Hi Everyone,
Whilst on a visit to Berbice last month, I went to Port Mourant Market and there I spotted a shave-ice vendor! It had been decades since I last had shave-ice. With cars honking loudly, I zigzagged my way across to the vendor.
Growing up, shave-ice always seemed to be a treat, while snow cones seemed more readily available. As a young girl, a visit to Stabroek Market would usually entail shave-ice; it was like an oasis amid the sun and hustle and bustle of a Saturday morning. On several occasions if I was sent to the market in the afternoon after school I looked forward to having shave-ice. With the sun in the West, the light would hit the block of clear ice giving it a warm glow; sometimes the sun created a golden line along the edge of the ice. As the vendor moved his arm back and forth, making powerful strokes, tiny flakes of ice would fly into the air where the sun would light them up like golden stars. I think I got more pleasure watching the ice being shaved than consuming it.
A snow cone is wonderful too but so very different from shave-ice, at least to me. With the snow cone, the ice is crushed into tiny bits whereas shave-ice, the kind I remember eating, the ice was shaved razor thin and stacked layer on top of layer. There was a crunch when you bit into it. The shaved ice I had at Port Mourant was different.
The ice when shaved was feathery soft and light. I have to admit that my excitement was a little subdued when I passed the first one to my nephew. Ethan (my nephew) wanted to have his with condensed milk in addition to the syrup. It’s quite a change from the shave-ice I grew up on; I don’t remember shave ice being sold with condensed milk only the syrup that came in colours of red, orange and green. I seem to remember blue too.
While the texture of the shave-ice was not the kind I remember, I did enjoy this version too.
My companions and I, the young and the old, all got shave-ice, and there were echoes all around of us saying that we cannot remember the last day we had shave-ice.
It’s the simple things, the simple pleasures of life that unite and reconnect us. When last have you had shaved ice?
Cynthia
Cynthia@tasteslikehome.org
www.tasteslikehome.org
