The best food things about Kauai

Summer in Hawaii is always so much fun.  If you’ve never had a shave us also known as “snow cones” than you might consider planning a last minute trip to Kauai.  Many have enjoyed the famous shave ice here in Hanalei town.  There are many things to do on Kauai, restaurants to experience, and great Kauai accommodations that you can enjoy.

For the most part, there are few desserts or sweet things I crave. The rest of the clan feels differently. And so do I when it comes to shave ice.

It’s one of the best food things about Kauai, and we have it pretty much every day. At around $3.50 a piece, it’s not a cheap habit, so we usually forgo the add-ons, including ice cream at the bottom, which is pretty wonderful, but which we reserve for a few select days when we just can’t hold out any longer.

Shave ice is not a snow cone. It might be what a snow cone aspires to be in nirvana, or what a snow cone remembers as the shadow of its most perfect, platonic form.

When it’s done right, shave ice is a large cupful of ice, shorn off a large, flat, wheel of ice into impossibly fine bits by a machine with a very sharp blade. The machine basically looks like an industrial drill press from your high school shop.

And the syrups–well, let’s just say the flavors, at the best places, are beyond compare. They have everything from bubble gum to guava: