Why is this getting harder and harder to find all over Taiwan? Given how god awfully hot it is here except alishan, you’d think everyone would jump at a nice bowl of shaved ice.
But I feel like I have to really go out of my way to find it, and anywhere near train stations or mrt stations have none.
Is it because there’s no money in it?
It’s frozen water with some crap on top, huge profit margin. Maybe iced tea with bubbles and other shit is liked better and more abundant.
Bubble tea had even better margin. Basically just tea with cheap ass tapioca balls. At least shaved ice contains more stuff.
Maybe that’s why, who knows …
I was craving shaved ice today too. But my favourite places closed down 
I was at keelung and I saw what I thought was shaved ice, but they didn’t have any.
Just had some during the week, didn’t have to look too hard to find it
One near me just shut down. I dislike the ones with blunt blades, where the ice comes out with the texture of small pebbles. Do you think it is becoming an old fuddy duddy food? The cool kids probably think it’s lame now or something.
It must be… Even in danshui many have shut down when they had at least 5 of them within walking distance to the MRT station.
And one remains have either blunt blade where the ice is more like little pebbles, or require me to travel a long way (like Danshui).
I have no idea why any kids will think shaved ice is lame, because given how hot Taiwan is and how some people just live without AC, I’d think shaved ice has to be extremely popular.
Even Ximen stopped selling shaved ice, many of the restaurants used to offer shaved ice in the summer and they all stopped except for one charging 100+ for shaved ice.
Well, it has been a Taiwanese staple for at least 70 years. I’d imagine if it went out of style it would have done so 50 years ago.
I haven’t noticed a decline, but I’ve only lived here for a few years.
Problem is I have no way to know ahead of time if there’s a shaved ice place at a given place… can’t google it because a lot of them are very old fashioned, meaning they are probably not even listed on any known directories…
A lot of the stalls were in proximity to night markets, which obviously got smashed during Covid. Is that one in Raohe still there? I used to like those huge, too big for one person servings.
Danshui used to have servings like that. Basically for 40nt it was enough to fill you completely even when hungry.
Those days are long gone unfortunately. Only ones remaining in Danshui are those that served smaller servings and their prices have gone up a lot.
The one in Gongguan across from Taida’s entrance is still standing but who knows for how long. When I got here, it wasn’t the only one in Gongguan area. There were several on the Roosevelt/market side
Now I don’t think so.
Maybe tastes change and ice has become old fashioned. But yes, it would hit the spot right on on summer days like today.
The one in Shipai in the alley across from the night market rules. Always a line
What are the kids eating instead then?
I hope they don’t close, I love me some shaved ice. There’s one in lehua that used to have a raw egg one, I’m sure it tastes like shit but I want to try it for a laugh.
There’s still a bunch in Kaohsiung near Xiziwan port and Qijin Beach. But these are definitely tourist areas for sure
Yancheng District is also full of them. I rarely leave Sizihwan and Yancheng, so I guess that’s why I’ve never noticed a decline. 
@Taiwan_Luthiers there’s a new shaved ice shop at NTU (close to the GongTong building,) in case you are walking around Gongguan during a hot day and craving some ice 
What are their portions? That’s a really good price!
I live in Danshui now and there’s plenty of shaved ice place here, but it’s gone up to like 60 (it used to be 40 when I first came here).
I saw it when it had just closed, so I couldn’t order 
I’ll see if I can try it this week or next. 
