🍱 Shirokuma
Shirokuma is a frozen dessert known throughout Japan which is made by pouring condensed milk over shaved ice and topping it with various colorful toppings such as cherries, raisins, mikan, pineapple, adzuki beans, agar-agar jelly, etc. Shirokuma is said to have originated in a long-running restaurant founded in 1945-1955. At the start, it was a simple dish of shaved ice with white or red sugar syrup poured over it. Having been inspired by the delicious combination of milk and strawberries, they tried adding condensed milk, only to find that this time it was too sweet. After making repeated improvements, they finally found a refreshing taste using condensed-milk-flavored syrup. They also added angelica, cherries, and raisins as toppings to give it more color and realized that, when viewed from above, it looked just like a white bear, thus giving the dish its name of Shirokuma (White Bear). Back then, your usual shaved ice would be around 20 yen, but in contrast, Shirokuma was priced at an expensive 50 yen, making it a shaved ice yearned after by the masses. You could say that it was a dish symbolizing how, now that the post-war food scarcity had died down, people were finally allowed to desire extravagant food again.