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

It’s my noodle shop, so I have to give it a shout out. It’s the best. Even when I’m not there, I’ll order via uber. My mom’s collagen-rich bone broth in the kalguksu (knife cut noodles) and soojaebi (handpulled noodles) does wonders for my skin. Our family loves fistfuls of vegetables in our soup so you always get the good stuff. We’re in a food court in k-town so the people watching is next level.