Taro is the Newest, Hottest Old Shaved Ice Flavor

This article is by Monica Wang, translated by Jack C. and edited by Sharon Tseng. Originally published by CommonWealth Magazine. Used with permission.

Do you know when Taiwan first began to consume shaved ice, the popular summer snack consisting of crunchy ice chips and sweet condiments or ingredients? And how did people back then survive the scorching summers without refrigerators and air conditioners?

“museum207”, a private museum on Dihua Street in Taipei, is devoted to preserving Taiwan’s rich cultural history. It has hosted 250 thousand visitors in just two years. This summer, museum207 opened “The Taste of Summer Exhibition.” Inside the historic building that used to be the Guanghe Tang Chinese Medicine Shop (廣和堂藥舖), a colorful exhibition has been set up to evoke the nostalgic memory of traditional ice and fruit shops.

The first floor of the exhibition begins the narrative by recounting the history of Taiwan’s climate and cold foods. It then introduces Taiwan’s green herb stores and other commonplace cold desserts. The second floor focuses on ingredients used in traditional ice desserts sold in ice and fruit shops. (Source: musuem207)

“All this talk about climate change got me thinking, how did our ancestors survive the summer heat? We designed this exhibition to share the wisdom accumulated over a century.” Anchi Hua (華安綺), curator of museum207, spent six months researching and preparing the exhibition with her team. The narrative starts with fun questions like, “how hot was Taiwan’s summers?” and “how to survive without air conditioning?” The museum is separated into eight sections that look back at how Taiwan combated the summer heat from 1897 to the present day.

Visitors can start by reading newspapers from the Japanese colonial period that reminded readers of things to do in summer: drink lots of fluids, place your order for a newfangled electric fan, use the miracle cure-all “Jintan” (仁丹) to cool off, follow the latest in straw hat fashion, and attend the popular Japanese gathering called Nou Ryou Kai (納涼會) in the evening. You will gain a better understanding of when the first ice machine was imported through Dadaocheng (Read also: Dadaocheng: A Unique Reinvention of Tradition); how that kicked off Taiwan’s obsession with producing and consuming icy desserts; and how cool tea was created and developed through history.

The exhibition is a feast for the eyes. On loan from private collector Hsu Hung-jung (許宏榮) are ancient tools from all sorts of ice shops, including a century-old wooden barrel used to make “yoyo ice”, or “shaken ice” (搖搖冰). There’s also an ice vendor’s cart and a tofu pudding cart from the 1940s. Other rare items include local soda brands popular in the 1950s but now gone without a trace: Shuang Fu, Shuang Xi, Chi Hsing, Chi Mei, Jung Kuan, Hsien Lou, Hsien Tao, Bai May, Bai Chu, Chung Hsing, San He, and others (双富、双喜、七星、七美、榮冠、仙露、仙桃、白梅、白菊、泉興、三和). Titillating “cheesecake” calendars and posters from the early days of the still popular HeySong Soda brand will be sure to bring a smile to anyone’s lips.

To promote this exhibition, museum207 conducted a survey among a thousand visitors. The questions were related to the four themes of the exhibition: “Your home refrigerator during the summer”, “different kinds of Taiwanese icy desserts”, “shaved ice ingredients”, and “old-fashioned cold snack shops.”

The results were fascinating. The most popular shaved ice ingredient is not tapioca bubbles or green bean with pearl barley, but taro! What a revelation!

As for everyone’s personal list of favorite local ice shops, and the “Dihua Street Map of Cold Dessert Shops” you must pick up at the end of your visit—we will leave them for you to discover when you take the time to visit the museum!

Have you read?
♦ The Curious Case of Q
♦ Decoding The Art of Old-Time Doors and Windows
♦ Dadaocheng Back in Business: Taipei’s New Hotspot for Young Entrepreneurs

(Feature photo from BossenStore.com)