Gola Anyone?
My first time having a gola (snow cone) wasn’t in the dead heat of a Lahore or Karachi summer. It was in a Chicago summer!
I was in my third year of medical school and landed in Chicago for several months of rotations. I lived there from April to November…the best six months Chicago has to offer. This span of six months was a time of many firsts for me but one of my favorites was the delicious food on Devon Street. I’m not sure what I was in love with more…the paan at Data Darbar or the golas at Spinzer.
So I was walking around Devon Street during the summer and came across a tiny hole in the wall shop on the southeast corner of the street, Spinzer. They served all kinds of chat pati things but their gola was the most intriguing. I had never had a dressed up snow cone before but was ready to dive in because, YOLO. This was nine years ago.
Of course, I then bought myself a snow cone machine and used it total of THREE times since then. It spends most of its time in my parent’s attic but was reunited with me last week and Maya has been introduced to snow cones and is in love!
I recreated the Gola that Spinzer serves; made it in a cup and shaved ice formed into a popsicle. I have also tried a few different syrup recipes, from low calorie, low sugar all the way to YOLO style, because really…you do only live once.
This is healthier than store-bought popsicles for children and easier than making popsicles at home. Kids can make their own snow cones with adult supervision, making it fun and hands on.
Option 1 – high in sugar but easy and delicious
Use Ruh Afza for red
Use different flavors of drink mixes such as Squash for the other flavors/colors
Option 2 – high in sugar, requires a little bit of work
½ cup sugar, 2 cups water
Boil till you have one cup water left
Add food color of choice
Optional, add flavoring of choice such as mango flavor as shown in the photo
Option 3 – lower in sugar, natural and super easy
Fruit juices such as apple juice, pomegranate juice, pear juice, etc.
Option 4 – lowest sugar, super easy
Use sugar free or low sugar Gatorade, Powerade in different colors.
Toppings
You can top the golas off with sweetened condensed milk, basil seeds (tukhmalanga), maraschino cherries or fruit on top for added yumminess. I especially love the added flavor and smoothness of sweetened condensed milk.
Snow Cone Maker: I recommend buying an electric one. Manual ones of lower price range might be difficult to operate. We have one by Cuisinart which is many years old. There may be many more options of electric snow cone makers now.
Enjoy!