Cheap Thrills: Snowflakes in a Cup

I've been thinking about THIS for two days now.

Taiwanese Snowflake Ice Dessert

Taiwan's Snowflake Ice or Xue Hua Bing is slowly making its presence felt in the Metro and I am a lovin' it!  I got to sample this refreshing dessert at the Ultimate Taste Test 4 last year. Caveman & Yeti (another popular but more expensive shaved ice dessert place) was there with samples of this popular Taiwan dessert.  Goodness, what a revelation!  Since then, I swore I'd never go back to eating snow cones.  Nu-uh not after tasting Taiwan's version of it.  I have been enlightened now (so to speak).  Yogurt seemed to lose its charm too after my cup of snowflake ice.

I was in SM Novaliches with Yuri and a couple of friends when we ate this.  We were there to watch and support our friend's first mall show (Yay!).  When her show was over, we realized we'd be waiting for quite a bit since her fans were still all in a tizzy, crowding her for pictures, autographs, and whatnot.  Good thing we caught sight of the Snowflakes Creamery stall on the far right side of the back stage area.

Scratch that.  Okkkkay okay I'm fessing up.  Truth is, I had been eyeing it since the show started.  Teehee.

I'm so proud!

 Hey, I took pictures so I wasn't THAT distracted.  I was as supportive as ever. Honest!  (***Shameless plugging: Catch Patricia Fernandez on TV5's BF/GF Luv Crazy every Sunday at 3PM)

Half of the menu.

Their prices are awesome!  Inexpensive and yummy.  Can't beat that.

You start off by choosing a base flavor.  Yuri as always went for his default flavor--strawberry.

Choco chips for us!

Next, you pick out your toppings.  They've got a decent selection of fruit toppings (banana, mango, strawberry) and dry toppings (sprinkles, marshmallows, cookies, nuts, chocolate chips, and candy-covered chocolates) to choose from. 

A touch of icing.

The last step is to pick out which syrup you'd like drizzled on your cup of fluffy ice.  It ties everything together.

Voila!

Three easy steps.  The strawberry ice was my favorite flavor with the chocolate one coming in as a close second.  The strawberry flavor was perfectly subtle and refreshing.  Not too sweet with mellow flavors of milk and strawberry

The shaved ice is an experience in itself.  The dessert is made up of frozen milk blocks painstakingly sliced into fine layers.  The result is this oh-so-fluffy, silky, melt-in-your-mouth slivers of ice that just dances on your tongue with each spoonful.  Yummmm!

Super fine ice crystals

It's light, healthier (than ice cream), and a lot of fun to eat.

Snowflakes Creamery now has a branch in SM North and at the V Mall in Greenhills which makes it more accessible for me.  The weather's starting to heat up so I'm sure this'll really come in handy.  Summer is gonna be a killer this year.  :-(

On a side note, this is the first post I've churned out with my new purty pink laptop!  We're still feeling each other out but I'm positive that this is gonna be the start of something wonderful. :-)