I had made a mental note the other night at Tsujita to come back for dessert at Nana’s Green Tea at Yokocho Waikiki because all their treats just looked so cute and appetizing?! My mental notes don’t always stick, but when it comes to food, it is guaranteed 100%. Apparently, Nana’s Green Tea is a mega-chain tea house in Japan, specializing in all the matcha-based delights that you can possibly imagine. So so many choices on their menu and they all looked amazing. Now, when I thought of Hawaiian dessert, my tourist perception revealed a mental image of shaved ice, so I went with the Matcha Shave Ice.
It was a huge mountain of plain shaved ice served on top of smooth red bean paste and other tasty surprises. Well, not really, all that was buried under the shaved ice were displayed on their menu picture, so you knew exactly what you were getting yourself into?. There were two small ceramic pitcher on the side, one with matcha and one with condensed milk. You get the freedom to dress your shave ice in whatever way you desire?. Pretty fun!
And THAT up there was my masterpiece?. Then came the hard part, deciding on where to start. The shave ice was bigger than the bowl, so it was a mess when I started digging in and was unable to salvage the pieces falling off the sides. The shaved ice was like fine and velvety sheets of fresh snow, unlike the coarse pellets of snow cone. The combination of the slight earthy bitterness of the matcha and the sweetness of the condensed milk was divine. The matcha flavour was authentic and rich. This was definitely a delight to be shared, except my boyfriend was not a fan of matcha, so it became my one woman’s mission to finish it.
Once I got to the bottom, I uncovered the mochi balls (glutinous rice) and warabi mochi cubes (bracken starch) – soft, chewy and addictive. The mochi themselves don’t really have any flavour, but they added plenty of texture to the red bean paste mixed with the matcha shaved ice. Onolicious!
Before I took my last few bites, this couple sat down diagonally across from us and they ordered the matcha parfait and chocolate parfait. O man, those parfaits looked sooooo gooood! If I ever come back to Waikiki, I am going to get one of those parfaits! Every day!?