Forewarning: Today, there won’t be an actual recipe with this article. I will tell you which fresco flavor is my favorite, and how I eat it. That’s about all you will get from me. There won’t be any syrup making from scratch. I promise, there’s a reason for it.
But first, let’s take a trip down memory lane.
We’re off to my fifth birthday party. The one and only birthday party my parents ever threw me, according to their say. My souvenirs tell otherwise. But perhaps, I had such a great time then that in my child’s mind I committed it as a sign that I always had parties. That’s a debate for another day, however.
Today, we will stick to the highlight of this celebration: the fresco bar.
I remember it as if it had happened yesterday. My parents had just built a barbecue area in our backyard. In honor of my birthday, they had turned the newly-built brick counter into a fresco station. On it, they had lined up different flavors of syrup, an ice shaver and an ice block.
Yep, they had stuck with the Haitian tradition of manually shaving the ice.
Red, green, white, flavor requests were pouring from everywhere. It’s as if every single child, but me, had set out to try every single syrup flavor available. As for me, I stuck to only one: red. I wanted each of my fresco cups to be filled with red syrup and peanuts. I had just discovered that flavor combination. And I loved it.
To this day, red remains my favorite. But it is not really called red.
While, all the kids referred to those flavors by their color, they each actually have a name. My favorite, red is grenadine. The green one is peppermint. The clear white, anisette. And the cloudy white is our sirop d’orgeat.
Though, I can probably tell you what the other four flavors are made of, I simply cannot do the same for the grenadine. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a recipe which tastes like the sirop grenadine I grew up with. No one in my entourage has a definite answer on which fruit is at the base of that flavor.
Online searches talk about pomegranate. But I tried that route, already. It didn’t work. It simply didn’t taste quite the same. And for that, I chose to stick with prepared sirop grenadine. When I don’t have any at hand, I use our grenadine extract. We have always had a bottle on our shelves. A few drops in some syrup is all it takes to get our Haitian sirop grenadine. And that, dear readers, is the real reason why I am not sharing a recipe with you today. I simply wouldn’t know how to prepare some grenadine syrup from scratch.
Haitian Fresco with peanuts, a delightful shaved ice treat
Equipment
- Ice shaver
Ingredients
- Ice
- Grenadine Syrup
- Haitian Grilled Peanuts
Instructions
- Shave the ice and fill one cup
- Drizzle grenadine syrup (generously, the more the merrier)
- Add a handful of grilled salted peanuts
- Enjoy & Cool off.
2 Comments
Oh ça donne envie. J’en ai tellement rêvé d’un ti fresco a pistach. Mais j’ai été frustrée l’an dernier quand après de trèssss longues années, je suis allé passer quelques jours au pays. Je n’ai pas trop aimé malheureusement la présentation des frescos des rues alors je suis revenue avec ma frustration.
Bien sûr ça existe ici sous le nom de “snowball” mais c’est sans pistaches donc pour moi c’est pas la même chose. Au moins j’ai mangé des pistaches grillées et ce fut un réel plaisir.
moi, mon fresco je le fais maintenant maison. nous trouvons fort heureusement le sirop au supermarché…j’avoue cependant que je préfère le goût “laru,” celui des frescos des rues. mais bien sûr il faut faire attention et ne pas en acheter n’importe où…