Continuing my culinary adventures with Korean food I got the opportunity to try some Korean cold noodle dishes with one of the hostel workers from Banana Backpackers, NamEun. Herself as well as all of the staff at Banana backpackers have been extremely helpful with almost any requests (from translations to directions they’re always lending a hand). We found this nice restaurant in Insadong, just a few minutes walk from the hostel.
I was a little hesitant to try this dish again as my first introduction to it had been in Montreal and it hadn’t impressed me. At the time I felt like the noodles had been too jelly like and the broth/sauce hadn’t been tasty at all. I also remembered that my Korean friend had told me it wasn’t very representative of how good the dish could be. So it was with that in mind that I said yes to trying to dish a second time.
That being said let’s start with a little history lesson courtesy of wikipedia:
“Naengmyeon (hangul: 냉면, naeng-myeon, naengmyun, naeng-myun, meaning “cold noodles”) is a Korean dish of long and thin hand-made noodles made from the flour and starch of various ingredients: buckwheat (메밀, memil), potatos, sweet potatos, and kudzu (칡, chik). Varieties with ingredients such as seaweed and green tea are available. According to the 19th century documents of Dongguksesigi (동국세시기, 東國歲時記), it has been made since the Joseon Dynasty.
Originally a delicacy in northern Korea, especially the cities of Pyongyang and Hamhung in North Korea, naengmyeon became widely popular in Korea after the Korean War.
Naengmyeon is served in a large stainless bowl with a tangy iced broth, julienned cucumbers, slices of Korean pear, and either a boiled egg or slices of cold boiled beef. Spicy mustard sauce and vinegar are often added before consumption. The long noodles would be eaten without cutting, as they symbolized longevity of life and good health, but modernly, servers at restaurants usually ask if the noodles should be cut prior to eating and use food scissors to cut the noodles.”
Some of these dishes are served with pieces of crushed ice in the broth. We sat down and ordered two different types and unfortunately I don’t remember the names of either. Once again here’s wikipedia to the rescue:
“The two main varieties of naengmyeon are mul naengmyeon (물 냉면) and bibim naengmyeon (비빔 냉면). The former is served as a cold soup with the noodles contained in broth made from beef, chicken or dongchimi. The latter is served with a spicy dressing made primarily from gochujang (red chili paste) and eaten all mixed together. In the case of bibim naengmyeon, a bowl of the soup broth used in mul naengmyeon or plain broth from the boiled noodles itself are often served on the side.”
That being said they were both really delicious and refreshing. The noodles were nice and light and the cold broth was extremely refreshing. On hot and muggy south Korean days it’s easy to understand how this dish would be considered a delicacy.
As you can expect from a Korean dish, the one with the red colored sauce was a little spicy. Both containd pieces of chopped cucumbers and half of a boiled egg.
We also ordered a side of steamed dumplings (mandu). We finished off all the dumplings but were unable to finish both noodle dishes. The side dish you see beside the mandu came with the Naengmyeon and was either a pickled radish, cucumber or squash like fruit/vegetable (possibly a Korean Pear as wikipedia mentions above?). I remember it being light, crunchy and tasty but I can’t recall exactly what it was.
Having now given this dish a second chance (and a first try in Seoul) I wouldn’t hesitate to have it again. I actually enjoyed eating these cold dishes and wouldn’t hesitate to order them on a nice warm day. Looking at the pictures I’ve also come to realize that I now regularly eat and enjoy cucumbers in a variety of dishes. I never used to eat this fruit but I now find myself enjoying it in many Korean dishes as well as with sushi.
If you have a chance to try Naengmyeon, don’t pass it up!
Which is the name of the restaurant? Thank you in advance:) And I really like your post as well!
where can I find stainless bowls like these