Pat Bing Soo

Here's a blog post for my favorite Korean dessert: pat bing soo. It's Korea's response to the ice cream sundae, and much better in my opinion! I've had dozens of varieties of this stuff, and I think every place does it a little differently. The basics are shaved/crushed ice with milk and a scoop of ice cream; red beans are also pretty standard, and there's almost always at least one kind of fruit, usually more. I've also had tomatoes, corn flakes, nuts, different sauces, jelly candies, and rice cakes in my PBS.

The genius of PBS is that you can get it absolutely ANYWHERE in Korea - nice cafes, bakeries, ice cream shops, and even fast-food restuarants like Burger King, McDonalds, or KFC. My co-teacher, Carrie, recently took me a new (to me) cafe in Daegu with the best, fanciest, and most expensive PBS that I've yet to see. I don't think any of the four flavors are exactly traditional, but they're so damn good. I made it my mission to sample each one, and last week the mission was accomplished.

Strawberry

Sweetened azuki beans with 'four berries' sauce

Green tea...and a random piece of cake

Milk tea

The verdict: it's a toss-up between the strawberry and green tea. I feel disloyal saying that because green tea is my favorite flavor of anything in Korea, but the strawberry was just fantastic. I think that, besides a rice cooker, I may need to invest in an ice-shaver when I get back to the States (yes, that's a Christmas present hint!).

Can you blame me? picture from Google Images