My sister-in-law told me about BINGSU as she had recently tried it at an ice cream sweet shop in New Orleans. Discovered there was a place that offered it here in Baton Rouge named 'Sweet Society' and decided to try them out.
'Sweet Society' is located in a converted industrial building called the 'Electric Depot' on Government Boulevard. I did not even know this building existed as I don't go toward downtown often. Fair warning for anyone that wants to check out the sweet shop and or other businesses in this complex, many of them only open after 5:00 p.m. I think many are closed on Mondays as well. Please check their website before hitting the road.
As to the BINGSU... For those of you who did not know (I didn't until recently), it's an ice cream treat made with a special machine that shaves the ice in such a way that it comes out in very tiny flakes. Think of a dessert that is a marriage of ice cream and snowball - the latter being a true wintertime SNOWball.
Its consistency is very flaky and airy. The BINGSU has thiis flaky shaved ice cream at the bottom of the cup layered with fruit puree, then fresh fruit on top and whipped cream. Mine also had some tiny tapioca marshmallows at the bottom which added some chewy texture to it.
OK - so did I love it, not really. It was nice, and I enjoyed it, but I would not say that I LIVED it. But I have to admit upfront that ice cream is not my craving when I think of wanting something sweet. It really doesn't matter what type of form it takes, I'm just not an ice cream aficionado. With that said I really enjoyed the airiness and lightness of this variation being that it was shaved and not heavy like traditional ice cream. I just like trying new things, and it was definitely unique.
I originally wanted to get the mango version, but they were out of mango puree - so I opted for the strawberry BINGSU instead. I enjoyed it, but wish that 'Sweet Society' offered a smaller cup size. I kept the bottled water in the picture so you had some kind of size reference. They only sell one size for $9.50 and it was HUGE!!! If you're going there and sharing one cup between two people it would be perfect, but for one person it was just too much and I really couldn't finish it. Okay... if you're an absolute ice cream lover, maybe you would have finished the entire cup. But for me it was just overkill size-wise.
'Sweet Society' also offers some 'non-Bingsu' dairy treats. I saw a young man eating a soft serve UBE flavored ice cream cup that looked delicious, he confirmed It was fairy tasty and served in a normal size ice cream cup . I've heard about UBE before, it's a purple sweet potato type vegetable used in Asian sweets, and I'll definitely go back to give that a try.
'Sweet Society' shares a common interior hall and public bathrooms in the same 'Electric Depot' building alongside a ramen restaurant, but unfortunately I was there earlier in the day and the ramen restaurant didn't open until after 5:00 p.m. I look forward to going back to trying their Ramen and then maybe some Ube ice cream next door. read more