No subject

"Although I do not know the exact origins of shaved ice, I do recall
reading several
years ago that during the Edo-era, one of the annual gifts (kenjo-hin)
presented
during the midst of the Japanese summer to the Shogun in Edo from one
the local
feudal lord of Suruga-no-kuni (present day Shizuoka-ken) was snow taken
from the
upper slopes of Mt. Fuji. If I recall correctly, the passage said that a
large quantity
of snow, carefully wrapped in bamboo leaves, was packed on a horse drawn
cart
and rushed to Edo. By the time it finally arrived, there was only enough
left to fill a
medium sized dish. In the days prior to electricity, it was a luxury,
only reserved for
the Shogun."

Selene here.  Many ice cream web sites tell a virtually identical tale
about Roman Emperor Nero and Alexander the Great rather than the
Shogun.  Everyone wants a piece of the action!

http://www.huis.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~nomura/K/koori.html
A picture of a cloth banner in front of a Kakigouri shop in Hiroshima,
and a description:

"The history of KAKIGOURI is old. The oldest relative document is
MAKURANOSOUSHI which was written in THE HEIAN era (about 1000) by
SEISHOU NAGON. KEZURIHI, or sharpened ice appeared in it. It was liked
as one of luxury items, summer drinks between nobles.

"It was recorded in THE EDO era ( 1841 ) that it consists of shaved ice
served with KINAKO (soy-bean flour ) and sugar.

"in YOKOHAMA at 1869, Mr. FUSAZOU MACHIDA sold ice cream and shaved ice,
it is said an opening of a shaved ice store.

"The fact I have checked on "Encyclopedia Nipponicae 2001 ( SHOUGAKUKAN
1985), this is written in Japanese. "

In the West, various claims of sweetened ice treats cite Marco Polo and
King Charles I of England, but those have been disproven, notably in the
book by Caroline Liddell and Robin Weir, ICES:  THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE
[Hodder and Stoughton, 1993, ISBN 0-340-58335-5]

According to author Alba Peruzzi,Gelato is even mentioned in the Bible,
when Isaac offered cold goat's milk to Abraham and says to him "eat and
drink it." I'm not sure that's what they meant, but I'll leave it to
Biblical scholars to sort that out.

Epicurious has a good article on Italian granita,
<http://www.epicurious.com/g_gourmet/g04_italy/sicily/granita.html> that
attritributes the invention of sweetened ices to over-chilling the
Arabian "sharbat" water-syrup drink.

Agonizingly just post-SCA period, famous Florentine architect and
inventor Bernardo Buontalenti is said to have invented the gelato making
machine in 1660.

That's all I have for now, more if I find it...

Selene