Shaved Ice has been a local favourite for a long time here in Singapore. It's inexpensive, it's easy and it's refreshing to have in our 30°C year-round weather.
Nearby countries like Korea and Japan have their own takes on shaved ice respectively called bing-su (빙수) and kakigori (かき氷) .
Me and some friends visited one of the most popular Shaved Ice places in Singapore called 'Dessert First', a small shophouse near Bugis MRT.
The interior seemed to draw influence from more Korean and Chinese atmospheres
Dish #1
We got a local delicacy called Tangyuan (汤圆) which are rice flour dough balls that coat traditionally red bean paste, however, we got ours stuffed with peanut butter. One was coated in a sweet lychee soup, and the other was coated with more peanuts.
Dish #2
For the main event we got two different shaved ice dishes. The first was mango flavoured, it's their best seller and it wasn't hard to see why. It was shaved ice coated in a thick mango sauce with Taiwanese Aiyu jelly, fresh mango (which is in season right now btw) and popping boba, another local treat that looks like tapioca pearls but explodes with syrupy goodness. If that wasn't good enough it was also topped with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.
We also got a chocolate one. This one was a bit different since the ice that was used also included chocolate. This was arguably even more decadent than the last. It featured chocolate sauce, Normal and white chocolate Koko crunch (a chocolate cereal by Nestle), freshly chopped bananas and to top it all off, peanut butter stuffed cookies and finely chopped peanuts
A Japanese and Korean inspired dessert with Chinese and Taiwanese toppings to make a classic Singaporean dessert experience really sums up the beauty that globalisation has brought to our small island nation.
Make sure to check out their website here -> Dessert First