Ice Cream in Seoul

Everything Korea but ice cream is so much cheaper. This for me didn’t always feel like a benefit. I eat so much ice cream. My family has a house in Cape Cod which is home to Sundae School Ice Cream, which is the best ice cream ever. Additionally I also live in New Jersey, home to Hollsteins which is a filming location for the Sopranos but also the second best ice cream ever. The fact that a pint of Häagen-Dazs® was sometimes $15 was outrageous.

The only place where ice cream wasn’t expensive was Baskin Robbins. A pint for about $7 was pretty good. If you were sitting there you could get it in a cup and get three different flavors. The only problem is, I hate Baskin Robbins. I always thought that the ice cream was bad and the flavor selection was limited.

The first time I went to Baskin Robbins in Korea I was acting like a stubborn baby who didn’t get his way and I ordered just chocolate ice cream and didn’t enjoy it. One of my friends however introduced me to the best flavor of ice cream in Korea. I don’t know what Shooting Star is supposed to be, but it was like crack. It was so good. Instantly my opinion on Korean ice cream was changed.

Similar to my hatred of Baskin Robbins I also was not a fan of bingsu. This was because when I first went to get bingsu someone told me it was only mango flavored. The bingsu place I went to was a famous one in Myeongdong and the only thing on the menu was mango bingsu. I personally can’t stand mango-flavored things so I always avoid getting bingsu. One day the same friend who turned me onto Shooting star made me go to the same bingsu place in Myeongdong. I guess the first time I went they only gave me the special menu which happened to be mango.

By the end of the semester I was a fiend for bingsu and Baskin Robbins. Sometimes I would go to dinner at restaurants where the workers knew me and they would ask if I was getting Baskin Robbins or bingsu after. It wasn’t always an uplifting feeling to get read like a book. But regardless I was glad to have finally found my way to deserts in Korea.