It's taking all kinds of creativity this month to stay cool in the midst of this heat wave. One way to beat the heat is to eat cold things. In the dessert world, the answer is most often ice cream, but there's far more to icy sweet treats to beat the heat than ice cream.
Koreans have a dessert called "paht bing soo," which is shaved ice served in a bowl, the dressed with various toppings. Basically, it's the Korean version of the sno-cone, served in a bowl like a sundae. It may not sound very appetizing, but the main topping is paht, a sweet red bean paste, along with sweetened condensed milk and cut fruit. After that, the "recipe" depends only on the imagination of the maker. Some people also add a scoop of ice cream, various flavored syrups, cereal, whipped cream, and dduk, the Korean rice dumplings.
Even the types of fruit differ. Some people use fruit cocktail, the stuff that comes in a can. Other use everything from strawberries and sliced bananas to tropical fruits like pineapple, kiwi, and mango.
A Los Angeles Times article from last summer has a list of places in LA's Koreatown where you can order and eat paht bing soo, since who knows how many of us have a shaved ice machine.
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