Top 5 Spots for Korean Shaved Ice: Or, Your Patbingsu Fix

Supafly

Korean store window display for patbingsu

The Korean shaved ice snack called patbingsu handily trumps even the most elaborate Fosselman's sundae when it comes to sheer, omg-inducing visual impact. For the uninitiated, patbingsu is like Pinkberry on psychotropic drugs: a delirious-looking desert that seems sprung from a foodie's weirdest, acid-fueled dreams. Next to one, a banana split is about as exciting as steamed kale. (Not to mention miniature... sizes of patbingsu range from large to gargantuan. It's not uncommon to stumble on a group of college students sharing a serving the size of a Thanksgiving turkey.)

R. Brown

Patbingsu sizes at Mochilato

Generally speaking, the foundation is the same: Heaps of coarsely shaved ice topped with sweetened red azuki beans (the pat in patbingsu). The already mountainous dish is then piled even higher with toppings, which may include sliced fresh (hopefully) fruit, chewy boba, marshmallow-sized pieces of mochi, a hefty swirl of frozen yogurt or a scoop of ice cream, whipped cream, even breakfast cereal (at Koreatown's Café Home and Mr. Coffee, Fruity Pebbles make an admittedly inelegant but wonderfully trippy touch). The whole business is drizzled with some combination of condensed milk, green tea, chocolate sauce, and strawberry syrup, then dusted with slightly yeasty tasting bean powder.

Our Top 5 Patbingsu Favorites:

R. Brown

Patbingsu at Café Home

5. Cafe Home: The patbingsu at Café Home has a childish glee about it, from its unapologetically sweet strawberry ice cream (also: boba, mochi, generous splashes of condensed milk, diced strawberries, bananas, and kiwi) to the Crayola-bright Fruity Pebbles speckling its whipped cream top. If your inner child requires further coddling, a bookcase against the wall stocks board games like Life, Connect 4, Pictionary, and Jenga, for customer use.

4. Mochilato: Fullerton is best known for churning out punk acts like The Offspring and Gwen Stefani, but it's also home to a pretty hardcore patbingsu. Order your shaved ice "Mochilato's Way" at this combination ice cream parlor and coffee shop, and beneath the upper crust of mochi (the freshest we've tasted), red bean topping, diced kiwi, mango, and sliced bananas, your spoon will unearth a stratum of sweet, vanilla gelato. Crack through it to find a subterranean river of milky melted ice intermingling with whatever else your spoon has knocked below--a kind of gross-looking guilty pleasure.