kaua’i, hawai’i

Ella eating a Hawaiian shave ice at Jo-Jo’s, in Waimea. Getting this shave ice was an adventure. I stood in line for 45 minutes in a cramped little shack with no air conditioning. I was crammed in there with about 20 other people. You couldn’t leave the door open because it affected the shave ice machine. The guy (we’ll call him Jo-Jo) was working alone because his staff all called in sick. He was in a permanent RAGE about this, and angrily took the complicated orders, then painstakingly shaved the ice himself and added flavours. I watched very carefully while standing in line, and realized you had to order like this: ice with mac nut (and NOT mention the flavour of the ice until he was done shaving the ice or he would get very very angry). When it was mine turn to order, he decided to call someone on his phone and yell at them about some generator. I stood politely for a few minutes until he was done his call while the shack filled up with more and more people.

We tried a lot of shave ice in Kaua’i and Jo-Jo’s was by far the best. Even when Jo-Jo is angry, Jo-Jo makes some good shave ice.