2.5 months in Seoul, South Korea
 
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Patbingsu Recipes for the Summer

Ever since Mark's gotten back to Korea, we've been making near-daily trips to what is possibly my favorite ice cream place on the planet--- MILKY ROAD.

Patbingsoo (patbingsu), a Korean dessert of shaved ice topped with fruit and red bean, can be found at practically any cafe in Seoul, but Milky Road adds frozen yogurt (with real fermented yogurt) to the mix:




Fruit can be expensive in Korea, so this my preferred way of satisfying my fresh fruit cravings ^^
We took a visiting dean from school here this weekend, and ordered not one, but all three of their special big sized yogurt bingsoo's (one is usually enough for 2-3 people)!






The three were Well-Being Green Tea (with green tea ice cream, fruit, and black sesame topping), Fruits Garden (a variety of fresh fruit), and Sweets Basket (chocolate ice cream, sweet potato). Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture of them until we were halfway through eating:

There is only one Milky Road store in Seoul and none in the U.S. It's a Japanese franchise: http://www.milkyroad.co.kr/

The one in Seoul is coincidentally located right near my school, in Sinchon towards Yonsei University, above Seven Eleven on the street where Krispy Kreme and Choi's Tacos (another delicious place to eat) are located.

Patbingsoo (팥빙수), by the way, means red bean (pat), ice (bing), water (soo)...

Obviously, once I return to America I'll be going through major patbingsoo withdrawal. I'm planning on using the following recipes to make my own knock-offs at home:




Basic patbingsoo recipe:





- 2 cups of ice
- 1/2 cup of cut-up fresh fruit (kiwis, strawberries, bananas, pineapple, peaches, mango, any berries, watermelon, melons are all good) or fruit cocktail. I also really like nata de coco, a clear jelly made from fermented coconut water
- 1/4 cup of chapsal dduk, sweet rice cake. Looks like this:


- 1/3 cup of sweetened canned red bean, called 팥
- 1/4 cup of condensed milk

You can buy ingredients such as canned red bean topping and rice cakes at your local Asian supermarket. If you're in NJ, NY, PA, VA, MD, GA, or IL, Hanareum, also known as H Mart is a great Korean supermarket to go to. If you're desperate you can even order Korean food online at sites like kgrocer.com

Instructions:
1. Grind up the ice using a mixer or ice grinder and put it in a bowl (clear bowls are nice to eat out of)

You can use a special ice grinder as shown above.

2. Pour the condensed milk over the crushed ice in the bowl. Put the red bean topping over the ice and milk, and then sprinkle the fresh fruit and dduk over the whole thing (you can be artistic and arrange the fruit prettily, or just dump it on top and eat).

3. EAT
The Korean style of eating patbingsoo is 섞어섞어, or "mix mix". You take a spoon, mix everything together so that the toppings and ice blend, and eat! But personally, I prefer leaving the toppings intact until the very end.


Here are some of my favorite variations of patbingsoo:



Misutgaru patbingsoo recipe
[미숫가루 팥빙수] (Roast grain powder bingsoo)
A more traditional twist on the basic patbingsoo; has a nutty, satisfying taste

Ingredients:
- misutgaru powder (roast grain powder, do not confuse this with malt powder)
- cereal (corn flakes, frosted flakes, captain crunch, etc)
- chapsal dduk (sweet rice cake)
- a scoop of vanilla ice cream
- crushed ice
- red bean
- condensed milk


Make the patbingsoo according to the regular recipe and then top with cereal, then ice cream, then rice cake, and finally sprinkle the misutgaru powder over the whole thing!



Green tea patbingsoo recipe
Ingredients:
- Green tea ice cream or green tea powder
- red bean
- chapsal dduk, rice cake
- fruit
- condensed milk
- ice



Yogurt patbingsoo recipe
As close as I can get to Milky Road without having a frozen yogurt machine at home..

Buy the Korean yogurt (you can find it at most Korean grocery stores), thaw if frozen, and pour on top of the shaved ice. Top with fruit and red bean.

Korean yogurt (a popular brand is Maeil):


posted by Jane @ 12:24 PM  
10 Comments:
  • At 1:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Umm...can we make this? Please??

    Or can we go to NYC and find it? :)

     
  • At 2:54 AM, Blogger Hartman said…

    This comment has been removed by the author.

     
  • At 12:21 AM, Blogger Stephie Jean said…

    I went to Korea this summer with my choir, and one of the churches we went to in Mokpo served us this ice cream dish. I have to admit, it looked disgusting (I'm not a fan of beans), but to my great surprise it was absolutely amazing! I found this page while trying to google this dessert. Thanks so much for sharing the name and the recipe! I can't wait to try it now!! You're my hero! :)

     
  • At 3:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    yummy!

     
  • At 3:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    The desert looks so good..and the recipe doesn't sound too hard..Are you in New york now? o.O

     
  • At 7:53 AM, Blogger BrusselsSprout_Katharine said…

    Love it, it looks great! I just had patbingsoo again recently at a Korean church fundraiser here in Brussels.

     
  • At 8:12 AM, Anonymous nick said…

    I needed a recipe for patbingsu and have made a link from my blog to yours. I hope you do not mind. My normal recipe locations did not seem to have it and you provided a variety of recipes with great pictures. Thanks.

     
  • At 10:43 PM, Blogger thesissakim said…

    Yesterday, me and my friends went to korean restaurant in Surabaya-Indonesia! The waitress suggest us this 팥빙수 as a dessert! Uaaa~ it's so sweeeet! We love it! And now I'm so curious about the recipe!^^

     
  • At 5:44 PM, Anonymous Bekah ^^ said…

    I love you whoever you are!! I'm so excited to make this!!! Special treat for my family! Other recipes didn't look as good, or as yummy, and had lots of American stuff in them... Blech. Thanks for posting this!!!!!!!! <3

     
  • At 7:40 AM, Blogger xtine.oh said…

    Hi Jane. I would like to talk about this recipe. Is there any way where I can contact you privately? Thanks.

     
Post a Comment
<< Home
 
Home
Counter
visitors
Posts by Category: click to expand
Culture and Society
Events and Performances
Food
Places of Interest
About Me

Name: Jane
Location: New Haven, CT, United States
See my complete profile
Recent Posts
Archives
Links



BLOGGER