Tropical Shave Ice - Orange County

Of all the food trucks I wouldn't have thought I'd get addicted to, it's this one: Tropical Shave Ice. But it makes sense that I would be. This sunny weather has something to do with it.

And there's the fact that anytime I see the Tropical Shave Ice truck at OC Din Din A Go Go at Irvine Lanes on Wednesday nights, it feels like a block party. Of course, I can't discount that shave ice always reminds me of Hawaii.

But theirs is somehow even better than those I've had in the island state. Their machines doesn't just shave the ice as much as turns it into soft-pack snow.

The flakes are such that it fluffs and almost floats. It's so fleeting and precious that just the short walk back to my car is enough to turn half of the mound back into liquid water. This is shave ice that must be eaten straight away the moment you take possession.

The syrups they use are somehow not syrup-y, not cloying or too artificial. Lamentably, they do seem to always run out of the lilikoi (passion fruit) before I get there.

I always opt for ice cream to be deposited to the bottom of the cup/cone, because when the whole thing does liquefy, the icy/milky slurry that's left behind becomes like the pensieve in the Harry Potter books and movies: it contains all my fondest Hawaiian memories.

Tropical Shave Ice
(714)519-9443
http://www.tropicalshaveice.com/

THIS WEEK ON OC WEEKLY:
Cafe Seventh Home - Buena Park