I prefer a closer shave.
Café Zaiya's shaved ice (small; $3.79), decorated with a tablespoon of azuki beans and a single glutinous rice mochi, is served in just one flavor, an intense green tea fortified with condensed milk. Granted, "shaved ice" isn't synonymous with "snowball" (whose benchmark is served by Hansen's Sno-Bliz, in New Orleans), but by any standard Café Zaiya's is coarse-grained. Even when chopped into a matcha-flavored slush (below), it retains a bit of crystalline crunch. To the kindly server who works Café Zaiya's shaved ice machine: Is it possible to play with the speed dial, and crank it up a notch?
Café Zaiya
18 East 41st St. (Fifth-Madison Aves.)
(one of several locations)
212-779-0600
www.ZaiyaNY.com
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