Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Goody Goody for Guri Guri

GURI GURI....mmmm. Remember that creamy sherbet-like cold treat from Maui. You could only get it by going to Tasaka's Guri Guri in Wailuku or someone would have to bring some to you. They always packed it up in those Chinese take out style containers and packed it for you to take back to Honolulu. Only two flavors were ever available strawberry (my favorite) or pineapple (wouldn't turn it down).

So, how do you get Guri Guri when you are 5,000 miles away in Illinois and especially on a day like today. We are trapped. There was a blizzard yesterday. The third largest snowfall the Chicago area has ever had...baaaadddd! This is even worse when you are a local girl who didn't grow up with this white stuff. I knew it was bad this morning when instead of snow plows a bulldozer was coming down our street moving the snow!

Anyway, I got a little off track, but not too far. Guri Guri is cold and so is my okole right now. Honestly, just three weeks ago I was in Honolulu and it was about 90 degrees warmer than it will be here tomorrow. While we were there, we did have a knock off Guri Guri that they sell at Longs Drugs. It was pretty good and came in different flavors like Chocolate Haupia, Strawberry Vanilla, and Strawberry Banana. I can't remember the brand, but they were packaged in small plastic containers with the cardboard disk top with the little tab to remove it. Anything you eat with a wooden spoon in a little cup can't be that bad, right?

Back to my point, I need to make my own Guri Guri. Here is the first recipe I tried:

GURI GURI#1
2 (12 oz.) cans of strawberry soda
1 (12 oz.) can of 7 up
1 (14 oz.) can of sweetened condensed milk

The first and most important thing you need to do is make sure you have enough room in your freezer to fit the bowl you are using. Then, mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Place the bowl in the freezer for a 2-3 hours. If you are like me, make that 4 or 5 hours, because you tend to forget. Go back and give it a stir. Unless you are like me again and forget, then when you go back it'll be 4-5 hours later and you'll think that it is totally frozen already, so you proceed to shove your spoon into it and find that only the top inch is frozen. This causes you to plunge into the liquid portion and it splashes all over your face. Not a good look. So, don't be like me. After your first stirring that should happen at the 2-3 hour mark, leave it overnight. The next day, stir it up and serve.


Looks pretty yummy.


Grab a spoon. Preferably a cow handled spoon because the cow is happy you used sweetened condensed milk.


See the cow is smiling.

My rating on this: Good, not like Tasaka's, a little too sweet for me. The kids thought it was good, but not great. If you have another version that you think gives Tasaka Guri Guri a run for their money, let me know and I will try it out. Email it to lostmypidgin@yahoo.com

2 comments:

  1. thanks for the recipe! I'm from chicago too and I love guri guri!! :)

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  2. I don't know if you guys have it there (I live in Vegas and we have it in Walgreens), but try using the Hawaiian Sun strawberry guava juice. It's a lot better than using strawberry soda.

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