A Delicious Affair: Dong Bing Go

For our fourth day of "Bingsu reporting," we went to a small bingsu place called Dong Bing Go. This place is tucked away in a residential neighborhood, so only the people who know the place will come visit here.

We ordered one regular bingsu and one milk tea bingsu. I asked the waiter to take out the condensed milk to save calories, but the girl I'm reporting with found out and asked for it on the side...haha.

The regular bingsu was nothing but simple, with ice, red bean, and three pieces of rice cake. I liked that the red bean wasn't too sweet.

The milk tea bingsu had bananas, too much nuts in my opinion, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I prefered this bingsu to the other one, but nothing that special.

A Delicious Affair: Ducati & Cafe T

I went to Samsungdong with the girl from Smith yesterday to taste more bingsu. The first cafe we went to was called Ducati, and this place is famous for its green tea bingsu ($16). I asked the waiter to extract condensed milk because I didn't want my stomach to erupt (I am partially lactose-intolerant). The bingsu looked fine visually, but it tasted awful. The green tea flavor was too bitter, even with the heaping ice cream on top. There was too much nuts and not enough red bean. I am not sure why this place is famous for its bingsu because it was one of the worst I have ever tasted.

We were contemplating whether to go to a very expensive bingsu place at the Park Hyatt hotel ($35), but decided against it because realistically not very many people can afford that kind of bingsu.

Instead we went to Cafe T near Galleria. We ordered the Milk Bingsu, which was made from shaved milk ice, red bean, too much condensed milk, and tapioca. I personally prefer chunkier rice cake. The milk flavor was too strong so I wasn't a huge fan of this bingsu either.

A Delicious Affair: Cafe the Air & Be Sweet On Green Tea Shaved Ice

I have been on the hunt for the best bingsu (Korean shaved ice with sweet red bean) in Seoul with another intern for Chosun Ilbo. Yesterday was our second day and we went to a neighborhood called Hongdae.

The first cafe we went to was called Be Sweet On, and we ordered its signature dish, Green Tea shaved ice. At about $18, I thought the bingsu was quite overpriced, but because it came with green tea roll cake along with rice cake balls and green tea syrup on the side, perhaps the exorbitant price was reasonable.

The shaved ice had a very strong green tea flavor. I spilled a lot of ice and red bean on the plate at first because it was so huge! I liked that the red bean, which the workers cooked themselves, wasn't too sweet. The ice was shaved very fine and the bingsu was also served with hot green tea on the side, which warmed my body. The cafe uses best ingredients (organic green tea powder, red bean from Korea, etc.), and I could definitely taste the difference. Yum!

We walked around Hongdae for a bit to empty our stomach, and went to our second destination: Cafe the Air. I didn't like how crowded and loud it was inside. We ordered the green tea bingsu, and I would say the majority of the customers (99%) ordered the same thing.

My favorite was the ice cream because it had the texture of soft yogurt/ice cream. I am not a fan of nuts, and I was disappointed that there was no rice cake. Also the red bean wasn't made in the cafe. It was also too milky.

I have to go to other bingsu places in the afternoon, and I am already quite tired from consuming such cold food...it's upsetting my stomach! It's not easy being an epicure...