Taiwanese shaved ice, aka Taiwanese slush

**SLUSH REVIEW ONLY**

Shau May Restaurant 5/5 – I only go here when I want to majorly treat myself to the best dessert one can have after eating Chinese food: Taiwanese slush. For those not familiar with Taiwanese slush, it’s freakin’ yum-town.

For about $3, you get a giant bowl of finely shaved, fluffy ice, your choice of 3 toppings and a generous dollop of condensed milk. Toppings include boba, dough balls, fruit, red bean, corn, jelly, etc. Basically, a myriad of toppings you’d never expect to get heaped on a mound of fluffy ice.

Available toppings and the magical pink/white dough balls in the back

The secret is in the balls. I know it seems ridiculous to laud just one thing, but it really is that good. I’ve had slush before where the rice balls were not cooked all the way through and take it from me, there’s nothing worse than trying to chew through a delightfully squishy, then immediately hard, rice ball.

What I love about Shau May is that they have some intense rice ball quality control. Every time I’ve ordered my usual (double rice balls & boba), the balls are always 100% squishy and fresh all the way through. One time, the balls were still warm! For my non-Asian bretheren, I know this sounds totally weird and possibly gross, but ask your Asian friends, this texture is magic to us!

When the ice and milk start melting into each other, that’s when slush-nirvana happens. The textures might be totally unfamiliar to some, but give it a chance, it’s not like you’re eating monkey brains and eyeballs.