yuen yuen cafe

During the summer of 2008, two friends and I went to Korea and Taiwan (or Formosa as one of my friends like to call it) for two weeks, and ever since we have been back, we have been on the search for shaved ice a la Formosa style. Why? Well, shaved ice in Formosa is no where like the shaved ice commonly found in Canada. Instead of the ice being crushed, the ice is sliced into wafer thin slices. The slices are also flavoured, for example, green tea and mango. My favourite was the green tea flavoured ice with read bean and condensed milk slathered all for it for $1.50 CAD! (My mouth waters thinking about it...).

Look at the deliciousness

Once I came back to Vancouver, the two friends and I would always reminisce about the shaved ice we had in Formosa. And finally, this summer we took our search seriously. And one of my friends, B (who was one of two that I went to Formosa with), heard from one of his friends that a place by 41st and Cambie served pretty good shaved ice. And so off we went, and to my surprise, it was a  bubbletea house that I always see whenever I go to Samurai Sushi! Located right beside Samurai, this bubble tea house is called Yuen Yuen Cafe. This cafe is designed like any Taiwanese style cafe, and their menu is full of drinks and pretty inexpensive looking dishes. There is the option of sit down, but it’s more of a coffee shop where you can sit where you find seating. It took B and I a while to find the shaved ice portion of menu because it was placed right beside the cash register instead of being on the big hanging menu and also, instead of calling it shaved ice, they were calling it ice flakes. Each plate of ice flakes comes with three toppings of your choosing for $3.50, however, I was quite disappointed in their lack of selection. And so I decided to order grass jelly, red bean and condensed milk as my toppings and I waited eagerly to see what the ice portion of my ice flakes would look like. When I got my order I was a bit disappointed, the ice was crushed, not shaved but their servings were huge!

My order at yuen yuen cafe 

Surprisingly, the ice was actually crushed quite finely, so there were not huge chunks of ice left floating. Sadly, I didn’t finish this whole plate since the day that I went wasn’t that hot, and I was starting to shiver. Haha. Well I would say I would come to this place when I crave for decent shaved ice that comes in huge portions. 

And so the hunt continues. 

Yuen Yuen Cafe

5890 Cambie St, Van, BC