korean fish ice cream

"Bungeoppang ice cream"

My only explanation for this spur of the moment ice cream “adventure” is that I Got Bored.

My officemates/seatmates abandoned me! One left pretty early for province and the other one left without even saying a word! So I’m stuck  with my lonesome self  in the office and got too bored looking at the monitor and reading tons of legal gibberish...

That’s when  I decided to step out of the office, do a little walking, inhale a little of the city’s pollution (eww!), drop by that store in Rufino Ave and buy myself some Korean ice cream. (again i forgot to look at the signage... i guess the store was Country Style coz they sell country style doughnuts inside-duh?!?). Anyway if you're in Rufino Ave Makati City, near Lyceum College of Law, you'll see a Country Style store, just enter it and then you'll find yourself in asort of canteen place  where they sell some Filipino food, on one side a bunch of Country Style doughnuts and by the window you’ll see the freezer overflowing with Korean ice cream—so hard to miss! Plus I think I saw a medium-sized tarp outside, upon leaving, just so you'll know you're in the right place!

The saleslady was just stocking up their freezer when I entered the store.  I was sooooo happy because there were a LOT of Korean ice creams to choose from!  Don’t know where to begin my quest and how many I would and could buy... given that I’m in the office (alone) and if I take them all home, they will surely, without a doubt, all melt midway! haaay... Such a dilemma, I tell you!

sneak peak of  the packed freezer

In asmuch as I'd like to photograph their fully-stocked freezer, I got terribly shy!  So I just too one pic of some of the ice creams on top the freezer (sort of paparazzi-style haha).  AND despite the fact that I'd like to try EVERY flavor (really, I was contemplating on buying all the other flavors I have not tasted,  I just restrained myself! ), since I'm all alone, I have to be satisfied with one ice cream for the day and go back again another time. No to ice cream gluttony for me today! hehehe

I was torn between choosing the chocolate cream cheese sandwich ( JUST BECAUSE I'm a die-hard, declared chocoholic!  moreover, that particular flavor I was eye-ing came highly recommended by a good friend!). The other one in consideration is the fish ice cream—the one I saw from someone else's foodblog, that intrigued me a lot ever since I saw it.

In the end,  I decided on the fish ice cream simply because I've already ordered the vanilla  cream cheese sandwich before (thinking there'll be no big difference with the chocolate flavor),  so the fish ice cream won.  I might as well try something "new"!

whoah?!? i dunno what all these mean

PLUS , I am a tad curious as to how it'll taste like.  At the price of 48Php, it wasn’t bad at all.

Actually, this is not really a fish-flavored ice cream but a fish-shaped one. A lot of people seem has a different impression when they hear the word "fish"! 

Upon purchasing, the kid in me was reborn...when food of different shapes and sizes still attracts me to eat them right away!!  That's exactly what I wanted to do..but patience is a virtue! I asked the saleslady as to what the ice cream was called, because the name in the wrapper was in Korean, and she said its called Samuya. (but later on as I googled it, I found out it was also called Samanco, Melona and all other names... guess they were just brand names and not the general name for the fish ice cream).

food on my table is ALWAYS a good sight!

see what i mean about fish-shaped?!?

I got too excited to eat...  the outer part was wafer-like—soft and chewy. Then as I took more bite into it i started to taste the vanilla ice cream.  Later on I tasted and saw a brownish sweet thingy. I tried to guess  what it was--nope, definitely not chocolate…nope I don’t think there was a nut in there either…what could it be??? I likened the flavor to coconut jam—for some unknown reason, there was a "coconutty" taste to it.  (just my tastebud's opinion!)

the vanilla cream..yummm!

now i see the sweet red bean!

As I’ve said before,  I’m not a good ice cream eater... after consuming the whole thing,  20% of it went to my hands and atleast 2% on my shirt because the ice cream melted fast.

see the mess?!

proof: ice cream on my BLACK shirt!

After my delicious mid-day dessert, I still cant get that undetectable flavor out of  my mind. And of course, what better way to find out what it is but  to use the power of google!  Hence  the search for the korean fish ice cream took place.

I found out that the odd—well, different taste was not from coconut jam but from SWEET RED BEAN!  Surprised?!? Definitely I was!  It was new to my tastebud! I’m not really into beans kinda gal but for me, the ice cream tasted great! 

Sweet and delectable!

Just RIGHT!  *with a grin of satisfactionon my face!*

Okay, here’s more of what I learned… history/korean lessons time everyone!!!

The origin of this dish is what koreans call “Bungeoppang” which litereally means “crucian carp bread”. It is a kind of food you would normally find in the streets of Korea which is a waffle-like bread with sweet red beans inside. But as time goes by, and as Koreans got more experimental with their culinary conquests, they were able to come up with an ice cream version and boiled bean version. I think (stressed on the think please!) the ice cream version is called "Binggrae" or "Bungeoppang ice cream". (I'd like to credit google for the information, I've browsed tons of sites and I forgot to note all of them...)

One heck of a sweet-tooth craving I got there.

sweet-tooth,

prettytwistedchick

guilt-free meal!

just one of so many variety of sandwiches THE SANDWICH GUY has to offer!

it was already two in the afternoon. i haven't had breakfast yet and when lunch rolled in, still no food in sight. i can hear my stomach waging war with itself--the manifestation was the slightly audible grumbling of my tummy which cannot be ignored.

i began searching my mind for the best food to appease my hunger. i don't seem to be craving for rice meals. i don't want to go to mcdo or jollibee either (they are the two nearest fastfood chain). then i remembered the sandwich guy located at the ground floor of robinsons summit center, fairly near to where i will be coming from--a walking distance.

i got up from my seat, went to the window to see if it was still raining and decided to go out and get myself some sandwich before the heavy rains start to pour.

the store is actually just a small stall in the corner of the ground floor of robinsons summit center. .small enough not to notice them if you're not really looking or in a hurry. they boast using only fresh, organic and healthy ingredients in their sandwiches. PLUS there menu ranges from sandwiches, pasta, baked potatoes, salads to fruit smoothies. i narrowed my order down to sandwiches, and still a lot of choices to choose from! really, i had a hard time deciding what to purchase! it was battle between HBLT and mushy bacon. for more details check out there website: http://thesandwichguy.com/ whats more, they also deliver! great, huh?!?

green is good...green means healthy!

eventually, i ordered HBLT which i think stands for Ham, Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato. at the price of 75Php, the whole wheat bread, ham, sliced bacon, juicy tomatoes and fresh lettuce with your choice of sauce, who can say no?

yummeh!
you can even request that your sandwich be cut in half!

want a closer look?

overflowing with delicious ingredients!

it does not only truly satisfied my hunger, whats more is that its guilt-free!!! your diet will not be compromised by this healthy meal!

bon apetit!

prettytwistedchick

another burger entry?

okay i concede. i am a burger person. (still cant believe it i'm declaring this to the whole world wide web, but oh well apparently i love burgers...)

after a long overdue plan of dining at army navy, Posh, Tato and I finally went and had our lunch there. The place was located at HDela Costa Street in Makati, very near--like a skip and a hop distance--CEU Makati.

i ordered regular burger, freedom fries and strawberry milkshake--one of the best partner for burgers, i must say...the other one is an ice cold beer! my friends ordered chicken burrito, steak burrito, onion rings and quesadilla.


the place was cool. small but nice. quite different set-up from other burger joints i'm used to. it was a nice change of ambiance! It has an "industrial" feel to it.

sorry mister, i didnt mean to include you in this pic...but i want to have a shot of the cool wall

there, no more mister just trays instead. i like their trash cans...as if any minute oscar the grouch would show up!

the only not-so-great-part was it took forever before our order came. this, considering that despite lunchtime the place was not packed. there were still a couple of tables vacant and we were among the first few groups that came in.

when our number was called, the order wasn't even complete! tato was just given his iced tea and freedom fries without his steak burrito and quesadilla, posh was only given her coke zero without her chicken burrito and i was given my burger and fries without my milkshake.) are they expecting me to choke while eating? i hope not! when tato's order arrived his iced tea glass was already half empty and his fries, long gone....but enough ranting, what matter was the burger (burritos for my friends) has arrived to satisfy our hungry stomachs!

the burger was fine...(maybe my judgment got clouded due to the loooong wait). it was definitely a good burger! the poppy seed bun was amazing...maybe even freshly baked! the patty was moist (although i 'd still prefer it to be a little bit more shall i say juicier than what was served to me!) FYI: i like it when i bite into a burger and the juices come right out dripping down to my chin--my standard for a juicy burger.

the burger, wrapped in a aluminum foil.


poppy seed bun.

there were some fresh lettuce, thinly sliced onions and red tomatoes. there were an array of different condiments to choose from, which i loved! kudos to the store because most of the condiments are Philippine-made, more particularly the green chili sauce, nice! AND last but definitely not the least, at the price of 135Php, this burger fits just right for budget.

can you hear the burger's call--"EAT ME!"

the freedom fries was a nice change to the ordinary size and length that i was used to. it was a bit smaller and tastier! i compare it to McDonald's twister fries but not twisted hehehe

freedom fries, at 60Php, not bad..

the strawberry milkshake was just right--not too sweet but verrrry creamy! just the way i like 'em! the milkshake costs about 99Php but its all worth your money!

creamy strawberry, what else would you ask for???

over-all, the food was great! hungry or not so hungry, definitely a must try!!! especially if you're into burgers (or burrito!) and want some change in your typical fastfood choices! next time i shall try the burrito, the bully burger and the fried chicken (which i heard are great as well)... and maybe next time i'll just have them delivered to my office so as not to waste minutes waiting for my order... (just a thought!)


on to my next burger-joint hunt!
prettytwistedchick

korean ice cream---a real treat!

hello, i'm tim and i'm a koreanovela fanatic. (after reading, shove this information to the corners of your mind hehe) i should point out though that despite me liking koreanovelas (ok, lets add taiwanese novelas here as well) i am not into the whole realm of Kpop. (kpop meaning korean popular music) yes, i do listen to some kpop music but not really an avid listener.

koreanovelas are entirely different matter. koreanovelas i LOVE! korean actors (well most of them anyway) ILOOOOVE TOO!

so imagine my surprise when i was walking along rufino ave and saw a store that sells korean ice cream! i hear bells ringing *TING! TING! TING!* ice cream anyone?!?* but since im not that "crazy" about ice cream (at that time--i dunno why--weird me i guess!) i forgo the option of buying and set it aside for another day.

then yesterday, for some reason, i found myself binging from chocolates to salty potato chips, in short junk foods... and out of nowhere posh had the sudden urge to buy korean ice cream and i (naturally!) agreed and joined her...

while in the store, i was looking for that fish-looking korean ice cream that i saw from one of the foodblogs i've been stalking. unfortunately, to my dismay, the store was out of stock with that one. so, i decided to copy my friend's order since she's more familiar with all the korean ice cream flavors. plus one of the ice creams i saw was similar to that of our very own Pinipig ice cream on stick (am i just making this up, i dunno what the name of the ice cream, darn!)... so i opted for the ice sandwich cheese cake *whew!* i figured, i loved cream cheese so it must be good on ice creams too! (does my logic make sense? well, it does to me! hehe)

my ice sandwich with cheese cake! i took this while walking back to office coz i was THAT excited!

as i was headed back to office, i felt as if i'm re-living one of those koreanovelas i've seen! twas such a nice feeling... the feeling of anticipation and happiness. i took some snapshots from my phone of the infamous korean ice cream. amazing how this small-sized indulgence gives a person a second (or two) of happiness and contentment.

(...or i think i'm just THAT shallow, because i find joy in little things!)

ice cream on my table, such a delightful sight!

want some? yummy looking, is it not?!?

Anyhow, the much anticipated event happened. I ATE THE ICE CREAM! (what else would be the much-anticipated event than that?!?)

dang! this was gooooood!
i can just hear those voice over in commercials "soft...creamy...cheesy!"

the ice cream really melts in your mouth..REALLY!!! I'm usually not a good ice cream eater (especially if its in cone or hand-held popsicle) because after about 5-10 minutes, the ice cream will be gone and half of it will be on my hands, my shirt or the ground!!! But this one, surprisingly went all in my mouth down to my tummy-bulge! Yes, i think anoother pound is added to that darn weighing scale!

The sandwich was so errr...soft (for lack of a better word to describe it!) its like eating cotton candy, it vanishes in your mouth the moment you bite into it. I tell you, its like biting into clouds! yum-oh!

isnt she (yes i "gendered" it a SHE!) wonderfully amazing?!?

i shall definitely try another flavor again. my friends even suggested a couple of flavors when i posted this pic on my facebook account. yey, another reason to indulge myself with creamy treats! (excuses, excuses! *grin*)


sweet-tooth,

prettytwistedchick