Once Ray asked me, “honey, what’s your favorite food.” I paused and thought about it, then said, “ice-cream.” He goes, “that’s not food.” I go, “sure it is, you eat it, shit it out, it’s food.” Ice-cream is my favorite food and Haagen – Dazs is my favorite brand of ice-cream. You can really taste the richness and quality over other brands. I don’t usually go to Haagen-Daz stores because like most creameries, it’s a rip off. However, today I had a wild hair up my ass, and yes I’m sure it was a wild hair and nothing else, but I was willing to pay a lot more for a lot less.

Sounds good, I’ll take one of those, spank you very much.

The Big Island Dazzler, $7.20, yikes. The photo makes it look like it’ll be overloaded with sugary goodness.

But as you can see the good stuff stops 2/3 into it and the rest is filled with whipped cream.

I don’t remember getting any mac nuts, or pineapple but it was still divine.  However, for $7.20 I don’t feel as though I got much. Next time I’m plucking that wild hair straight outta there and taking my happy ass to the grocery store where one pint will cost me somewhere around $5.00.

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Haagen-Dazs
2494 Kalakaua Ave # 7
Honolulu, HI 96815

Get Directions(808) 922-3221

I’ve never been a fan of mochi ice cream. Why order this pathetic ball of an ice cream wrapped in doughy rice when I could have a full scoop of ice cream that will last way longer? While writing my last review on Bubbies I came across a few reviews that mentions how mind blowing their green tea mochi balls are. These people made it seem as though this little mochi ball had changed their lives. I couldn’t take it anymore. All of a sudden I felt imprisioned. Had I really been on the outside looking in this whole time. I wanted to be free from the rigid social conventions of plain rice and ice cream. Free me green mochi ball, free me! I fell to my knees and took a vow. Next time, little green tea mochi, next time it will be you, me and pure bliss. I promise you that!

Well next time came and my vow I kept. I ordered two because just ordering one is dumb. They had a nice selection of mochi to chose from. I picked green tea and red bean. It was served in a puny clear plastic cup and a little smaller than what I had expected. I don’t know why but for some reason I was expecting some abnormally large manufactured mochi ball. It was probably from all the hype that I read about them.

This is the red azuki bean mochi ball. I took a bite out of it so you can see that it’s red bean flavor all the way through, the mochi and the ice cream.

My green bean mochi statue.

These green tea balls won’t T-bag you.

My little sister from California ordered a scoop of ice cream in a large waffle cone.

When I tasted it my first reaction was, “I think there’s something wrong with the sherbert, like it went a little sour.” But then I saw the name, Rasberry Merlot Sherbert. Oh, o.k. merlot. Now it instantly tasted delightfully tart. I could really taste the strong pungent merlot, while the sweetness from the rasberry sherbert gave it this subtle yet refreshing taste. Good pick sis.

Overall I’m gonna have to give it up to Bubbies, pronounced boobies, I hope. The mochi balls were a delight. The thin layer of mochi embraced its cold creamy center allowing the ice cream to really take the stage and shine. The only way they could improve on this is to make these balls larger and we all can agree that there’s nothing wrong with big balls.

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O.K. so I’m gonna take this time to be a little racist and stereotypical and I feel totally o.k. being this brutally honest because I’m here at home, safe, behind the screen of my laptop. I’ve devised this theory; Asian people treat their shaved ice the way White people treat their ice cream sundaes. I never come across an Asian that goes crazy over a sundae and vice versa, but Asians love their shaved ice and White people love sundaes, even on Mondays. Also White people go crazy with sundaes, they put all kinds of shit in it: strawberries, pineapple, chocolate, marsh mellow cream, nuts cherries, carmel, whipped cream, the list goes on and on. Well, same goes for Asians and their shaved ice. We put beans, mochi balls, tapioca, fruit, jelly things, condense milk etc.

Here are some pictures of some yummy shaved ice toppings from a Chinese shaved ice cafe in Los Angelos.

You get my point?

Now when it comes to ice cream for Asians, we keep it simple, ice cream and maybe one other topping, otherwise it starts to look like something I regurgitated back up and am still consuming only because I’m too cheap to let it go to waste. I don’t want to fuck up my ice cream by mixing all kinds of crazy shit into it and of course white people feel the same about shaved ice, just ice and flavored syrup. As a matter of fact, most hales have never even heard of shaved ice with anything else. Ray, my half white, half Mexican fiance, who mine as well be white, goes, ” Babe, I never knew Asians loved shaved ice so much and all that crazy shit that you guys put on it. You would hate shaved ice in Texas, just ice and juice. Beans as a desert, it just doesn’t sound right,” he says. Oh, but it taste so good. Now Ray, and Shane still refuse to eat my shaved ice, they just can’t get past the bean thing. Ignorant fools, such poor unfortunate souls. Shaved Ice is not just ice and juice. And yes, I can tell you right now honey, I will despise it in Texas, that’s why I’m here and not there. Shaved ice is an art that I take very seriously. It’s not just about the toppings, but also the consistency, texture, fluffiness, the amount of condense milk in ratio to the amount of ice. You get my point.
Now that I’m done ranting, I’ve found a place that so far is one of my favorites on this island. Tropicana has shaved ice as light and fluffy as the clouds of heaven.

My only gripe was that they didn’t have as many toppings as that Chinese place in L.A.
All their specialty shaved ice comes with azuki beans, ice cream, condense milk, and mochi balls. I ordered the #8 lychee berries shaved ice. It comes with vanilla ice cream and is amazing. Ice cream and shaved ice, the best combo ever. The shaved ice was perfect. The way it dissolved in your mouth, like butter on hot toast. One way of judging good shaved ice is the ice itself. If it’s at all crunchy, or hard, it’s no good, move on, you deserve better than that.

On a separate occasion I got the #3, strawberry flavored shaved ice with strawberry ice cream. This time it came in a different bowl, but still just as yummy.

I had to get another one. This time the #2, Mountain Coffee with coffee ice cream inside. Again, I loved every bite.

And this is what it looks like on the inside

Ray got shaved ice with two flavors for $2.00.

On a separate occasion I got the #12 Green Tea, with green tea ice cream, $4.50. If your a fan of green tea your gonna love this. Its cool, refreshing and who knows, might even be healthy.

Also, all prices include tax, so you don’t have to worry about factoring that in. The price you see is the price you pay. Now if shaved ice just doesn’t excite you, that’s cool. To each one own, right? They also have bubble drinks, floats and a nice selection of ice cream. I suggest the shaved ice. Even Ray agrees that it’s just better here, but he still refused to eat the beans.

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Tropicana
3036 Waialae Ave,
Honolulu, HI
(808) 739-2098