Some of you may have heard of patbingsu--a cold, Korean dessert dish that is usually enjoyed during the summer. Mainly composed of shaved ice and red bean, pat (red bean) bingsu can also contain fruit, milk, cereal, ice cream, jelly, and rice cake, making it a mini-mountain of sweet perfection.
Sulbing is a Korean dessert cafe that specializes in different kinds of bingsu. It is a hot, trending topic among various Korean SNS sites and is thus famous among the Korean youth. Although the cafe is pretty big, complete with three floors, the first floor tends to get crowded with people waiting willingly just to have some of Sulbing's renowned bingsu.
Sulbing adds a creative twist to the traditional ingredients of bingsu and creates healthy desserts. Although there were always cafes that sold bingsu, Sulbing has popularized the concept of bingsu-specialization, and more and more bingsu cafes have popped up ever since its establishment and surge of fame.
The name 'Sulbing' refers to what is known as the "snow ice" bingsu, which is a bingsu that uses frozen milk rather than shaved ice. While bingsu is usually meant to be mixed by the consumer, what makes sulbing particularly good is that it is made under the rule that the ingredients do not get mixed. This is because the special ingredient of frozen milk melts more easily compared to shaved ice.
(Picture: a sign at Sulbing that states, "In order to eat the snow ice bingsu deliciously, do not mix the snow ice (frozen milk) with the other ingredient, and eat it together instead.")
The most popular dishes at Sulbing include the rice cake (injulmi) sulbing, the milk redbean sulbing, and the rice cake toast. The rice cake sulking (pictured below) replaces the traditional redbean ingredient with powdered soybean and rice cake. As the dish is aromatic and has an interesting, gritty texture, it's a sweet crumbly heaven in the mouth and has received a lot of positive feedback from customers.
For red bean lovers, the milk redbean sulbing is a yummy dish that complements the redbean with powdered soybean and finely chopped jujubes. (Picture: milk red bean sulbing)
The rice cake toast is a crunchy, toasted bread and filled with gooey rice cakes stuffed with honey. It is usually served with other sweet bingsus. There are also many variations of this dish, such as the cheese rice cake toast, cheese garlic rice cake toast, citron rice cake toast, etc.
We also recommend the traditional black sesame bingsu as well as the cheese bingsu, which contains cheese and a tiny slice of cheesecake (say whaaaat).
During the spring, Sulbing offers a temporary seasonal menu full of fruity delight, as it features the explosively popular strawberry bingsu, mango cheese sulbing, and mango citron sulbing.
To anyone visiting Korea anytime soon, we definitely recommend that you try these refreshing and unique desserts, if not at Sulbing, then at any bingsu cafe in general (other notable ones are Okrumong and Pasiya)! Happy bingsu hunting!
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