Corn topped shaved ice? (楊記冰)

In the land of strange that is Taiwan, there exists a multitude of flavors for everything. Ice cream, shaved ice, and iced teas tend to top that list, since the variety of ingredients you can mix with milk are virtually endless. In this case, the twist is on shaved ice. Instead of a traditional bean topping, or fruit topping, you have... corn? At a real famous old time shaved ice joint called 楊記冰 (Yang Ji Ice) you can get the traditional toppings of taro, red bean, green bean, mango, lychee , oatmeal, (and the list continues) but what they're really known for is their creamed corn shaved ice. The shop itself is nothing to brag about. It looks run down, and if it were in NYC, there would be absolutely zero doubt in my mind the department of health would have closed it years ago. Alas, this is Taiwan, where cockroaches roam free (and fly too), so there is virtually no regulations as far as sanitation levels. That might gross some of you out, as it should, but in my opinion... if the cost of a good meal is a few hours of torture, it's well worth it. In any case, back to the shop. Metal stools all around, no air conditioning, lopsided tables that are sticky from the syrup of customers past (sounds dirty, I know :D), it definitely gets points for not caring about image. How was the actual specialty?


Bring on the porn corn! See, in my mind, shaved ice should not feature corn. I thought they'd straight up take a can of Green Giant, pour it out, and add condensed milk and syrup. What they really did was... take a can of Green Giant, pour it into syrup, stew it for hours until the corn took on such a ridiculous amount of sweetness that it made candy corn seem tame. What I figured to be disgusting turned out to be okay. The kernels aren't noticeably distinct in texture, in fact, you could mash them with your tongue... that kind of consistency. The syrup/milk was adequately sweet, without inducing a sugar coma. It was, in a single word, okay. Does this mean I'd get it again? No, probably not. I think it was like 40 NT ($1+)... not sure on this, it's been so long, but either way, if I had 40 NT to spend, it would be money well spent on lychee Slurpees instead... oh, wait, that's a future post.