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Milk and berry ping su

Ever Evolving Primate: Travel, photography, food, cooking, and just about anything else.: Milk and berry ping su

Monday, June 25, 2012

Milk and berry ping su

...this is the "after" picture...I lacked the foresight for a "before" picture...

It's summertime here in South Korea and the heat and humidity are starting to make the afternoons seem really, really long. What's a guy to do to keep cool? Well, as an alternative to freezing your underwear, laying under the air conditioner all day, or taking a cold shower you might seek out a cold and tasty treat. A specifically Korean treat is called pat ping su, or as we foreigners call it, ping su

Ping su is the bastard child of ice cream and shave ice, to put it bluntly. In most cases you have a bed of ice flakes, a layer of fruit, berries, nuts, or and corn flakes, topped with a nice scoop of ice cream and some red bean paste. I've never been a huge fan of ping su, the corn flakes and red bean paste were just a bit too much for me to handle, and I really wasn't a fan of the mix of ice flakes and milk.

It was pretty hot this weekend, though, and Carolyn really wanted to have a nice cold ping su. After a lunch of tang soo yook (think sweet and sour pork at your local mall's Chinese restaurant) we stopped at a cafe we've passed a thousand times but never entered, because we saw people on the patio with big bowls of ping su. The cafe itself was beautiful, with polished concrete floors, beautiful dark wooden furniture, and a surprisingly Western (as in American West) feel to it. The prices were a bit higher than most cafes we go to, but what the hell, right?

Carolyn ordered the milk and berry ping su for us. I was not excited. When they delivered the giant bowl of ice cream and ice flakes though, I was really happy with what I saw. The ice flakes were made of milk! This gave the entire dish a makeover. The red bean paste was confined to the inside of delicious rice cakes and played very well with the berries and nuts, and the vanilla ice cream on top permeated the milk flakes with a strong vanilla bean flavor. I am now a convert.

The milk flakes reminded me so strongly of the coffee can ice cream we made in elementary school. I love that old kick-the-can ice cream, and this was a pretty close replication. The berries were fresh, and the nuts were toasted and had a satisfying crunch. Maybe I misjudged the Korean idea of what you should eat on a hot day! I now think that a milk ping su might be the cure for the summer afternoon heat, and I know where to go to get one.

What kind of things are served specifically to combat the summer heat where you live?

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