Phantom Gourmet: Snowdaes In Lowell
LOWELL - There's no days like snow days, and in the city of Lowell, there seems to be snow in the forecast year round.
Jennifer Ho and her husband, Nyden have created Snowdaes - a dessert destination that has customers coming from miles away for a taste of their signature shaved snow.
"Snowdaes is a specialty dessert shop and what we make is kind of a hybrid between ice cream and shaved ice," explained Jennifer.
It all starts back in the kitchen where they make their flavors in small batches.
"We get our molds that we make the ice in and then we throw in our milk. For certain flavor there's juice, water of course, and then we just blend everything together and then we throw it in our flash freezer."
In three hours the flavored block is frozen, and then put into their state of the art ice shaver. Each block of flavored ice is shaved down into icy, edible strips with the help of a super sharp blade. The results are downright delicious.
"It comes out like creamy ribbons. It's really thin, really light, really fluffy and it kind of just melts in your mouth," described Jennifer.
While the flavors like mango, watermelon, honeydew, and taro taste great on their own, they can also be amped up with tasty toppings. Peanut Butter snow can be turned into a classic PB& J by adding graham cracker crumbs, peanut Butter chips and a Strawberry Drizzle. And if you're feeling like a nut, order up an Almond Joy snow.
"The Almond Joy is flavored just like the Almond Joy candy bar," said Jennifer. "So it's just coconut shaved snow, then we put in Heath Bar bits which give it that crunch that everyone likes, and then we put in Nutella drizzle. The Nutella makes it taste just like an Almond Joy, and, and then we top it with a little bit of almonds.
"It makes them really think that it's an Almond Joy without the calories."
The Strawberry Cheesecake has all the taste of traditional cheesecake, without being heavy and dense.
"The strawberry cheesecake is made with our cheesecake shaved snow, and we top that with our fresh diced strawberries, and then we drizzle it with a strawberry drizzle, and then with our graham cracker crumbs. It tastes just like a strawberry cheesecake.
"You're not going to get that really heavy feeling from a cheesecake when it's in your stomach. This is actually really light, but it's still creamy."
For something more substantial, try one of Snowdae's waffle creations. There's the Rocky Snow Mountain, a towering stack starting with a chocolate fudge waffle loaded up with chocolate snow, marshmallows, walnuts, whipped cream, chocolate and marshmallow drizzles.
"The Rocky Snow Mountain is for chocolate lovers. It's chocolate on chocolate on chocolate," Jennifer warned. "If you're a big chocolate eater, I recommend it 'cause it is just chocolate."
Then there's something called the Shorty Special, created by Snowdaes super fan, Armani Thao, or "Shorty" as he's known by his friends.
"Honestly it was kind of by accident," Armani explained. "I just came in on the first day that they introduced the waffle and I decided to add on my own little interpretation of what a great dessert waffle would be - and I have the Shorty Special."
Jennifer listed off the ingredients. "The Shorty starts with our regular egg puff waffle and then powdered sugar, powdered cinnamon, vanilla ice cream, strawberries, condensed milk and Nutella."
The messy masterpiece became an overnight sensation, after Shorty posted it to social media. Now they sell 10-20 orders of Shorties each day.
"I Facebook. I Instagram. I use a lot of social media and promoted it to all of my friends and followers that they need to have their waffles this way. People just started coming over and asking for what Armani had, and it just became a hit."
While you might usually feel guilty eating dessert, when you order some snow at Snowdaes, you can leave those feelings behind.
"You can actually taste the real fruit or the real ingredients that we put in there," said Jennifer. "It's so light and it just kind of melts in your mouth, and you don't feel any guilt towards it - so how can you be upset with something that is just so delicious? It's happiness in a cup."
You can find Snowdaes at 1075 Westford Street in Lowell, or online at snowdaes.com.
Watch Phantom Gourmet on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 and 11 a.m. on myTV38.
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