Snow Ice

"If ice kachang [a local kind of sno-cone] and ice cream had a love child, it would be snow ice." Snow ice is a dessert that originated in Taiwan and which has found a home in Singapore. It is made by feeding frozen blocks of milk, or flavoured milk, into a machine that shaves it into thin sheets. The layers of milk ice, piled high in a bowl, are served with toppings that run the gamut from chunks of fresh fruit to chocolate sprinkles.

We took our visiting friend Robin to Chinatown to book a side trip to Bintan (Indonesia) later during her visit. After some exploring around the area, including a visit to the wet market that Raye frequents, we stopped for lunch at a hand-made noodle shop. After some more walking and a stop at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, we opted to go for snow ice at Mei Heong Yuen on Temple Street.

The place was jammed and we had to wait for about 10 minutes for the opportunity to squeeze 3 people around a table that moments before had been cozily occupied by a young couple. A jammed place is a good sign, particularly in ethnic neighborhoods like Chinatown. [We were the only Anglos in the place.]

From the wide selection of flavors (example: mocha, chocolate, durian, yam, and green tea), we opted for mango and an off-the-menu flavor, strawberry. For S$5 (about US$3.50) per serving you get a small iceberg of the stuff. The flavors are terrific, but it's the texture that makes it really interesting. It doesn't have the graininess of a sno-cone, nor the creamy mouth-feel of ice cream. It's somewhere in the middle; perhaps best described as smooth and clean, but different than sorbet.

Raye & Robin are planning a return trip to check out some additional flavors. Next time I go, I want to try some of the traditional desserts like mango sago pomelo, black sesame paste or egg custard with ginger.