Come summer, the challenge is to find something cold, yet new. Sculpting shaved ice is both job and hobby for Mauricio Faria, the 28-year-old manager of Soho’s Honi Poké. “I like to make little mountains with the ice, to build it up, carve a winding road round the edge and then drizzle mango puree round it.” Faria shows me how, dragging his finger gingerly over a 15cm-high pile of shaved ice in a plastic pot. “It’s like the yellow brick road,” he says. “I can also make Christmas trees.”
Honi Poké specialises in poké bowls, a Hawaiian speciality, but has also started selling shaved ice, which is another. The poké attracts a queue round the block most lunchtimes but its kakigōri, the Japanese name for the shaved ice dessert (which originated in Japan), is new. It’s more of a sleeper hit; they sell around 10 a day at the moment, which leaves plenty of time for practice. Faria builds his mini Hepworths three times a day. “It’s all about ratios,” he says. “You want enough puree but you don’t want to drown it, and you don’t want it to melt.”
The ice is shaved using a “Hatsuyuki” machine (which means “first snow” in Japanese). A block of ice is placed inside and locked into place; then a handle is pulled and shaved ice falls out from a funnel at the front. You can change the sizing on a micro scale. The ice is then packed into a mound by gloved hands and different purees are added. I try mango and guanabana; elsewhere they add sprinkles or condensed milk.
Finished, it looks like a work of art and it has many, many draws. I mainly like its amphibiousness – it’s both ice and dessert, like eating a drink, wet and cold, sweet and fun. Also, if you ever wondered what 44 calories tasted like (I haven’t), then this is it. The sizing is the most crucial thing. Powder hounds, who ski on Okushiga Kogen’s slopes, will note the granular differences. The bigger the shards, the less purchase the puree has on the ice. The challenge is to get as much as you can into the bowl. It’s messy, but it’s catching on: another London Japanese restaurant, Sosharu, sells a version that comes with sweetened red beans.
It is thought shaved ice arrived on the Hawaiian islands in the 1800s, via sugar plantation workers from Japan. There, it dates back to the royal families of the Heian period. Barack Obama is a big fan. His annual Island Snow shave ice, which he has on holiday in Kailua, has become a paparazzi tradition (apparently, he has it with melon, cherry and lime). And snow cones have been big in the US for decades.
Kakigōri is very much shaved ice that is designed for photographing, but it also trolls the fool who tries to shoot it and eat it before it melts. “I like to lose myself in it,” says Faria. “To turn my back to the crowds and just ... It’s like pottery.” He smiles: “We’ve all seen Ghost.”
