NaengMyeon - Icy Noodles

[ZenKimchi]

I know that NaengMyeon is talked about in other threads, but I love it so much, I want to make a thread dedicated to it. I just polished off my third bowl this week, and I'm craving MORE!!!

The thing is, I haven't been able to make it successfully at home. I'm currently researching. I have seen the recipes on the internet, but the resulting broth sounds too salty compared to what I get in the restaurants.

Give me some freezing refreshing Pyeongyang-style NaengMyeon with slivered cucumbers, sweet crispy Asian pear, toasted sesame seeds, and lots of snowy shaved ice!! Throw in some spicy mustard and vinegar and shove the chilly bowl in my face to gulp as refreshingly as a mountain spring.

It's the best thing to come out of North Korea.

And now... the porn:

[chefzadi]

naengmyun

further down how to make your own classic Korean beef stock. You add salt to taste, so no problems with the broth being too salty. tips on how to get that, um, "restaurant" flavor too.

edited to add my MIL learned how to make naengmyun from a relative from pyongyang who had a restaurant.

Edited June 3, 2006 by chefzadi (log)

[ZenKimchi]

Thanks Zadi!

I wish someone would have the great idea to bottle up NaengMyeon Yuksu (the broth) and sell it in the chilled case next to the Cokes. I mean, for goodness sake, we have tomato popsicles in Korea. ANYTHING makes sense after that.

[nakji]

I thought you could buy the broth...I'm sure I did at least once, but I couldn't get the noodles right. Check in the refrigerated section near the other broths....you know, near where they keep the yellow radish and the bags of shelled mussels...have a poke around there. It may be seasonal.

I miss naengmyeon. I noticed before I left that some places started adding a scoop of red chillis to it (not gochujang...not sure what it was, exactly - it wasn't bibimnaengmyeon, because it was still in the soup form), which I liked, but I found vaguely disappointing, because it was one dish I could reliably recommend to friends who didn't like spicy food. Have you seen this anywhere? I especially saw it outside of Seoul.

Is naengmyeon a native Korean dish, or is it a re-interpretation of the Japanese dish (or vice versa) with the cold noodles swished around in the wasabi broth? I've always thought they were a little similar, and naengmyeon seems so different from the rest of Korean food, which is heavily seasoned with red chilis.

[chefzadi]

It's a Korean dish.

And there are many, many Korean dishes that do not have chilis in them. My wife can rattle off lots of them. There's a difference between restaurant food and homecooking too.

[torakris]

This is probably my favorite Korean noodle dish.

It is wildly popular in Japan (and has been for some time) where it is known as reimen (literally 'cold noodles'). The city of Morioka, in Iwate Prefecture, is famous for it's reimen....

In Japanese supermarkets you can buy packs of noodles and soup for reimen in the refirgerated sections all year round, though they quadruple in the summer. The noodles vary from brand to brand and I have been dissapointed in most of them.

I must have kimchi in my reimen along with either apple or Asian pear, anything else is optional.

[ZenKimchi]

I thought you could buy the broth...I'm sure I did at least once, but I couldn't get the noodles right. Check in the refrigerated section near the other broths....you know, near where they keep the yellow radish and the bags of shelled mussels...have a poke around there. It may be seasonal.

Nah, I have a bag of NaengMyeon broth in my fridge. I just wanted to get a recipe (thanks Zadi) so my family in the States and other Stateside readers of my blog could make it.

[Tae.Lee]

naengmyeon is one of those few dishes i've never particularly liked [sacriledge! haha]..

i like the noodles and the egg especially as well as the liquid mustard stuff, but i can't handle the broth..

but then i don't like mool kimchi either, something about salty liquids that doesn't so it for me..

[Soup]

They sell packages of yooksoo at the korean groceries. They don't taste as good as the the broth in a good korean resturant. Also check out the nutritional info. They are loaded with salt. I saw one that had 300% of your daily salt in-take in a single serving. But I find that I buy them because making the yooksoo at home for me is just too tough.

Have any of you have Mak Gook Su. I have not but I'm thinking it is a very close cousin of Nang mein.

This week I had Nang Mein twice. Once in Dallas TX (I think it was called Seoul House). The worst Nang Mein I have ever had. I took two bites and left the rest. There were hard noodle pieces in it (completely dried and uncooked).

Today after landing in DC, I went over to a reliable korean place and got the bad taste out my mouth. It was good. Yum. I am convinced that there is nothing better than Nang Myun with a side of Karbi on a hot day.

Kimchi may be the national dish of korea but this has to come in close second.

[SheenaGreena]

I am lazy so I buy the frozen naengmyun packages at the korean grocery store. I have to supply the kimchee, asian pear, egg, etc. though....which is a pain in the butt to prepare. I am so lazy!

I had some really good naengmyun a few weeks ago when I was visiting my parents in Maryland. It was mul naengmyun but instead of having a beef flavor to it, it had radish kimchee tops and a spicy broth. It was awesome. Naengmyun is my all time favorite Korean noodle dish. I had some good bowls of it when I was in Seoul a few years ago. I made my aunt take me to all the good naengmyun restaurants as soon as I got off the plane

[maryeats]

Thanks Zadi!

I wish someone would have the great idea to bottle up NaengMyeon Yuksu (the broth) and sell it in the chilled case next to the Cokes.  I mean, for goodness sake, we have tomato popsicles in Korea.  ANYTHING makes sense after that.

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When I first read this I thought "freekin' sick. Naeng Myeon in the cold case next to the cokes? This guy has gone too far." However, samples were on hand tonight at EMart. One sip and I thought, "he's got a point!"