A Perfect Day For Banana Milk, May 19, 2010

I have had this love-hate relationship with milk and bananas... I don't like the texture of raw bananas, but enjoy things like banana bread... And although I grew up drinking gallons of Jerseymaid, as an adult I don't like the aftertaste of milk... However, it does come in handy for making ice cream, yogurt, and cheese...

Larry had posted a phrase in Korean on his Facebook... A few of his Korean friends commented on it but from their postings, I could not figure out what it meant... Exasperated, I finally asked him on his "wall" what it meant, which met with more cryptic comments back and forth...

He explained that the phrase was "I want banana milk," referring to a very popular drink that appears to be the equivalent of Yoo Hoo or even Coke in Korea... YouTube has some amusing commercials for Binggrae, which appears to be the most popular brand of banana milk, featuring popular singers, actors, and comedians...



He assured me that banana milk, although extremely popular in Korea, was no big deal...However, I was intrigued by it, admittedly in part by the general boisterous glee of the commercials... So I had to find it...

First I tried at 99 Ranch, a pan-Asian market on Artesia Boulevard in that Torrance/Gardena area off the 91... I asked a friendly but incredulous grocer if they carried it and he said, "No, that's Korean, this is a Chinese market"...

I started to protest that 99 Ranch carries a variety of foods from other parts of Asia such as Filipino, Japanese, and the like when he told me to check on the other side of the store where I found rows and rows of Asian soft drinks, juices, and beverages made of milk products flavored with chocolate and various fruits... But no banana milk...

So I went to Freshia, a Korean market in Torrance and found it... I brought it home and although Seiji had already brushed his teeth before bed, his eyes lit up and he said, "We have to have that for breakfast!"...

Needless to say, it was a hit... They drank almost an entire six-pack of the banana milk in a day... I brought one to work and had it with some hot beef soup from Freshia's deli - shredded flank steak and cabbage formed a tasty web in a medium spicy red broth... It was about what I expected, creamy and banana-y and lightly sweet...

It didn't make me dance like the comedian in the commercial... But it was a nice bit of kid-friendly nostalgia for a time when all you needed was a sweet drink in a box...