Korean

It smothers you, douses you and beats you over the head with the fragrance-inclined tail of its cheesetastic agenda, but fan or not of cheese, it’s unequivocally the best pick from the lunch menu – the sweet and spicy kimchi aspect is pretty legit with the cabbage bits providing a toothy crunch factor, and the Mangalitsa belly, despite staying relatively grey in the sea of red, always remains on the right side of fatty bom bom. 3.8/5

This was a hosted meal, courtesy of Joo Bar.

http://secretlifeoffatbacks.com/2015/10/baked-mangalitsa-kimchi-rice-joo-bar/

The choice of whipped cream to collar the bingsu was rather bizarre, but once said collar was scrapped off the mountain the green tea dessert was quite the hot weather delight, with the combination of sauce and ice cream somehow lasting long enough to sufficiently and thoroughly flavour the snow canvas beneath. 3.8/5

This was a hosted meal, courtesy of Orchard Central and Nunsaram Korean Dessert Café.

http://secretlifeoffatbacks.com/2015/09/green-tea-bingsu-nunsaram-korean-dessert-cafe/

Despite the visual distractions offered by the veiny green dress, the Marge Simpson hairdo and the admittedly entertaining juggling of orange balls, inevitable is the realisation that the so-named snow milk that lies beneath has as much personality as those fake accounts with zero posts and two/three-sentence bios with buzzwords like "fanatic", “bacon”, “music” and “coffee” that you find when you browse through the likes of people who paid for them. 3.2/5

http://secretlifeoffatbacks.com/2015/08/melon-snow-milk-bingsu-snowman-desserts/

Essentially HL chocolate milk (?) mixed with nuts, fruits and yogurt (not llaollao, but the cheap supermarket variety you eat for better bowel movement). 3.1/5

http://secretlifeoffatbacks.com/2015/06/bibim-bingsu-bibing/

While we were positively smothered with love from all them fleshy and sweet strawberries, the cows that provided the milk used for the shaved milk ice might have been lactationally challenged as the ice was rather tasteless, a far cry from the milky goodness experienced during prior visits. We needed to empty all the accompanying milk as well as fully mash and mix in the vanilla ice cream to milkify the lifeless snow. Hmmmm. 3.3/5

http://secretlifeoffatbacks.com/2015/06/strawberry-bingsu-nunsongyee/

Compared to the erect confidence of the towering bingsus from most other joints, this contender looked majorly flaccid and lethargic. The mangoes tasted like they have led rather fruitful long lives, while the milk ice positively showered me with unadulterated love from Mummy Cow’s bosom even sans condensed milk. I wasn’t particularly keen on the cloying mango sauce, which was insistent and pushy with its mango agenda without being naturally equipped for it. 3/5

http://secretlifeoffatbacks.com/2015/05/mango-bingsu-snowy-village/

The mangoes were fresh and sweet, whilst the mango ice cream was delightful, with dried sticky mango bits within. The shaved milk melted with more haste than the sweaty and disgruntled Raffles Place crowd into MRT trains at 6.30pm and thus it would be inaccurate to regard this as a bingsu in the purest sense, but make no mistake – this was simply one of the best intrepretations of/homages to mango pomelo sago (杨枝甘露) I’ve ever had. 4/5

http://secretlifeoffatbacks.com/2015/05/mango-bingsu-nunsaram-korean-dessert-cafe/

The soft serve was like McDonald’s ice cream, but with the cow’s mammary glands on hyper super-milk overdrive. The mango chunks were massive, soft and sweet, but somehow the milk snow here was less snowy and more icy than I expected, and the un-mango sauced ice bits were reminiscent of ice kachang, so do remember to mango sauce or mix with the soft serve for a Bingsu-er experience. 3.7/5

http://secretlifeoffatbacks.com/2015/05/mango-bingsu-snowman-desserts/

The quality here is noticeably different from that of the shaved milk ice variants from places like Nunsongyee and O’Ma Spoon – this was essentially a tattooed, golden-haired, uncivilised ah beng ice kachang from “the block” with gritty cashew nuts and cornflakes, as opposed to the more gentlemanly equivalents mentioned earlier which probably attended good schools, made it into mainstream local universities and emerged with recognised toilet rolls. The experience felt markedly coarser and cheaper, but if you go in with the expectation that this is a fancy ice kachang as opposed to a Korean bingsu, you’d be sufficiently satisfied. 3.3/5

http://secretlifeoffatbacks.com/2015/05/green-tea-bingsu-bing-go-jung/

Only a waffle in appearance and name, this hotteok waffle is essentially a warm, chewy, savoury muah-chee-esque mochi which has levelled up and hardened. 3.8/5

http://secretlifeoffatbacks.com/2015/05/hotteok-waffle-bing-go-jung/

Essentially pleasant shaved milk ice that is slightly coarser than its fancier and more indulgently-priced bretheren (we detected some hard ice goblins playing in the snow) but the trade-off is its more manageable price point and the availability of single portions. The green tea element was powdery and tastefully bitter. 3.7/5

http://secretlifeoffatbacks.com/2015/05/green-tea-bingsu-oma-spoon/

Essentially vanilla ice cream resting atop an Oreo cookie post-apocalyptic wasteland, with earthen heat still radiating from the heated frying pan. Have the cookies warm as they are served, smash them into crumbs and have warm cookie cereal, or mix the crumbs with the ice cream for a cold cookies & cream experience. Any way you like, really. Bring friends for sharing, as the dessert has really a lot of Oreo love to give. 3.7/5

http://secretlifeoffatbacks.com/2015/04/oreo-bomb-banana-tree/