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Above: Strawberry shaved snow with mangoes, kiwi and berries. Left: Teague Ho, who owns SnoZen with wife Jennypher Doan, shaves the snow off a strawberryflavored block.
“It’s like, what is this thing? How can ice have flavor?” Doan and Ho, both Bay Area natives, first tried shaved snow at a Taiwanese cafe in Los Angeles. “We said, ‘OK, we have to try this because we always love to try new things, Doan said. “We went on a couple different freeways, found our way over there and tried it and we were completely blown away.”
On visits back to the Bay Area, they noticed that shaved snow places were scarce. Many restaurants have the frozen dessert on their menu, but it’s not their singular focus, including Honeycreek, a Taiwanese restaurant at 124 Castro St. in downtown Mountain View. Eventually, the Vietnamese couple snagged a space at 2101 Showers Drive, on the corner of
a townhouse development that’s down the street from the San Antonio Caltrain station. The space was previously occupied by Crossing’s Cafe. “Originally, we were looking for something cost effective to introduce a product and test the market to see how it goes,” Ho said of the out-of-the-way location, a far cry from restaurant-dense Castro Street. “We wanted to spend the
minimum money to try out this product and it just blew up.” Doan and Ho, first-time restaurateurs (he was an architect for 20 years and she, a stay-athome-mom) said they’ve had no trouble running a business in an area with little foot traffic. At last count, Sno-Zen’s Yelp page had close to 200 glowing reviews — almost exclusively four- and five-star — a rarity for the customer-driven rating site. Doan and Ho said they’ve perfected the formula for making
shaved snow, both in terms of flavor and science. “Basically every recipe starts out with a base, just like an ice cream base,” Doan said. “Our base does not include eggs and not as much sugar as ice cream does, so that actually allows us to freeze the block to the right temperatures because if it had all those things, I believe that the block wouldn’t freeze properly and it wouldn’t allow us to shave it the way that we do.” The next step: adding all-natural ingredients. For strawberry, two pounds of the berries go into each block, Doan said. The round blocks are mounted onto a machine that spins them in fast circles, shaving thin layers off as it goes. Customers can either craft their own snowy treat or choose pre-crafted ones. There are three sizes: small ($3.50), medium ($4.50) and large ($5.50). Those taking the custom route can choose from six base flavors (mango, taro, coconut, vanilla, chocolate or strawberry) or 10 rotating specials (on a recent day, they were serving matcha green tea, jasmine milk tea, Vietnamese coffee, Thai tea, peanut butter and sweet milk). Continued on next page
Dinner by the movies
Come enjoy a 2 oz taste of three elegant wines from our wine flights special Wednesday - Friday 5:30 - 8:30 1390 Pear Ave., Mountain View (650) 254-1120 www.cucinaventi.com For information on future events, follow us on
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Cucina Venti is proud to feature the award winning Kenya Baker Live every Wednesday - Friday from 5:30-8:30 Kenya has toured as lead guitarist for Grammy winner Joss Stone for four years, performing for celebrities and dignitaries all over the world. February 21, 2014 ■ Mountain View Voice ■ MountainViewOnline.com ■
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