Japanese festival food: kakigori

Kakigori is a ice dessert often called 'Snow Cone' or 'Flavored Shaved Ice' in English. But I would venture that Japanese kakigori is in a league of its own! Kakigori has been around for years. But initially it was just shaved ice with flavored syrup. Nowadays, you can get more elaborate and flavored snow cones, some with real fruit and many with cream.

There are hundreds of kakigori cafes around Japan in recent years. But there was a time when the main place to get kakigori was at a food truck or at a food stall at a  Japanese festival. Kakigori remains one of the most popular foods at festivals today. I think in summer even at the smallest of festivals you can usually get kakigori! 

There was also a time when you would only really see kakigori at the summer festivals. But nowadays I have seen kakigori for sale even at festivals in winter. Their are spin off products too. Like Strawberry shavings which I introduced in the "Japanese Festival Food" series already. 

I think at festivals the food stalls most commonly offer the old fashioned type of kakigori with just shaved ice and flavored syrup. But food trucks tend to have the more trendy type with fruit and cream. I think at a food stall it must be quite difficult to keep things fresh in the height of summer. Also, they are very popular thus busy in the summer, they probably wouldn't have the time to make up fancy kakigori!

Have you ever tried kakigori at a Japanese festival?