Push a cart down a supermarket aisle, and you’ll pass a kaleidoscope of color. The use of artificial dyes by foodmakers is up by half since 1990, and it’s not limited to candy. The list of foods made pretty by chemicals now includes pickles, bagels and port wine cheese balls.
Many years ago, on a visit to Hawaii, our 4 year-old was given a blue shaved ice treat, one of the favorites of the people in that region. Minutes later, from the backseat, he erupted in wild crying and agitation, and we tossed the blue monstrosity out, and gave him water, and possibly ginger ale. When he was older, after another odd incident I cannot recall, it was determined by some doc that he was “allergic” to red dyes.
Maybe everyone is allergic to chemical food additives!
Shave ice was a Japanese notion dating back centuries, and at first was a specialty only for those wealthy enough to have access to snow/ice, etc. When Japanese immigrants arrived to work the big sugar plantations of Hawaii, they brought the shave ice concept with them. Hawaii Shaved Ice has the full story.
(Photo is from Matsumoto Shave Ice, a 60 year-old business in Haleiwa, on Oahu's north shore. A food heritage site, for sure. It’s likely that esoteric shave(d) ice joints are using naturally colored flavorings today, but back in the 1980’s, not so much.)
Start up your own fabulously successful franchise, "Does Bobby Shave?" ??!!
Posted by: Foodie | March 26, 2011 at 01:31 PM
Oh, how I love Shave Ice but it doesn't appear anywhere near Riverside, California! :(
Posted by: Bobby Dobbins Title | March 26, 2011 at 10:23 AM