Visit this Hawaiian food stand for the 'softest, fluffiest shave ice' in metro Phoenix
Under the glare of the desert sun, a tiny food trailer parked in Glendale offers families a refreshing respite.
Desmond Martin and his crew operate Happy Honu Shave Ice, a family business that makes one of the most iconic Hawaiian beach snacks —pillowy-soft mounds of wispy ice sweetened with fruit syrup and condensed milk.
While Happy Honu Shave Ice can be found at various locations in the West Valley, its most consistent spot is Saturdays at the Arrowhead Farmers Market in Glendale where Martin sometimes runs into other Hawaiians. That's when his accent and the Pidgin comes out, he said.
"If I'm eating my shave ice and I'm enjoying it, I might say, 'Hey brah, dis shave ice broke da mout.' Basically it was so good it broke my jaw," Martin said.
Shave ice is a part of Martin's family history, but it's also part of the history of Hawai'i, with origins that date back to 11th century Japan. For Martin, his first memory of shave ice — and many of his childhood memories — starts at the beach.
'It's ingrained in my DNA'
Martin was born in Waialua and spent the first 20 years of his life on the North Shore of O‘ahu. He spent much of his free time with friends and family hanging out at Haleʻiwa Beach Park, or body surfing and jumping off the rock at Waimea Bay.
On weekdays he’d find himself parked at the beach after school to just gaze at the shoreline. On the weekends a beach day was an all-day affair, with boogie boarding and ukelele jam sessions. Someone usually brought a boombox so they could play cassettes of Bob Marley and Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.
Martin remembers how they'd start the day by piling into a car and stopping at an okazuya on the way to get a bento box or Hawaiian plate lunch of chicken katsu or loco moco.
No long, hot day of playing in the waves was complete without a visit to a shave ice shop, often a little red shack in Haleʻiwa called Aoki’s. The family-owned business has been serving snowy treats with house syrups since 1981. Matsumoto was another shop he frequented. The family-owned institution in Haleʻiwa began as a mom-and-pop grocery store in 1951 and it sparks a lot of nostalgia for people, Martin said.
Back then Martin always wanted a cone of banana and strawberry shave ice plus a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the bottom, which would melt into a fruity, creamy pool.
"It’s been ingrained in my DNA, it’s in my blood," Martin said. "When it comes to shave ice, what it comes from, my heritage."
The North Shore is known as the countryside of O’ahu, famed for its massive waves and surf scene. The Martin family’s shave ice trailer is a nod to his roots and takes its name from the sea turtle, honu, which can be found basking in the sun at the North Shore's Laniakea Beach.
How a centuries-old Japanese dessert ended up in Hawai'i
Like many Hawaiian cities, Haleʻiwa was still a sugar mill town when he was a kid, Martin said.
After the United States overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893, white settlers formed an oligarchy of sugar production companies, known as The Big Five, that controlled the Hawaiian islands in the first half of the 20th century. These corporations brought in outside laborers to work in their sugarcane plantations, mostly from Japan and the Philippines, as well as Spain, Portugal, China, Korea, Puerto Rico and Mexico.
Martin described his own ancestry as a mix of Native Hawaiian, Japanese, Filipino, Spanish and, as he recently learned from his grandma, a bit of Chinese.
The multicultural communities in Hawai'i have long shaped the cuisine of the islands, introducing Portuguese malasadas and Japanese kakigōri, the precursor to Hawaiian shave ice.
Kakigori was once a luxury dessert in Japan, centuries before it graced the swanky tables in Manhattan’s Lobster Club, or the Instagram-friendly pop-up stands in Los Angeles. Back then, kakigori was made with natural ice formed during the coldest period of winter and stored in ice houses, according to Japan visitor guide iN HAMAMATSU. Makers then used a knife to shave the ice into a metal bowl and served it with sweet natural flavorings, such as vine sap and honey.
Kakigori became more widespread in the 19th century when ice harvesting became easier, and following the inventions of the ice-shaving machine and electric refrigeration.
The commodity of ice itself became instrumental to the colonization of Hawai'i, where settlers craved chilled drinks and desserts — a topic that food scholar Hi′ilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart explores in an upcoming book, "Cooling the Tropics: Ice, Indigeneity, and Hawaiian Refreshment."
During the sugarcane boom, Japanese immigrants started selling what became known as shave ice to plantation workers, reported The Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
In Hawaiian Pidgin, the 'd' is dropped from shaved ice.
"If it says 'shave ice' you know it’s from Hawai'i or at least the idea is basically from Hawai'i," Martin said. "Hawaiians like to shortcut everything with Pidgin English. We kind of say it like it’s one word, shave ice."
How Happy Honu Shave Ice brought a taste of the islands to Phoenix
When Martin met his wife Laura at DeVry University in Phoenix, he learned that shaved ice was also a part of her heritage.
Laura, who's Mexican American, spent her childhood in Maryvale, a mostly Hispanic neighborhood in west Phoenix. She grew up buying raspados from a pushcart in the park.
Shave ice has a more delicate texture than raspados and snow cones, and melts immediately on the tongue.
“When I think about shave ice, I think about the old Japanese style of making shave ice … the softest, fluffiest, shave ice you can get,” Martin said.
In the 2000s the couple came up with the idea of a side business selling shave ice, with the hope that when their children got older, they would learn how to run their own businesses. They found a man on Craigslist who was selling his shave ice equipment, including a tent for festival set-up and "dinky little cube shavers."
After making a drive to Washington to purchase the supplies, Happy Honu Shave Ice made its debut in 2009 at the Arizona Aloha Festival in Tempe.
Over time, the side gig became their full-time jobs. The stand was traded for a trailer and they upgraded to block shavers. One of their two children, Anthony, now mans the ice shaver.
Cube shavers use ice cubes, which can be purchased in bags at the grocery store. This method can result in some crunchier chips sneaking in among the fine and fluffy pieces. Block shavers use a block of ice to ensure even finer and softer pieces.
The Martins make their own cylindrical ice blocks in a glycol freezer that can form eight blocks at a time. The blocks take about 12 hours to form and on a typical morning at the farmers market, Happy Honu goes through about eight to 14 blocks, Martin estimated.
Before putting the block on the shaver, they set it out and let it sweat, a process called tempering. The softened ice makes a better shave.
"You gotta use soft hands when packing the ice," Anthony said after forming a mound. "And when you have soft ice, you get those craters," he added, gesturing to the craters formed by each stream of flavored syrup.
What's on the menu at Happy Honu Shave Ice
The menu at Happy Honu has expanded since its early days. The food trailer boasts more than 30 flavors, including lychee, dreamsicle, guava and pineapple habanero.
Melona is reminiscent of the melon-flavored Korean ice cream pop with the same name, while POG tastes like the most popular juice in Hawai'i' , the acronym standing for passion fruit, orange and guava.
Martin said he's particularly proud of creating a peanut butter flavor, that can be combined with grape for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in shave ice form.
A drench of condensed milk, known as a snow cap, is a popular topping. Happy Honu also makes its own haupia whip made from coconut milk, sugar and gelatin. Unlike whipped cream, the fluffy topping has an airy, cloud-like feel.
Martin's wife Laura likes to add a dusting of li hing mui, a powder made from salty dried Chinese plum. Customers can also ask for ice cream, mochi and azuki beans at the bottom of their shave ice.
Happy Honu offers suggested flavor combinations, and Martin's favorite is Hawaiian Paradise, made with of lilikoi, haupia and POG. Lilikoi is a yellow passion fruit found commonly on the islands and haupia is coconut milk pudding dessert. "Those are the flavors of Hawai'i' right there," he said. One spoonful takes him home.
It's been more than two decades since he left O’ahu, but Martin still describes himself as a fish out of water. He said Hawaiians have a Pidgin name for people like him who move to the mainland, “dryland kumu,” a reference to the kumu goatfish endemic to Hawai'i'. He misses the aloha ʻāina.
In Hawai'i aloha means more than hello and goodbye, Martin said. Aloha ʻāina has no equivalent term in English. It describes the connection he feels to the ocean and to other people. It describes intimacy and love.
“We show aloha, we give aloha,” Martin said. “It’s a kind of way of life on the islands. You look out for your neighborhood, you support your brother man.”
People who walk up to the the Happy Honu trailer on any given day can hear Martin’s playlist of island reggae and artists of his childhood beach days — Kapena, Kalapana, Gabby Pahinui. He wants his customers to feel like they could be at any shave ice shop on the islands.
“That way of life, the easy way of life, that’s what I miss,” Martin said. “But having shave ice like this, it brings back memories, it brings me the feeling of ‘Hey, I remember this flavor, this sensation.’ It’s close to what I know, growing up as a child in Hawai'i', just missing the beach, all the sand, and the water.”
Happy Honu Shave Ice
Where and when: Saturdays, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at the farmers market at Arrowhead Towne Center in Glendale, near the entrance to Dillard's. Summer hours, June to August: 8-11 a.m.
On Fridays the vendor rotates evenings between Food Truck Friday West at Desert Credit Financial Union, 17445 N. 79th Ave., Glendale, and Liberty Park, 22406 N. 101st Ave., Peoria.
Details: For weekly schedule and updates, follow @happyhonushaveice on Facebook at facebook.com/HappyHonuShaveIce and Instagram at instagram.com/happyhonushaveice.
Other family-run food trucks in this series:
Zydeco's Louisiana Kitchen: The Creole and Cajun food here is 'as real as it gets'
Taco Hog Carnitas: The taco truck for mouth-watering Michoacán-style carnitas
Reach the reporter at Priscilla.Totiya@azcentral.com. Follow @priscillatotiya on Twitter and Instagram.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Happy Honu Shave Ice offers taste of Hawaii in metro Phoenix
