Japanese festival food: Strawberry Shavings

Ichigo Kezuri, or strawberry shavings in English, is a type of dessert food you can find on sale at many festivals around Japan. As the English name suggests, the dessert is comprised of strawberries that have been 'shaved' or cut into thin strips. It looks like kakigori aka snow cones, but it is quite different. Kakigori is made out of ice with flavors added. Whereas Ichigo kezuri is made out of frozen strawberries. As such, there is much more texture to ichigo kezuri.

Ichigo Kezuri typically has pouring cream or sweet milk added to it. In the stall in the photo in this post, they also had milk cream out so you could help yourself. It is a great time of year for anything strawberry flavored as it is strawberry season in Japan. Strawberry season is on average from early January to early May. The price of an Ichigo Kezuri / Strawberry Shaving dessert varies by size and region. The ones we bought this day were medium sized and cost 500 yen each.

With the main cherry blossom season about to start, many festival stalls that have been in hibernation will reemerge to please festival goers this spring. Many of the festival food stalls operate no matter what the weather, but frozen desserts tend to have a stronger presence once the weather warms up. If you would like to try a Strawberry Shavings dessert, keep an eye out for a festival stall selling 'ichigo kezuri' at the the next festival you go to! You can also buy them at some shops and supermarkets around the country too.

Have you ever tried a Strawberry Shavings dessert? Did you like it?