Well, well, well, look what we have here, dessert spots! Sweet things, you know. My old man, bless his soul, he loved his sweets. Couldn’t get enough. Me? I like a little something now and then, keeps the spirits up, you see. There is that fancy cake place, people call it Lady M or something. They got this green tea cake, green tea! Sounds weird, but folks seem to like it.
You know what we used to eat back in the day? None of this fancy stuff. Just good old-fashioned desserts. Like apple pie. My mama, she made the best apple pie. Lots of sugar in our desserts, that’s for sure. Now they got all these newfangled desserts.
This one thing, hear them young people talk about it all the time, Korean shaved ice, they call it “bingsu.” Sounds like a sneeze to me.
This “bingsu,” they say it’s real popular. A traditional Korean thing. The best one, they call it “patbingsu.” It’s just shaved ice with red beans. Red beans! On ice! Who would have thunk it?
They say shaved ice sounds plain, and it does. I mean, ice is just frozen water. But they put all sorts of stuff on it to make it tasty. These young folks today, they’re always coming up with something new. They even put those Oreo cookies on the ice! Imagine that, cookies on ice!
- Apple pie
- That green tea cake
- Shaved ice with red beans
- Ice with Oreos!
We used to have this thing called rice pudding. My grandma, she used to make it. Sticky, sweet, with raisins. Oh, she made a good rice pudding. Simple, but good. You won’t find that at no fancy dessert spot, I tell ya.
Now, they got all kinds of dessert places. Big ones, small ones, fancy ones. Some of ’em, you gotta stand in line forever just to get a little bit of something sweet. Back in my day, you just went to your mama’s kitchen, and there was always something sweet cooking.
This “bingsu” thing, I seen pictures. Looks like a mountain of ice with all kinds of stuff piled on top. They got fruit, they got chocolate, they got, I don’t even know what all. Too much for me, I think. I like my desserts simple. Like a good piece of chocolate cake. Or a nice, warm cookie.
These dessert spots nowadays, they’re all about show, I think. Making things look pretty. My mama, she didn’t care about pretty. She cared about taste. And her desserts, they tasted good. Real good.
- Rice pudding, sweet and sticky
- Chocolate cake, gotta be moist!
- Cookies, warm from the oven
- Pie, any kind, really!
I remember this one time, my old man, he tried to make a cake. Bless his heart, he wasn’t much of a cook. It was a disaster! Flat as a pancake, and hard as a rock. We still ate it though. Didn’t want to hurt his feelings, you know. We had a good laugh about it later, though. He was not a baker. No, sir, not a baker.
This whole “dessert spot” thing, it’s a new thing. When my kids were little, they just wanted candy. And ice cream. Always ice cream. Now they take their kids to these fancy places, with all these fancy desserts. Times change, I guess.
But you know what? A good dessert, it’s a good dessert. Whether it’s fancy or simple, whether it’s from a fancy place or your mama’s kitchen. A little bit of sweetness, it makes life a little bit better. That’s what I think, anyway. And my old man, he’d agree. He loved his sweets, that one. A good dessert always made him smile, that’s the most important thing.
These new desserts, these “bingsu” and whatnot, they’re alright, I suppose. But give me a good old-fashioned apple pie any day. Or a slice of my mama’s chocolate cake. That’s what I call a real dessert. A little taste of home. A little taste of the good old days. That’s what a good dessert is all about, ain’t it?
These young people and their fancy dessert spots. I don’t get it. But hey, if it makes ’em happy, who am I to judge? Just don’t forget the simple things. The good things. Like a warm hug and a piece of pie. That’s all you need sometimes to make a day good, you know what I mean?
