Customers chill out from summer heat with ice-based desserts

Nation's Restaurant News, July 28, 2003 by Bonnie Brewer Cavanaugh

Ice: This time of year, it's a pretty hot item. That is especially true in restaurant kitchens across America, where those chefs who aren't tucking a chunk under their own toques to keep cool are likely to be crushing, shaving or otherwise converting large blocks of ice into tiny, mouth-watering slivers of cool summer pleasure.

On the East Coast popular ice desserts are served in cone-shaped paper cups as snow cones -- crushed ice infused with a variety of brightly colored fruity syrups -- or in little drink cups as satiny smooth Italian ice. Of course, if you happen to be in New Jersey, Italian ice is known as water ice.

Heading south to New Orleans, we note that the city's sizzling weather gave birth to a local icy dessert favorite called the snowball. In fact, any New Orleans native most likely can give a 10-minute lecture on the ways in which the snowball differs from the Yankee snow cone -- and why it's best not to confuse the two terms.

The biggest difference is the ice itself, because shaved ice tends to have a lighter, creamier texture than the snow cone's crushed ice. In addition, snowballs, unlike snow cones, boast a variety of toppings.

Donna and Claude Black have run the William Plum Street Snowball Stand for 24 years in the Big Easy, which is not long at all when one considers that the unit has been open at that site for 68 years. Just don't call those ice desserts snow cones. When local kids ask her for a snow cone, Donna Black knows just what to say.

"I say, 'I don't sell snow cones; I sell snowballs,'" she explained, laughing. "And they taste it, and they just love it. And they come back and say, 'I'll never call it a snow cone again.'"

A true Louisiana snowball is a little more upscale in its presentation than a Northern snow cone, Black said. The ice is thinly shaved, not crushed, allowing for a softer texture.

"It's a very light, fluffy ice with delicious syrup on top," Black noted.

All the syrups are house-made, and the snowballs at the Plum Street Stand are served in paper Chinese food pails to differentiate them from other local snowball stands, of which there are plenty in New Orleans.

Black fills the paper pails carefully with shaved ice, making sure there are no clumps or lumps. She said the key is making the ice look just like snow, "pretty and smooth."

Then the syrup is poured on top. For heavier, creamier syrups like chocolate, Black has to poke holes in the ice to make sure the syrup gets all the way down to the bottom.

The dish is finished with a topping of condensed milk, whipped cream and chopped cherries, although some folks also like Gummy Bears, she said. And some customers like their condensed milk in the middle rather than as a topping, which Black calls a "stuffed snowball." Other customers like both approaches, with that final product called a "double dip."

The Plum Street Stand's most popular flavors are chocolate and strawberry, although kids usually choose the rainbow snowball, made with stripes of three flavors. It serves 72 flavors in all, and the business is open from March through early October.

"Even in the rain they come in," Black said of her loyal customers. "People get sad when we close. And then when we open, it's, 'Woo-hoo, it's summertime!' You can see the kids running around the corner."

The snowball originated in New Orleans, and its popularity has spread as far north as Maryland and as far into the tropics as Jamaica. The icy favorite's heritage even has earned it a prized spot in the annual New Orleans Jazzfest, where only native products are welcome. The Plum Street Stand is one of three snowball stands invited to attend.

Shaved ice may be the star of the New Orleans' snowball, but the popular ingredient also appears on other menus around the country.

In California shaved ice is known simply as "shaved ice." But even further West, shaved ice is served as a traditional Hawaiian dish called halo halo, which is found in the Philippines as well. Halo halo features an infusion of various tropical fruits and sweet legumes as well as a topping of milk, be it coconut milk, evaporated milk or separated cow's milk.

And a Taiwanese ice dessert called Bing or "Chwa-Byung," according to the Web site of the Taiwanese American Students Club of Northwestern University, features shaved ice slivers that are filled with an assortment of "prizes," or food items, such as tapioca balls, red beans and tropical fruits, like lychee.

At Elvie's Turo-Turo on First Avenue in New York, halo halo is served as close to the traditional Filipino way as possible. Chef-owner Elvie Zamora-Cinco, a native of the Philippines, opened the New York unit some 10 years ago after being laid off from her previous job. She chose the name Turo-Turo -- the Filipino words for "point-point" -- to describe her restaurant's style: "When you come in, you just point at whatever you want, and you get it," she said.

Traditional Filipino halo halo is made with shaved ice and a variety of indigenous tropical fruits and vegetables, such as "ube," a purple yam, plus ripe bananas and yellow jackfruit, which is a riper version of white jackfruit.