Noona Noodles

Intensely Flavorful Soups, at Noona Noodles | The New Yorker

"I found Noona Noodles, a tiny stall in a multistory food court in Manhattan’s Koreatown, to embody sonmat — the Korean idea of “hand taste” — largely because Byung‑Sul Kim touches (or nearly touches) almost everything that comes out of its tiny kitchen. Kim, who has cooked professionally since 1997 and briefly ran a 24‑hour outpost in Flushing before opening Noona, focused the stall on noodles while her daughter Stella handles branding and front‑of‑house; Stella joined full time in 2020 and brought with her cooks from the Flushing team. The menu is surprisingly large for the space: nine ramens (including one finished with cilantro, lime, jalapeño and a shot of tequila and the Frat Boy topped with melted cheese and a hot dog on a stick), and two naengmyeon preparations rebranded as Icy (mul) and Icy Spicy (bibim). The naengmyeon broth is intensely flavorful — Kim boils brisket with fresh pineapple, Asian pear, apple, lemon, daikon and assorted alliums, seasons it with rice vinegar, kosher salt and dark‑brown sugar, and stores it in a refrigerated yooksu tong — then adds big hunks of slushy ice, skinny chewy noodles made from potato and buckwheat flours, lightly pickled daikon and cucumber sprinkled with sesame, and slices of brisket; Icy Spicy has a thick layer of gochujang to be stirred in, while the Icy comes with pink vinegar and hot mustard to adjust the heat. I also loved the Sticky Crispy Dumplings — crunchy fried shrimp, pork, or vegetable potstickers tossed with chunks of pineapple in a fiery sauce of gochugaru, garlic, ginger, ketchup and honey (chewy cylindrical rice cakes are an advisable add‑on) — and plan to return for the superlative jjam bbong, a spicy seafood soup of mussels, clams, head‑on prawns, shrimp and squid sautéed with bok choy, zucchini and mushrooms and added with springy wheat noodles to a collagen‑rich chicken broth seasoned with kombu dashi and anchovies; heat can be adjusted with more or less ground gochugaru and puréed jalapeños. Dishes run $6–$21, and I like to take my tray to the sunny third floor to eat." - Hannah Goldfield