Korean & Japanese-style iced desserts in Bangkok (TH)

Bangkok has so many enormous, often inter-connected and quite pretty shopping malls. They generally have food courts or restaurants on several levels. I really enjoyed wandering about and seeing the impressive selection of food on offer.

Thanks to Instagram, I realised that Korean and Japanese style iced desserts were one of the ice cream trends I had to look out for in Bangkok: many cafés / parlours offer a selection of different kakigōri and bingsu.

Siam Paragon shopping centre

Kakigōri

Kakigōri is a shaved ice dessert from Japan that is flavoured with syrup. Condensed or evaporated milk is often poured over the top. Some of the flavours I saw were: passion fruit, iced pink milk, Thai tea, blueberry, earl grey… Kakigōri are supposed to have a smooth fluffy consistency, similar to fresh fallen snow. That was unfortunately not the case of the one I had… mine felt more like snow that had frozen overnight. The shaved ice was rather crunchy. I had really hoped for shaved ice as fine as in the cendol I tried in Malaysia… Taste-wise I was also rather disappointed: I was served an enormous pile of ice & because the syrup was on the outside only, I mostly had the feeling I was eating tasteless snow… I was about to give up when I realised there was some kind of filling – similar to cheesecake – buried in the centre. But looking at the photo below, you’ll have to agree that it looked great, didn’t it?

The passionfruit Japanese-style kakigori I tried in a shopping mall in Bangkok

I tried another kakigōri from Kyo Roll En, a place I read about in eatsandtreats blog before my trip. I was very intrigued by their matcha, charcoal and black sesame creations: Kyo Roll En offers a variety of desserts with those main flavours. Choosing one dessert was no easy task! 🙂

One of Bangkok’s Kyo Roll En’s cafés

‘Goma’ black sesame Kakigori, from Kyo Roll En

I had a Goma kakigori, made with bamboo-charcoal soft-serve ice cream, served on top of shaved ice (which was mixed with some ‘goma’ black sesame), along with warabi mochi (jelly-like confection made from bracken starch and coated with sweet toasted soybean flour) and black sesame mochi. This was served with a tasty black sesame sauce. The shaved ice was slightly crunchy, but the texture and taste were much better than the first kakigori I tried. Flavours were quite subtle but I enjoyed this dessert!

I reckon the waiters from Kyo Roll En must regularly have a good laugh at the goma black sesame smiles they get from departing guests! 😉

One of the paintings hanging up at Kyo Roll En

Bingsu

Bingsu is a popular Korean iced dessert made with shaved ice, condensed milk and fruit. It is sometimes topped with ice cream. On the last day of my holidays I wanted to try one, but because I could only try one, I had to make sure I tried a good one!

After eating a kakigori with rather coarse shaved ice, I wanted a bingsu with the finest ice possible! Online research led me to Wicked Snow: I read that Wicked Snow was created by a company that manufactures ice shaving machines and that their shaved ice was the finest in Bangkok. Reading up about them now, I see that the company that created Wicked Snow is a manufacturer of pulverized ice makers, BarsKorea (or maybe Bars International Co. Ltd). I can confirm that their snow “shaved” ice is deliciously fine and light!

I had a “Mango Snow” sherbet at Wicked Snow: I would originally have described it as “shaved frozen milk” with fresh mango and syrup, but I guess that it is technically speaking not really “shaved” ice but rather artificial snow made of milk… It was REALLY good & the texture plays an enormous role here! It melts nicely in the mouth, doesn’t feel too cold and it wasn’t too sweet either.

Mango Snow iced dessert from Wicked Snow in Bangkok, made with milk snow, fresh mango and syrup

Because I really loved it and because I would be delighted to find something similar in Germany, I would like to point out that BarsKorea manufactures CE approved equipment! 😉

The fine snow of my “mango snow” dessert at Wicked Snow. The snow is made by a BarsKorea pulverized ice maker

Café Wicked Snow in Bangkok

I’m Park, the small shopping centre where you can find The Wicked Snow Café

What about “Thai” ice cream rolls…?

Stir-fried ice cream rolls are gaining popularity in Europe and are often marketed as “Thai ice cream”. I was curious as to whether I’d see any of this in Bangkok. Well I can tell you that I saw many more places selling coconut ice cream, kakigori or bingsu than ice cream rolls! … I actually only encountered one shop in a shopping mall that made ice cream rolls!

Other cute or cool ice cream spotted in Bangkok

Taiyaki fish-shaped ice cream cone filled with soft serve ice cream

Cute popsicles spotted in a shopping mall

More cute popsicles

Fancy ice cream cones…

Useful information

Kyo Roll En

• Address of the café I went to: 1st floor of Siam Square One shopping centre, Bangkok, Thailand. Please check their website to see the locations of their 10 outlets in Bangkok, in the main shopping malls.
• Web: www.kyorollen.com

The Wicked Snow Café:

• Address of the café I went to: 2/F I’m Park, Soi Chula 9, Charoenmueang Rd., Pathum Wan, Bangkok, Thailand. But you should check their website to find all their locations in Thailand, Korea, China, the Philippines, etc.