Tuesday, July 24, 2007

A Taiwanese Shaved Ice (Almost) Big Enough to Hide Behind

When I first moved to SoCal nearly a decade ago, the 87s and 88s were in elementary school. My first birthday here, they even drew pictures for me. Awww. I'd take them to the bookstore or the county fair. When I took them out to eat, it was usually something along the lines of Chuck E. Cheese's. Then they hit their teens and all they wanted was for me to take them to the mall. And now they're all in college and way too cool to hang out with their old fogey cousin.

But not too cool to eat with me in the hopes of getting mentioned on the blog! Man! Do I have the heart to tell them the blog's not that famous?

After our dessert first at Vanille de Patisserie in San Marino, I decided to take them to lunch at Pa Pa Walk in San Gabriel. I wanted them to see the coffin bread and the foot-high Taiwanese shaved ice. And if they didn't like that, I knew they'd be happy with popcorn chicken and potstickers.

The coffin bread, listed as fried toast with cream soup on the menu. I think the prices for some menu items went up 50 cents.



Popcorn chicken.

Potstickers.

Xiao long bao (Shanghai soup dumplings).

And the Taiwanese mango shaved ice. This was $8. Ouch! But it was about a foot high, the mangoes were all super sweetly ripe, topped with a big scoop of mango ice cream, and drizzled with condensed milk all over. Fed 4 people. It's really hard to see how big this truly was.

So, I had to show you. I think the restaurant patrons thought we were all insane because there were many, many photos taken.

Another table had ordered the red bean and green tea ice cream shaved ice and I swear when that came out, it was like getting Christmas early! Must get that next time.

The outing also doubled as a send-off for the middle 87, who is now in Singapore studying abroad. Any of my Singaporean readers have tips on what to see and do on a college student's budget? She's tired of eating food at the hawker center and also really misses Vietnamese and Mexican food so if you know of any places, please leave comments. Thanks!

Other places to get shaved ice:
Class 302 Taiwanese Cuisine - Rowland Heights
ID Cha House - San Gabriel
Kang Kang Food Court - Alhambra
Le Arbre Tea House - Rosemead 
Salju Dessert - Alhambra

Pa Pa Walk
227 W. Valley Blvd., Ste. 148-B
San Gabriel, CA 91776
626-281-3889
11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Closed Tuesdays

9 comments:

  1. I'm ashamed. I'm Singaporean but I don't know what to recommend!!! :O
    Eating at hawker center/stalls for Singaporean foodfare would not be too hard on a student's budget. :) For myself, I need to see more when I go back to S'pore. Too cooped up in a four-walled cubicle called "2nd home@office" then.

    Hahaha...I don't think Mexican food is that popular in S'pore. Or maybe it's just me who don't know.

    I'll drop comments along when I think of something.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There's a good Viet Restaurant called Song Trang near Plaza Singapore (Dhoby Ghaut MRT), but I haven't been there in a while, not sure if it's still there.

    There are a couple Mexican restaurants at Holland Village, and one at Orchard Parade Hotel. But really, Mexican food in S'pore sucks.

    -Y

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tigerfishy,
    You should be ashamed! I was expecting tons of recommendations from you.

    Elmo,
    Thanks. I keep wanting to hide though!

    Y,
    Thanks for the recommendations, I'm sure my cousin will really appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. aw, how sweet!! i've still had no luck finding mexican food, but i did find a vietnamese stall on campus and it's pretty decent. also, i eat red-bean shaved ice all the time here! i would highly recommend it over mango!!

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  5. Yeah, Papa walk's shaved ice is pretty awesome. Try the green tea one next time, so decadent, and I keep hearing about this Guppy House, I must visit!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I don't know how famous your blog is, but I sure enjoy it. By the way, why do many (most?) bloggers not post pictures of their face? Did you eat the shaved ice with chopsticks???

    ReplyDelete
  7. Kev,
    I've got something better than shaved ice coming up. Snowflake! Oh man is it good!

    Nobody,
    Aww, shucks. Thanks for being such an avid reader. I don't know about other bloggers, but I prefer to be anonymous as much as I can for now. And no, after the photo was snapped, I used a spoon. Can't eat the condensed milk-drenched ice with chopsticks. :)

    ReplyDelete

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