One of the things I love about being back in Beijing is going to Meet Fresh, a nearby dessert shop that serves Taiwanese shaved ice. We had the shop deliver their desserts three times when we were in quarantine. After being cooped up in our home for the first 14 days upon our arrival in China, one of the first places we headed to was Meet Fresh.
To the average American, this dessert is pretty exotic and foreign. You get a big pile of ice flavored with brown sugar, topped with strange things, some of them quite chewy. When two of our closest friends from Washington D.C. visited us a couple of years back, we excitedly brought them to the shop. They took one look, said, “no thanks,” and headed for the door. When I recently ordered it for a friend and had it delivered to his home in Beijing, he messaged me. “Wow. Weird. Wacky. But SO good.”
So some of you out there will know what I’m talking about when I say I LOVE this stuff. When I visited my cousin in Chicago, he and his amazing wife took his kids and mine and me to his local Meet Fresh, not knowing that we were already fans. When we were in pandemic exile in the States for the first half of the year, I missed this dessert so much that I bought a hand-crank shaved ice maker on Amazon so my kids and I could make it from scratch. When my in-laws came down from Massachusetts, they gave the ice maker a whirl and tried the dessert for the first time. They’re now converts too.
I admit that this recipe below sounds a bit like some kind of Willy Wonka creation, but give it a try. Some of the toppings, especially the red bean and the grass jelly might seem foreign to many Americans. It’s a gelatin made from an herb related to mint family and has a mild, slightly medicinal flavor. In the States, you can find it in a can in Asian supermarkets. It’s delicious. However, when I was a kid, my mother once packed a container of grass jelly for school lunch; the kids took one look and said, “Ew! You’re eating tadpoles.” Suffice to say I never brought grass jelly to school again.
Allow some time for the cooking of the beans and the tapioca balls; you can cook them earlier in the day, refrigerate, and take it out of the fridge before you start shaving the ice.
This isn’t an exact recipe, but it’s something close to what you’ll get at Meet Fresh, which started in Taiwan but now has locations in the United States, Australia, and Asia. Or if you’re lucky enough to live near one of their outlets, visit them for a taste of the real thing.
Taiwanese Shaved Ice
two dozen ice cubes
shaved ice maker
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup hot water
condensed milk
1 cup dried Chinese red beans
1 cup pearl tapioca
1 can grass jelly (optional)
3 tbs white granulated sugar
Place the red beans in a medium saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes to an hour, until softened. Cook the pearl tapioca according to the directions; usually you boil a few cups of water first, then add the tapioca and cook for 5-10 minutes. The pearl tapioca should be chewy, not hard. Drain the beans and the tapioca and place in separate containers. Add a tablespoon of sugar to each container and set aside or refrigerate.
If using grass jelly, dice it into small cubes.
In a separate cup or bowl, mix the brown sugar and hot water until the brown sugar is fully dissolved. Cool in fridge or add an ice cube or two to bring it down to room temperature or cooler.
Shave the ice. Divide into two large bowls. Top with your desired quantity of red beans, tapioca, and grass jelly. Spoon the brown sugar syrup over your creation, along with generous drizzles of condensed milk. Serve immediately.
