Under a non-descript rainbow colored umbrella that hundreds of vendors use in LA lurks one of the best dessert makers in town and this guy definitely deserves his own thread. He resides on Western and Santa Monica on the southwest corner in front of the T-Mobile store. He’s almost always there on the weekends and some weekdays. Usually around 11 until his ice runs out.
He sells shaved ice from a big block that is insulated with what appears to be a custom bag along with towels. He laboriously shaves each dessert using a small handheld ice shaver. Apparently he’s a legend in the local community for the best hielos, raspados,and mangonadas. One guy told me that in the summer people wait for over 1.5 hrs to get one and on another occasion a lady told me that she had come from sgv because she couldn’t get a mangonada like this anywhere else.
Aside from hand shaving the ice, he makes all of his syrups and fruit concoctions. The mangos in his homemade syrup still have some hints of their green rinds. Aside from mango he sells coco, nuez, grossela among other homemade flavors. He also makes his own chamoy sauce.
For each order he deftly shaves the ice, mixes some syrup,layers toppings, adds some fruit, and repeats to add consistency to each layer, then to top it off he quickly adds salt, limes, condensed milk, fruit juice mixes, or other toppings as requested. If you haven’t been you should definitely visit him on a hot day or just any day.
