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Watch: Do You Need a $120 Shaved Ice Machine to Make Bingsu?

Testing three gadgets to find the best one

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There are so many types of shaved ice but the one most familiar to chef Esther Choi of New York City’s Mokbar is bingsu — the popular Korean variety that’s usually topped with chopped fruit, condensed milk, and red beans; or for Choi: scoops of ice cream. In this episode of Kitchen Gadgets, Choi is testing out three different tools that yield shaved ice to find the one that reminds her most of her mother’s homemade bingsu.

Time for Treats makes a snow cone machine at $23 that you have to manually crank, and big brand Cuisinart sells one for $70. There’s also an electric ice maker for $120 from Doshisha that Choi will be trying out. But some of the gadgets might just be better suited for making stateside varieties of shaved ice like snow cones and sno-balls. “If you can chew the ice that means it’s not good shaved ice,” says Choi. “You want it to immediately melt in your mouth.”

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