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Winterfell: Taiwanese shaved ice comes to Penn

Winterfell, specializing in Taiwanese shaved ice, opened earlier this week at 32 S. 40th St. in University City, across from Distrito

Who is not opening a dessert shop in Philadelphia?

"Taiwanese shaved ice?" you ask.

It's properly "xue hua bing," as in "snow flower." It's made by freezing flavored condensed milk or cream in cylinders and then shaving it to order in a special machine. Then toppings are added. So far, I've also found it at Ice Land in Chinatown.

Taiwanese shaved ice differs from the other dessert-of-the-moment, Thai rolled ice cream. To make that dessert, a worker pours cream and flavors onto a super-cooled platter and scrapes and mashes until the concoction freezes.