I don’t know why it has taken me so long to write this post, but I figured that it’s better late than never.
Anyway, I’m not sure how many of you have had pat bing su, but it’s one of my favorite things to have nowadays in the summer. A special friend of mine in Korea introduced it to me a few years ago. I haven’t found any places in New Jersey or New York that make it quite as good as the first one that I had in Seoul, but I’m always up for suggestions if any of you know a good place for me to try.
I was going to try to explain what it is, but as many of you know, I’m terrible at describing food. I’ll just let the Internet do it for me:
From Wikipedia:
This snack originally began as ice shavings and sweetened azuki beans (known as pat, 팥). It was sold by street vendors. In contemporary culture, it has become a very elaborate summer dessert, often topped with ice cream or frozen yogurt, sweetened condensed milk, fruit syrups, various fruits such as strawberries, kiwifruit, and bananas, small pieces of tteok (rice cake), chewy jelly bits, and cereal flakes.
From some random photo blog:
팥빙수 is very delicious meal. As you can see, It is made of red beans with sugar syrup, ice cream, fruits, and ice. It is very cool in hot summer, get rid of heat in my body absolutely. But it is also good in winter, too.
From a random poster on chowhound:
I’ve only tasted the one they serve in the New Seoul Hotel on Olympic. They serve their pat-bing-su with shaved ice, azkui beans, fresh fruit (kiwis, strawberries and bananas), mochi balls, ice cream, some sort of Ovaltine powder and condensed milk. It’s very good, but Im sure there are some exotic ones out there fellow chowhounders can share.
Gateaux Bakery in Palisades Park, NJ
pat bing su from Gateaux Bakery in Palisades Park, NJ
Gateaux Bakery
252 Broad Ave
Palisades Park, NJ 07650-1552
(201) 242-4255
That thing looks massive. Did you polish it off yourself?
you know it
What the frick–Toucan Sam totally threw up on that dessert.
I wouldn’t say totally. Maybe just a little throw up. Otherwise there would be more loops.
man, you guys don’t know what you’re missing
Woah, that looks like something a kid would drool for.
Might have to try this place out, Matt. Went to Red Spoon in Fort Lee today — have you been? I think it’s a copycat of Red Mango or Pink Berry, though I’ve never been to either of those places. Had the natural frozen yogurt topped with diced mangoes, strawberries, kiwis, and litchis. Tasty and refreshing.
Hey Dave,
Yeah, I like going to Red Spoon. The people that work there are nice and the gelato is a nice change from the frozen yogurt. Though to be honest, I probably go to Red Mango twice as much as I go to Red Spoon…
Matt,
Where do you go to Red Mango? In the city, or is there one in NJ?
Also, something completely different you should try sometime, if you like mac & cheese (in fact, I think you posted about mac & cheese once here), Sarita’s Mac & Cheese in the East Village. I ended up in Manhattan today with some free time on my hands, so I picked up a couple of take & bake mac & cheeses to eat later in the week: the All-American one, and the Indian-flavored Masala one.
love pat bing su! they even have pat bing su at popeyes in korea!
there is a red mango in pal park. in fact, i’ll link to my own post about it now: Red Mango in Palisades Park, NJ.
Also, that Mac & Cheese looks delicious, and I will definitely pick some up.
Before you wrote that, I looked up Red Mango and went there today, after lunch at Minado. A year or two ago, I used to go to one of the Korean restaurants on that street, and didn’t remember seeing Red Mango there. Must be relatively new. Looks like there are some other new businesses nearby as well. Red Mango was good, but they don’t have any litchis there.
Re S’MAC, if you decide to stay and eat there, there’s a famous desert-only restaurant nearby you might want to check out afterwords, Chikalicious. It’s a little pricey considering the portions, but it’s worth trying at least once.
Matt,
FYI, I went to Pinkberry a few hours ago. By the time we were ready for desert, it was 11pm and Red Mango was closed. It turns out there’s a Pinkberry near Colombia (on Broadway around 112th Street) and it was open until 12:30am, so we went there. Pretty similar to Red Mango in terms of taste and price, but they didn’t have those fancy red spoons Red Mango has. Another difference: Pinkberry has litchis, but unlike the ones at Red Spoon, which look like like little translucent candies, the ones at Pinkberry look like raw shrimp.