On a hot day, shave ice is the perfect way to cool off. If you’re lucky, you’ll spy the Get Shaved truck, selling this refreshing Hawaiian dessert.

When I was a kid, the closest thing you could get to shave ice from a truck was a Snow Cone, frozen chunks of brightly colored ice, which would soon lose its flavor once it started melting. Kids these days don’t know realize how lucky they are to have the Get Shaved truck, with their light and fluffy shave ices. For $4, you can pick up to three flavors and a topping – condensed milk, sour spray, li hing mui (salted dried plum – an Asian fave), marshmallow, caramel or pico (hot sauce). Throw in an additional $1 and you can add either ice cream, mochi or azuki beans (for additional authentic Asian flavor).

If choosing amongst the over 20 flavors seems too much of a challenge, there’s a list of “tried and true” combos – like Root Beer Dream, root beer with condensed milk.

You can even take one of the existing combos and add to it, like the Island Breeze, mango, coconut and guava, topped with condensed milk, because you can’t go wrong with condensed milk.

The ice is shaved quite fine, resulting in delicate flakes that quickly melt in your mouth, a vast improvement over the hard-to-bite Snow Cone of my youth.

Portions aren’t too big and can be easily finished by one person.

Compared to ice cream, shave ice is less fattening since the base is just ice, as opposed to cream. So, the next time it’s hot and the Get Shaved truck you by chance spot, order one for yourself – why not?

Location: Truck – TBD. Shops in Northridge, Torrance and Sherman Oaks
Website – http://www.getshavedice.com
Kid-Friendly – Yes
Kid’s Menu – No
Vegetarian Friendly – Yes
Gluten-Free Options – Yes