Too Hot for Ice Cream? Korea Has Bingsu.

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Hot. Too hot.

When it gets this hot, all I really want is just a bottle of ice-cold water.

Ice cream or a sweet drink might help for a moment, but the sugar only makes me thirstier afterward.

Water works best for me.

Except for one thing. Bingsu.

Bingsu

Finely shaved ice is different.

You can't really eat it fast. You take it one spoonful at a time, and each spoon is full of tiny flakes of ice that start melting as soon as they reach your mouth.

It really cools you down from the inside.

And there is another thing about bingsu in Korea.

We usually share it.

One bowl is often too much for one person, and frankly, eating that much ice by yourself is cold. So we put one bowl in the middle and share.

There is a Korean word for it.

Jeong (정).

Jeong is one of those Korean words that doesn't translate very well. It's affection, closeness, caring—and something that builds between people when they spend time together.

You share the cold on a hot day. You eat slowly and talk while sharing the same bowl.

It's a small thing, but that's Jeong.

Dongbinggo

In summer, almost every café in Korea starts selling bingsu.

My favorite is Dongbinggo (동빙고).

There are three locations in Seoul, and I went to the Seongsu branch this time.

The bingsu here is very old-school.

Shaved ice, condensed milk, rice cake, and whole red beans.

That's pretty much it.

And that's exactly why I like it.

The red beans aren't too sweet, and I can actually feel each bean in my mouth. It reminds me of the simple patbingsu I ate when I was young.

This time we ordered the matcha patbingsu.

The matcha was quite strong, with that slightly bitter taste left at the end. It kept the sweetness of the red beans from becoming too much.

Two people, one bowl was enough.

By the time we finished, we were properly chilled all the way down to our stomachs.

It was ₩10,000.




Why Is It Called Dongbinggo?

The name Dongbinggo (동빙고) originally referred to an ice-storage facility during the Joseon Dynasty.

Long before refrigerators existed, ice was harvested from the frozen Han River during winter and stored underground for summer.

Ice was a valuable resource then.

Think about that for a moment.

Today, I can walk into a café in Seongsu, order a mountain of finely shaved ice and complain that Seoul is too hot.

A few centuries ago, the ice itself was precious.

I rather like that connection hidden inside the name Dongbinggo.


One Bowl, Two Spoons

Bingsu today comes in almost every version imaginable—mango, strawberry, chocolate, matcha, melon and plenty more.

But underneath all those variations is something distinctly Korean: ice, red beans, rice cake, and the pleasure of sharing a very cold bowl on a very hot day.

If you're visiting Korea in summer, definitely try bingsu.

And if you can, don't eat it alone.

Order one bowl and get two spoons.

You might understand a little bit of Jeong before the ice melts.

📍 Dongbinggo – Seongsu
28, Seoulsup 4-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul

🍧 Bingsu: approximately ₩9,500–₩10,500

🍵 What I had: Matcha Patbingsu – ₩10,000Hot. Too hot.



Location: 대한민국 서울특별시 성동구 성수동2가

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