TOKYO — A new dessert sold from a roadside stand in Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district is drawing crowds with its unique taste — exactly like that of freshly fallen snow.

Ever eaten really good snow? The appeal isn’t in the flavor (it’s just frozen water) but in what food experts call the mouth-feel. This dessert, called xue-hua-bin (“snowflake ice”), replicates it perfectly: the dry, powdery, airy crystals that crunch lightly in your mouth before quickly melting.

The unique dessert had its origins in Taiwan’s nighttime street fairs, but is slowly making its way around the world. (One of the commenters on my blog found it in an Asian mall in Vancouver.) The Akihabara shop, called Snowflake Village, is the only place to get it in eastern Japan.
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Piled up on a plate, xue-hua-bin looks at first like a huge pile of ice cream — large by American standards, impossibly colossal by Japanese ones. But there’s actually plenty of air whipped into the heap of delicate, sweetened crystals.

The dessert comes from a yellow drum-like machine, about the size of a quarter-keg. Its innards are most likely the stuff of trade secrets. All I know is that when the clerk turns a large crank, the bottom of the drum undulates and shakes out the powdery treat.
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Another friend ordered the “Gold and Silver Treasure” — mango, drizzled with a yellow-orangey sauce and gooey fruit chunks. The clerk told us it’s the most popular style, loved by the host of the TV variety program Pittanko Can-Can.