice block,
and pours on the syrup. I chose tamarindo. Tam-gan-eydn-arindo!
I wish I could have made a sound file of the ice-planing process, because a large part of the pleasure of having the shave-ice is hearing the khromtshe, khromtshe, khromtshe of the plane scraping across the ice-block.
The Yiddish word for shave-ice is האָבל-אײַז (hobl-ayz), or plane-ice
Yes! This is my favorite too. When I was growing up (UWS in the 80s) I would get a cherry one and my dad would get one with rum....I wonder if they still do that?
ReplyDeleteI had always assumed the Yiddish word for shaved ice was "sheyvd ays."
ReplyDeletesarah, I think he had rum, but no cherry.
ReplyDeletesan lao qiao
is "sheyvd" possible in Yiddish?
During a recent first visit to Kauai, Hawaii, we had shave ice at least daily. They use machines that rotate around the bottom of an ice block. In Hanalei (home of Puff) there's a truck of venerable status that claims to be The Original (no, not Ray's) and is indeed the best. Besides two dozen or more flavors, you can ask for a "cream top", an additional pouring over of sweetened condensed milk. Only once a day? Must have been more.
ReplyDeletefred,
ReplyDeletethe sweetened condensed milk sounds like a very nice touch. Can the machine provide the same sonoral bliss as the hand-planing?
Sort of like granita
ReplyDeletefk, yes, a rustic granita.
ReplyDelete