It is a scalding hot day today.
I am dripping with sweat and we are in one of our favorite areas in Tokyo. we're in Shimo-Kitazawa
We're going to have some Kakigori. Let me show you what it's all about
(If some of you don't know, Mandarin= Same family as tangerines, Yuzu= Citrus fruit similar to an orange meets a baby lemon, Matcha= Green Tea)
(M): Do you have 500 yen? (USD ~ $4.59) (S): I do!
Both: Cool! (M): That's really nice
(M): This is kind of old school. They're using an old school machine
They're shaving it with an actual cube of ice.
(It's so satisfying to see a clean ice cube for some reason.... ╰(▔∀▔)╯)
The integrity is melting so fast! Today is actually 37 degrees (98.6 F) with the humidity, so it is pretty
Freakin hot out. I know this looks like a lot of food
But because they shave it so thinly like wafer-thin it's really not that much it. Just like dissolves in your mouth like a marshmallow
It's almost like cotton candy Ducky. Okay here. I go trying this one out.
mmm (≧◡≦)
You put it in your mouth your tongue presses down
And there's no pain or crunchiness the reason I say that there's no pain when you eat
This is because the equivalent we have in North America is like a snow cone
Which is like ground up light bulbs put into like a crappy paper cup and then they like to turn it with like food
Dye it's so crunchy and painful on your tongue this just honestly compresses like Cotton candy
Mmm. It's like feathers dipped in Mango juice without the feathery aftertaste (-Martina 2017)
Mmm. This place is using basically like a mango juice
so some places will use like a
A syrup that's kind of candy like other places we use the puree and as you make your way up the chain of Kakigori you can get
Ones that are like in the 15~20 dollar range now when we live in Korea they had an equivalent of this like Patbingsu (Which again is Korean shaved ice with beans and other toppings)
Right and that was fantastic and we went to Taiwan
We tried the ice monster version which was also fantastic
But just because you's had it in your country or the country or visiting doesn't mean you had all the types of shaved ice dessert
The style in Japan tastes totally different than the style we've had in other countries. I love Patbingsu
I love the ice monster one with the milk block, but this also tastes totally different and it's only five bucks
Cause we went to the cheapo place. You can go to ones that are like up twenty bucks
But I'm not paying 20 bucks for you to shave ice I'm sorry
(FLASHBACKS TO EXPENSIVE FRUIT MOMENTS...) ...Was roughly 44 dollars
Oh that hurts.... (THE GRAPES HAVE MADE A RETURN) there are only 150 see that's totally cheap. They're only on just
120 Dollars more
OH MY GAWD!!!!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH
I have like limits. You know
I'm glad Martina's finally done talking so I could try some of this myself
She was really trying to stretch out those points as long as she could. (M): Mama didn't raise no fool
It's a super important for you to get videos of the snowfall outside... (M): Where's my pancake?
(M): I feel warm, I feel safe...
Feel like I'm by a campfire as a kid. Did you just eat that whole last piece?
what's great about this is that it kind of feels almost guilt free because you saw it's a block of ice and ice is just
Water so you're not really gaining that many calories from this the only thing you really have calories from is
A little squirt on top, and it's not even like super sweet sugary
and covered in food Dye, bizarre chemicals, business. This it just tastes like just mango juice really
Mmm.
And in some places you can get that really gross
Syrupy kind like we've seen them before. I didn't necessarily like those so we're not sharing those with you today.
Another thing I really like about Kakigori
It's really hard for me to get brain freeze this way because you got to really like slow down
You got to scoop it up and eat it
I don't think I've ever had brain freeze with this while if you like super cold drinks, you could ever get brain for you
So Kakigori is safe for your brain. Oh my God it all melted off my spoon.
word of advice (more like Strategy to survive in the Kakigori world)
It's really good if you let someone else eat the top first and then a lot of it melts to the bottom and the sweet
Juice goes with it so Martina did the first talks here. And I'm getting to enjoy all the really yummy-ness right here
(M): That's it i'm coming in! (；￣Д￣)
I was wrong about the brain freeze you actually can eat this too quickly
I don't know why I thought that before maybe I'm just old and brain freeze hits me a lot faster than usual
I think we kind of umm
Didn't get to finish all the things we want to say about this
We should probably buy another Kakigori, so we could keep talking
(M): I think you're right. For science. (S): For science, because we need people to see.
(M): oh pancha..
(S): I made a bit of a mess... (M): I mean... is "bit" the word you're looking for?
(S): Aw, man, I totally ruined it. (M): You sure did… and you know what? Them's the breaks with the kakigori.
Well, now, I get to finally taste this now that I've ruined half of it. Let me see the pineapple one
Mmm. What is this pineapple taste? I guess it doesn't taste like the pineapples you buy fresh. (M): It tastes like a virgin Pina Colada (no alcohol)
Mmm. MMMM. (M): You're right the bottom is the best part (S): Ain't it though? (M): Woo, this is just like ice-cold pineapple now
This tastes like Pina Colada and has a coconut-y taste to it. It's not it's not just pineapple
I think it probably pineapple coconut syrup. Wow this is great
I need to bring a little mickey a rum and just like dump it on in there and be like "ah kakigori!~"
(S): Um, I'm not sure if that's the way to do things (M): um you know
I think it is you get it and then you bring up tiny Little Malibu?
and then you just gently drizzle that on top and then you make yourself a
I wonder if people actually serve any alcoholic Kakigori! (M): Kaki Colada
We're enjoying a kind of traditional old-school Kakigori, but you can go to places now
That serve you like an espresso shot then you have to like pour through the hand shaved milk Kakigori that drips into a cup that
You catch below that once you finish you can drink that coffee cup. They've got Matcha ones with, like, reaaaally high quality tea
They make straight in front of you
They've got all different kinds ones that have condensed milk with it ones that come with Little chunks of mochi one with Azuki beans
So you don't need to just have this kind, but as you said before this is kind of a old-school one
Which is why it only cost us 500 yen and frankly
I'm not waiting in a 1 hour lineup to get to some of the famous places. Can you imagine Ducky? Waiting an hour?
No.
Hmm. (S): Now if you're coming to Japan and you want to try Kakigori yourself?
All you really need to know is if you see the floating cloth with the red kanji in the blue around it,
They're selling Kakigori there make sure you give it a shot and try all the different kinds you can find. I made a mess....
Even though I wiped it down. I still feel really sticky. How am I gonna de-stickify myself?
I could probably just sweat it off
And it was just like be released to the sweat pouring off my body anyways, or I could just throw my body on my wife
Come here girl
Give me a kiss <3
In conclusion,
we've learned several lessons today. One: Be careful with your kakigori. At any second it could just
tumble to the ground like the tower of Babel. And to come to Japan and try many different
flavors. If you guys want to hit up the location that we went to we will leave you the instructions on how to get there on
Our blog post. Otherwise, I think it really needs to cool down somewhere, ducky
I need to just go find the shade and the air conditioning