I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for.. Bingsoo!! (wrong song? :P)
Bingsoo~, It's my favourite treat for the summer! Edmonton has been blessed with so many different places serving it this year, I'm so happy!
I first heard about Snowy Village in November, before I was playing a mini vacation to Vancouver for a few days to see my favourite Korean boyband GOT7 ( it was the best experience in my life, still suffering from post concert depression), but was unfortunately unable to go because I didn't have enough time.
So when I heard it was opening in Edmonton, I was super excited to finally try it!! Located on Jasper Ave and 110th St beside O2's, I was thrilled to learn that it was super close to where I live/work, and not in the southside of the city where most Korean restaurants are. The soft opening was last Thursday, and I've already been there twice! Their grand opening is tomorrow, and I'm kind of tempted to go again... but we'll see, it will probably be packed with people!
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| Mango Bingsoo |
On to the bingsoo! I was fortunate enough to try 4 flavours in the 2 visits ( the perks of sharing with friends), and my favourite would definitely be the mango one! It was just the perfect balance of sweet, milky shavings with tart, juicy mangos! I love how the bingsoo comes in metal bucket-like bowls, to keep it cold and prevent melting. Also, like the bingsoo I had at
Seorak, it was light and fluffy (Snowy Village is a very appropriate name because they did remind me of freshly fallen snow), and made with sweetened milk which was very creamy instead of pure ice made from water.
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| Watermelon Bingsoo |
I was REALLY looking forward to the watermelon bingsoo I ordered! It was super hot last friday when I went, and was excited for the thirst quenching fruit to help with the heat stroke I was feeling. It did not disappoint in that aspect, and I was surprised to see how huge it was! My friends and I totally overestimated how much we could eat after our dinner at Kyoto... this was definitely too big to share with 3 girls. My only disappointment was although the presentation of the bingsoo was great, the melon shell did not do a very good job in preventing it from melting. Before we could even get to the bingsoo, a mini milkshake had formed inside it already. It also did not help that it was so hot that day.. we actually ended up grabbing straws and drinking out of the bowl directly LOL.
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| Taiyaki (Red Bean, Nutella and Custard) |
I was really disappointed that I didn't have a chance to order their Taiyaki last week, but took up the opportunity today because ... my Snowy Village trip with my friend today WAS my dinner ( yes, as a responsible adult at 23, I believe that having dessert for dinner is a wise choice). I will eventually probably try all their flavours, but for the first round, we went with Red Bean, Nutella and Custard. My friend was so drawn to Nutella, we just had to order it but both found that it was the least favourite among the 3. You can never go wrong with Red Bean, that's my all time favourite flavour for most desserts, and the custard was deliciously creamy but not overwhelming sweet like the Nutella. While I've had Taiyaki in the past, the reason that these stand out to me are because of two reasons. I've usually had them made with a bready dough, which I found was quite bland. The ones at Snowy Village are made with puff pastry, which smelled delicious from its buttery layers, and are sprinkled with sugar on top before its pressed in its fish-shaped mold, giving it a beautiful shiny glaze, a more crispier bite and some flavour on it. I can't wait to try out every flavour~~
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| Strawberry Bingsoo |
Whoops, sorry for my thumb in that picture above. My friend who came with me today wanted to pick something I hadn't tried yet, and with so many options available.. strawberry seemed like a good bet. She was smart and ordered the regular size, where as I did not learn my lesson LOL.. You'll see in a bit. Anyways you can never go wrong with strawberry, it was delicious as expected, with strawberry sauce drizzled over the fruit, and the whipped cream was a nice touch to have with the strawberries.
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| Melon Bingsoo |
Yeah so when I said I didn't learn my lesson from last week, I wasn't kidding. I thought the watermelon bingsoo was large last time ( the melon ones only came in one size), but the honey dew melon bingsoo ( just called melon) was even bigger! My friend wanted to try the melon one, but deterred away from choosing it since she had already had dinner and it only came in the large size and I was like "well, I haven't had dinner. I'll order it and you can try it!". I was not expecting it to be this huge ( as you can tell... by seeing it in front of me). The watermelon was small-medium sized... around.. the circumference of a volleyball I would like to say? Whereas the Honeydew melon was similar to the size of a basketball ( yeah, I googled it 😅). This time around, there wasn't as much milkshake in the watermelon did, mostly because it wasn't as hot today as it was Friday. I was surprised there was a scoop of ice cream on top of it though, since the watermelon one didn't have it, but I'm not complaining.. more sweet desserty goodness.
My stomach felt like it was going to explode in the end, but I surprisingly was able to finish most of it! The guy sitting at the table next to us was only able to tackle the top layer of the melon balls and left it basically half full with the melted bingsoo milkshake, so I was impressed with myself ( probably not something to be proud of).
Anyways, I am super excited to visit Snowy Village more often before the end of summer, ( but lets be real, I'll probably visit in the winter time too). Also props to one of my friends who turned on her flash for me to take a picture of the mango and watermelon bingsoos, it was super in the restaurant last Friday night when we got our order!
