Back in January I was drinking five ginger teas a day and lying on our apartment's ondol floor wearing a toque to keep warm. These days I drape a towel over my chair so that I don't sweat into the fabric as I sit, shirtless, gazing into nowhere with perspiration trickling down my face. This slack-jawed heat-coma makes up most of my day. I enjoy it actually, even leave the A/C off.

But when this sort of masochism loses appeal, I go for:



Shikhye, sujeonggwa, and gam shikcho.

Shikhye is my favourite. It's a rice beverage, but there's something to it -- maybe ginger, maybe the floating rice grains -- that elevates it beyond mere sugar-water. It comes in cans and bottles, but I prefer it ladelled from a big tub, icy as a half-melted Slurpee, usually at a jimjillbang (sauna).

Sujeonggwa tastes like pure cinnamon and sugar -- it's basically liquefied cinnamon hearts. Enough of it will probably turn your insides into potpourri.

Gam shikcho is persimmon vinegar. Sounds extreme, but diluted and sweetened it becomes an exotic lemonade. Good for hangovers, supposedly.

To really drop my core temperature, I go big. I go bingsu.



It's shaved ice with toppings. There are variations, but I like the classic version with pat, a type of red bean. I think Chinese might call it baobing, while Filipinos will say halo-halo and bemoan the lack of kaong (sugar palm fruit), jackfruit, and ube (purple yam). Also, if you don't stir it up, the locals will probably tell you to.

Eat it. And cool it now.