Author:

Icy Cherry Piraguas Are Air Conditioning You Can Eat As a child, I’d spend many summer days playing with friends in the parks around my Brooklyn neighborhood, closely guarding the $5 my mother told me not to lose. While some of it would be spent on sunflower seeds or a slice of pizza, I’d always reserve at least one of those dollars for the beloved piragua man. Although they’re just crunchy bits of shaved ice with a candy-like flavoring, piraguas have the power to cool you off on the hottest of days. Once Memorial Day hit, the piragua man would roam the streets with his cart filled with flavored simple syrups in glass bottles with pour spouts and an enormous block of ice (which somehow never m...