Eat this now: Patbingsu at Shin Jung Korean Restaurant

I think we all should take it as a compliment to our city’s ever-more-sophisticated palate that Asian restaurants are feeling confident enough to feature exotic desserts on their menus — beyond mango and sticky rice. For example: Singaporean ice kacang on the menu at Mamak, Japanese shaved snow at Bubbles And Ice and Quickly Boba & Snow (among many others), Thai rolled ice cream and taiyaki at 5Fx.

Now Shin Jung Korean Restaurant has a towering patbingsu on the menu (for just $7 this month only), and it’s something you should order immediately. 

Among the layers of flavors and textures, you’ll find the following. (Probably going to miss something because it’s just so complex, but here’s the old college try):

Matcha ice cream
Shaved ice
Sweetened condensed milk
Red beans
Mochi
Oreos
Fruit cocktail
Strawberry wafer cookie

You get the picture. It’s intensely sweet in the best way possible and will keep your mouth occupied as it tries to make sense of the textures — cold, creamy, icy, crunchy, al dente, syrupy. It’s also impressive and will elicit plenty of oohs and aahs as it settles on the table top. Get you one.

Shin Jung Korean Restaurant
1638 E. Colonial Drive
407-895-7345
shinjungkorean.com

This article appears in Jul 13-19, 2016.