- Oakobing, Korean dessert cafe
in Koreatown, in Los Angeles.
I'm Chris, this is yellow productions.
I do travel guides that are fun, informative,
and entertaining.
I just got back from Seoul, Korea.
We were enjoying the Korean desserts there
and Oakobing reached out to us
and said, "Hey, why don't you come by our cafe
"and check out some of our Korean desserts,
"here in the heart of K Town in Los Angeles."
Well, which ones are we gonna have?
I don't know, they look so delicious.
Join me as we head inside and check it out.
On the menu at Oakobing there's more
than just shaved ice.
We'll be starting with shaved ice
and working ourselves to some breads.
But the first one we'll be sampling
is their green tea ice flake.
This is made of a Japanese Matcha,
natural Matcha powder, Adzuki red bean,
Mochi, which is a kind of a rice cake,
and a milk pudding.
A mint leaf on top and some nuts.
And it's also served with a Matcha condensed milk.
So that's a green tea condensed milk.
And this is, essentially, to pour on top
to kind of help sweeten it up and make it even tastier.
It looks great.
The mint's for decoration, so I'm gonna
move this aside so that I can eat it.
And we've got this nice spoon here.
Let's go ahead and dive in.
It's a good Matcha flavor.
I feel like Matcha's one of those things,
it's very popular in L.A.
And red bean, if you've never had red bean before
it's another Japanese item,
it's really popular in Korea too.
It's sweet.
That's a good red bean.
And the Mochi, this will add a little
bit of texture to the shaved ice.
The Mochi kind of tastes like,
if you've never had Mochi before,
like gummi bears without flavor, a little bit.
And then the milk pudding.
A nice smooth taste too.
And so, you're not just eating all green shaved ice
but you have all these items to go with it.
This is big enough, frankly, to share, for two.
And they also have a number of different teas.
Because the ice is gonna be cold,
you'll wanna get a tea.
This is a blooming tea.
And if you notice, it's actually got
like a bloom of the tea leaf, that's in there.
And there's no better way to take that
brain freeze out of your mouth
than with some refreshing tea.
And it's a pretty good tea.
Like, if you have good tea, it actually
tastes like tea leaves instead of,
you know, Lipton Tea or things like that?
If you're just having something out of a tea bag.
We're stepping it up a notch, going in for two.
This is Oakobing's most popular.
It's their mango melon shaved ice.
This is mango shaved ice, made with real mangoes,
in a honeydew melon with pieces of honeydew up on top.
Oh my gosh, that looks amazing.
And it comes with some condensed milk.
But I mentioned, they have more than shaved ice.
This is their mango brick toast.
The whipped cream is a little deflated
because we were taking the thumbnail picture
that you saw earlier.
This looked like this at the beginning.
And these are fresh mangoes, not frozen mangoes.
The owner of this place, shops for
these mangoes every day.
And I will say I like mangoes.
These are really good mangoes.
We had mango shaved ice, actually just last night
at a different place.
And it was clear that their mangoes
were super sour and frozen,
but these soft, delicious.
Fresh mangoes make a huge difference.
The brick toast is served with a knife and a fork.
And if we dive in here and cut into this
what you'll see, it's a big thick toast like this.
And then there's some mango, like a
mango syrup that's in there.
So you get the whipped cream.
And it's kind of like, it's kind of like
a french toast
good, fresh whipped cream
not too sweet, nice and puffy whipped cream.
This one's really good if you like things that are doughy.
If you like things that are bready,
you may say, "Well, Chris, it's cold.
"I don't want cold things."
Then get the mango brick toast.
Because the toast, like it's toasted
and that's hot, with the whipped cream on top.
But again, you will really like these mangoes.
I probably haven't said enough about these mangoes.
But let's go on to the mango shaved ice.
First step is to put on the condensed milk.
We pour that on the top,
ohhhh, just like that.
That looks good.
And we get our spoon, dive in.
It's nice, it's a very, it's a light mango taste.
You can generally tell when you're
having things that are actually real,
because they don't taste strong or overpowering.
I'm sure you've all had, like,
Hawaiian shaved ice that has mango syrup on it.
This tastes nothing like that.
Because it's actually real mango.
And some honeydew.
Mmmm, and it's a sweet honeydew melon too.
I'm usually one that's not partial to honeydew
because I find honeydew can be, often, too sour.
But this is really a great combination.
And if you want it extra sweet,
that condensed milk on it, will just sweeten
it up for you, for your sweet tooth.
I mean, it's delicious and it also makes
for a really good Instagram pictures.
(shutter click)
So for our final shaved ice, Jane
is gonna show us how it's made
and explain it a little to us.
So, Jane, what shaved ice are we making?
- This one's Injeolmi shaved ice.
- And what's Injeolmi?
- It's like the Korean traditional bean powder.
- Okay and what ice do you have in your hand?
This one is milk flavor, it's like condensed milk.
- Okay, so you have each one of these
for the different shaved ices.
They each have a different base?
And there's a big freezer in the back
that has all of them, it's pretty impressive.
But Jane's gonna go ahead and put that
shaved ice in the shaver.
Are we using this one or this one?
- This one.
Is there a difference between these two?
- No, there's no difference.
- There's no difference, this one's just yellow.
So that's why you're using it for me, right?
- Yeah.
- Okay, perfect.
So why don't you go ahead and get that started?
So you put the ice in the top.
- Yeah, in the middle.
And then you have to put this on.
- And so this thing on the top,
it kind of rotates, spins the ice, right?
- And then it shaves it.
- So the difference between, for those of you
out there who've had Hawaiian shaved ice,
Hawaiian shaved ice is often,
they sometimes shave it but it's not flavored.
Or you might have a snow cone,
which is like crushed ice.
But this, the ice itself actually has the flavor.
And it's actually shaved.
So this thing has a knife or something
that goes around?
- Over here, this is the knife.
And you can control, like the thickness
of how it shaves with this.
- So why don't we get started?
Start shaving.
And I'm sure this is gonna be loud now, so.
(machine grinds)
So you'll see as it's shaving on the top, it's spinning.
And then Jane's got the plate down there.
She's a shaved ice expert.
If it were me, it'd just be a big, ugly looking pile.
But Jane's gonna make this into
something pretty looking, that we're
gonna see and eat here in just a moment.
And you see, as it gets shaved
it comes out like, nice and fluffy looking.
So if you were eating that block of shaved ice,
it's just a block of ice that wasn't shaved
that wouldn't be very tasty, because it'd be hard.
But this almost looks like, kind of looks like snow.
All right, so that's our base for the shaved ice, right?
- When doing the middle you have to put
a little bit of bean powder.
Because it can get like, a taste, like a little plain.
So we put this on the middle.
And then we shave more.
- Okay, sounds good.
(machine grinds)
So they don't want the shaved ice to taste plain.
So they actually put the bean powder in the middle
and then add more ice on top.
That keeps the shaved ice from tasting boring.
Nobody likes a boring shaved ice.
(machine grinds)
Okay, so this is the shaved ice platform.
And so now we're gonna put some toppings on it?
- Yes.
- Okay, what toppings are we gonna put on?
- So first you put the bean powder all over,
so it's like all covered.
- So you're just covering it in the bean powder now.
Not just on 1/2.
We had the mango melon, that was like 1/2 we had that,
we had the melons but here it's all over.
- And then I'm gonna put Mochi.
And this one is also covered in the bean powder too.
- And so this Mochi was the same
that we had on the green tea shaved ice?
- Yeah, but that one doesn't have the bean powder.
And then I'm gonna put some red beans.
This one is also Korean too.
- And these beans are sweet, right?
And so what do we got here?
- This is milk pudding.
Milk pudding, and it's kind of sweet.
And then we're gonna put some almonds
and then an apple mint leaf.
- An apple mint leaf?
- Yeah, and that's it.
- All right, it looks beautiful.
- Thank you.
- Jane has just turned this into this.
And so, Jane, what makes Korean shaved ice special?
You were telling me earlier about natural ingredients.
- I think the ingredients are just, like, better.
Like, more natural than, like, American places.
Because they, like, use, like, more artificial,
like, flavoring maybe.
- Yeah, and so everything here's made in house,
natural, not artificial.
- Yeah, uh huh.
- All right, excellent.
And that's why I think those mangoes are great.
Because the owner, again, buys those every day.
All right, let's dive into this.
(speaks in foreign language)
All right, thank you very much Jane.
I've got my two spoons and I'm ready to dig in.
This is the Injeolmi shaved ice that Jane brought.
But they have a combo for a little bit of a discount.
You can get the shaved ice and the Injeolmi croissant.
So this one has that Korean bean powder
on it as well, whipped cream.
Also starts out a little taller,
before taking all the photos that we did.
So this one you eat with a knife and a fork.
It comes out on the hottish side.
And it's got some rice cake in the middle.
So let's take a look at what's in there.
There's, let me get the bottom piece.
There's also a little bit of honey.
You put the whipped cream on it.
And so this is another one, if it's a cold day
and you're not feeling cold,
you're not feeling like ice, you can get one of these items.
Or you can get the two together so you can
switch between the ice and the croissant.
I was skeptical
about whether this would be really tasty or not
because, honestly, croissants,
I know French love them but they're
just kind of not my thing.
But the honey
really gives it a nice sweetness.
The croissant is nice and crunchy.
Like they toast the croissant or something, before,
so it does have a good crunch to it.
Mmm, that's a good honey.
And good whipped cream.
All right, let's check out the Injeolmi shaved ice.
These ingredients, you saw these before
in the first one, in the Matcha one.
And let's eat Jane's creation.
The interplay between the ice and the powder
is very interesting.
Because it's this cold, wet, thing,
with a dry powder at the same time.
It's almost a little hard to describe
but I will say, it has a neat mouth feel to eat this.
But I don't know that I'd wanna just
have this powder all by itself
because I think my mouth would just feel like.
(smacks lips)
But with the shaved ice, it just kind of moistens it.
It has a kind of, almost like a nutty taste to it.
You wouldn't know, really, unless you knew
that it was a bean.
And you've got all these different things
that we saw before, to mix up a bit.
And a great combo between the two.
I feel like something a little crunchy
and a little less icy now.
In addition to the hot drinks,
if you want something for the road, to go,
or something that's cold, they've also got milk teas.
This is a milk tea with boba in it, tapioca balls,
served with a big straw.
This one's got some tall whipped cream on top.
Why the big straw?
Well those little, mmmmm,
bobas have to come up through the straw
and then you kind of chew on it.
I didn't get any when I drank it that time.
You drink and you chew.
It's another one of interesting experiences together.
So by now you're wondering, "Chris, how was
"all that stuff that you ate?"
Let me tell you, it was delicious.
And even though I was invited here
to come check out Oakobing, I will say
if I'm in Koreatown, Los Angeles again,
or just near downtown Los Angeles
and I have a hankering for Korean shaved ice,
I will be back there.
Their shaved ice was really delicious,
really natural, good tasting.
The mango that I mentioned before,
I love the mango.
What I thought was great about this place
is the owner actually said, "Hey what about
"the strawberry shaved ice?"
They said, "Chris, the strawberries,
"it didn't look good today, so I didn't buy them.
"So we don't have any strawberry shaved ice today."
Which I think is actually cool that they're
not willing to sell a substandard product
with substandard produce.
You know what you're gonna get,
based on what's in stock, it's gonna be tasty and delicious.
So if you're in Koreatown, LA,
looking for some Korean shaved ice,
just some dessert or maybe those brick toast
or things like that, definitely check this out.
Anywhere from the LA area.
It's not that far.
Tasty, healthy, desserts.
One last thing, if you're driving here
and you're parking, there is a parking garage in the back.
Parking for customers of Oakobing, two bucks.
Two bucks, that's even cheaper than street parking.
That's a pretty good deal.
Well, I won't say goodbye because I'll
see you in the next video.