Just Desserts: Korean Ice Cream

Korean Ice Cream. Probably the best reason Korean marts exist. That and these marts are the best place to get ingredients for a Korean style cook-off at home. Going back to the subject at hand: Korean ice cream. You enter one of these Korean marts and your eyes gravitate to the chest freezer in the middle. Inside are a variety of Korean frozen delights and though their packaging may be enticing but one would no idea how to decipher the Korean script. What to choose?

CDOmnivore has tested two of the more popular brands (as recommended by the kindly old lady shopkeeper) and here is our verdict.

Melona

That would be the ice cream bar with the green wrapper on the left on the photo above. When I think of Korean ice cream bars, the first brand that comes to mind is Melona. It's the first I've tried and has become a favorite. The bar itself has a refreshing fruity taste, quite perfect for Cagayan de Oro's tropical clime. In case you're wondering what flavor this is, the name pretty much gives it away.

Boong Samanko (Red Bean Ice Sandwich)

This would be the fish shaped ice cream sandwich on the right. Don't worry, it is not fish flavored as I initially feared. Instead it is a nice combination of creamy vanilla ice cream, red bean paste and wrapped in a wafer shaped liked a fish. I have no idea why this is packaged like a fish, but it tasted better than I expected.

Verdict. If you got the cash for only one frozen delight, I recommend going for Melona. This is the ice cream bar that made me forget about local brands. I mean, how could local manufacturers ever match the creamy melon goodness of it? But you will still be a winner if you went with the fish ice cream. These two have flavors rarely found in the local market.

Food Adventures at Home: Going Korean

The spread

One thing that I love about having my sister stay with us at home during summer break is that she likes to do a few dishes that would broaden the horizon of the family's palates. This summer is no different as we have already crisscrossed much of East Asia with her flavors.

Bibimbap before mixing the whole thing.

There was night when she cooked the signature Korean dish bibimbap. It was actually her second  time to prepare the mixed rice dish but that twist for this version was that she used brown rice instead of the traditional white. The family has jumped on the brown rice trend as of late but I do believe that this edition of her bibimbap is better than her first for using the mostly unpolished grain.

Bibimpap literally means "rice dish" and my sister's version of this dish includes freshly cooked rice topped with beef, spinach, zucchini. bean sprouts, carrots and a fried egg. That combination is then mixed by adding gochujang (chili pepper paste) and minced garlic for the authentic spicy Korean taste.

The side dishes

She also cooked a couple of side dishes to go with the rice dish. She barbecued some beef strips and made a green onion omelet. For my plate, I served myself a ladle-full of the rice and some of the beef and omelet. I added a dollop of gochujang since I wanted a little more spice in each spoonful.

I sure was glad she prepared a rice cooker full of it, It ensured that I would be able to have cupful of leftover bibimbap for breakfast.

My plate.