Ju L.
Yelp
Heat wave season is a-comin'! Which means your belly should start prepping itself for a coooool summer of Vietnamese bun, Chinese liang mian/liang pi, Japanese hiyashi chuka/soba and Korean konggooksoo/naengmyun.
Oh, bless the cold noodle. Bless it dearly.
The naengmyun (literally, "cold noodle") is served with finely crushed ice still floating in the bowl. There are 4 options (consisting of varying levels of broth/spiciness) x 4 types of noodle to choose from:
- nurup (elm starch)
- chik (arrowroot starch)
- momil (buckwheat, similar to Japanese soba)
- ogapi ("shrub of araliaceae"???)
(I'd assume most if not all of these noodles are gluten-free. The momil noodles - like soba - may have some wheat added in.)
I'd been dreaming of the best naengmyun I've ever had (in Seoul, alas), and this one didn't come close. But it's good, and definitely the coldest noodle you'll find for those sweltering days. The broth for the mul-naengmyun (the watery variety of naengmyun) is refreshing, lightly sweet and sour. Because it's in the restaurant's name, I chose the chik/arrowroot noodles - somehow one of the less interesting options, but unrelentingly slippery, springy, and fun. The whole thing is topped with thin slices of sweet pear, radish, cucumber, half a hard boiled egg, some gochujang, and just a cursory amount of beef.
Be aware that if you order naengmyun, the banchan (side dishes) are much more basic than if you get Korean BBQ. We received: cold fried potato patties, a limp salad, pickled radish, mung bean jelly dressed in soy sauce, and a mug of warm broth each.
Though this place specializes in naengmyun, at least in name, they serve a large variety of other noodle dishes. Next time, I'll go for one of the stranger noodle starches in bibim-naengmyun form (unlike the mul-naengmyun, the "bibim" variety is based in a thicker spicy sauce and meant to be mixed up).