When the searing summer sun threatens to melt me into the sweltering sidewalk, I like to sneak out to Koreatown during lunchtime, if my work shcedule permits and order this dish, an ice cold homage to cooler days. I might even have a soju with it. Then I walk back to the office with a melting green tea mochi ice cream in hand. It’s a comforting, clandestine ritual to help break up the day and let me have just a taste of the summer heat. The only evidence being the sticky wrapper from the ice cream and the smell of heat as I walk by.
If you don’t want to be rude in Koreatown you have to slurp this one. High summer is the season for naeng myun — cold noodles. The buckwheat noodles are served in huge bowlfuls in an icy-cold tangy broth with crunchy pickled daikon and quick pickled cucumbers, slivers of crisp-sweet Asian pear, a boiled egg and slices of tender beef brisket. Mind and marrow, this soup will engage you and cool you down in no time.
Naeng myun is a light, refreshing dish from North Korea. If served perfectly there are chunks of slushy ice in it. The soup is traditionally made with a combination of beef broth and dongchimi brine (the clear liquid used for pickling a particular type of daikon kimchi). I couldn’t find this and didn’t leave myself enough time to ferment the radish myself so I went with white cabbage broth instead. I could barely taste the difference. The result is a heightened interplay between sweet and sour with a hint of salty, crunchy and mushy. The best word I can think of is “tangy.” The noodles are piled high and sometimes need to be cut up because they’re so long.
The hardest part for me in making naeng myun is striking the right balance between homemade beef broth and the dongchimi (watery radish kimchi) brine. The brine isn’t sold on its own. You have to buy a large tub of the kimchi at a Korean grocer or make huge amounts of it yourself. While you’re there you can get the rest of the ingredients. Serve with a dollop of Asian hot mustard and a splash of vinegar.
The only other requisite is a set of really big bowls. Mixing bowls bowls would not be out of order here.
Mul-Naengmyun (Iced Cold Noodle Soup) 물냉면
Much guidance from Maangchi’s Real Korean Cooking
INGREDIENTS:
- 8 oz beef brisket
- 7 cups water
- 4 cups brine from Radish-water kimchi (or if you can’t find it then white cabbage kimchi)
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 Asian pear (or if you can’t find, use Bosc pears)
- 10 ounces buckwheat noodles
- 1 English or Japanese cucumber (or a kirby)
- 1 large hard boiled egg, shelled and cut in half
- 2 tsp korean mustard (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
For the Brisket and the Broth:
Rinse the brisket under cold running water, then soak in a bowl of cold water for 10 minutes to remove any blood (this will keep the broth nice and clear).
Bring the 7 cups of water to a boil in a small pot over high heat. Drain the brisket and put into the pot. Turn the heat down to medium and cook COVERED for 1 hour. Turn the head down to low and cook for another 50 minutes.
Remove the brisket from the pot and set broth aside to cool. Let the beef cool then slice it. Cover and refrigerate.
Combine the beef broth and kimchi brine in a metal bowl. Add the salt and 1/4 cup of the sugar and stir to dissolve. Cover and freeze until the mixture is slushy, a few hours.
For the Toppings:
Mustard paste (optional):
Mix 1 tbs of mustard powder and ½ tbs water. Put it in a warm place to ferment it for 5 minutes. Set aside.
Cucumber:
Slice ½ cup’s worth of cucumber into thin strips. Add a ½ pinch of salt, ½ ts of sugar, and ½ ts of vinegar. Mix it up and and set it aside.
Pear:
Slice ½ cup’s worth into thin strips. You can use either Korean pear or bosc pear. Soak it in water and add ½ ts sugar so it doesn’t change color. Set it aside.
Egg:
Hardboil an egg, cut it in half, and set it aside.
For the Noodles:
Put a half package of buckwheat noodles into a big pot of boiling water. Stir them with a wooden spoon so that the noodles don’t stick to each other. Keep boiling for about 3-5 minutes until cooked.
When the noodles are cooked, move the pot to the sink and pour cold water over them. Drain some of the water out and pour more cold water over them again. This will help the noodles get chewier.
Rinse and drain the noodles a couple of times until not slippery.
Divide the noodles between two shallow individual serving bowls. Divide the partly frozen broth between the bowls. Arrange the beef, radish kimchi, cucumber, pear and egg halves on top. If you want to add heat, mix the mustard seed powder with 1 tsp water and spoon a little in each bowl.
Serve with korean side dishes (banchan)
Wow wee!
Kudos to you Amanda for taking a stab at making this!
From the onset it doesn’t seem too complex but marrying the right amount of flavors, to your point, is the tricky part.
Well done lady love ❤
Thank you, Dana. That really is the trick here. It’s such a refreshing lunch that I had to try! Xo
Lovely photos. this is a new soup for my experience. I have never heard of it. So many interesting ingredients that come together so nicely.
Enjoy your Maine vacation.
Thank you doo much, Jovina. It’s a staple in Koreatown and I had to recreate it. I’m loving Maine. So much beauty. You are so kind.
in the summer before 6th grade i went on holiday with my parents to S.Korea for a week. we typically ate bulgogi and didn’t venture toooooo far from that. until a local friend took us out to eat and ordered this soup for me. i remember when i tried it i exclaimed: IT’S COLD SOUP, IT’S COLDDDDD!
what a novelty for a kid. i tried it again recently at our local restaurant and it didn’t taste like my childhood. which basically means i either need to find another place that serves this or make it myself.
What a great memory. My first cold soup was gazpacho and I was borderline offended. Now I love it. I’d love to go to south Korea to try it there. Until then I’ll stick to ktown!
This is new to me and sounds amazing. No chance of being overheated right now in England (we’ve had two weeks worth of cold rain in 4 hours 🙁 ) but the idea of eating out of a mixing bowl…..bring it on I say!
Ha! Thanks. We’ve been traveling up north a bit and it’s not terribly hot here either. Lot’s of rain. But the soup is so good, especially out of a mixing bowl.
This is one of my favorite dishes!! I used to get it when I visited a Korean spa in Chicago where they had a little restaurant inside that you could eat at in your spa bathrobe. I love Korean food it’s one of my favorites.
Thanks for the comment. I love Korean food too and Korean spas are fun. I can imagine eating this there would just transport you completely.
Love the flavors! 🙂 You are such an international eater. 🙂
Thanks, Shanna. I love to eat. It’s another way to travel using local ingredients where possible.
International eater, I like that, I am the same way, except I don’t eat beef or chicken, but can always being substituted. This soup looks very delicous
Thanks, Cornelia. I can relate to that. I am mostly a fish eater.
Oh, it looks absolutely delicious Amanda! 🙂
Thank you, Linda. 🙂
I am craving good Korean food. Need to get to NYC! That dish sounds so interesting, Amanda. I’ve never had it.
Thanks, Michelle. My very close friend/coworker is Korean and I let him do all the ordering. This one was a deeper for sure. I’d love to eat with you through New York city. 🙂
Lovely soup, Amanda. I wouldn’t know where to get most of those ingredients, but it sounds truly delicious, and I love cucumber and noodles in a cold soup, I’ve been doing Asian inspired miso soups and cold dishes all summer using those two ingredients, just not in such as sophisticated way as you did here!
Wow – that’s almost a Korean gazpacho! I’d love to try that and I know just where to get the ingredients 🙂
Awesome, md. So funny you’d say that because I remember having gazpacho for the first time and thinking it wasn’t real soup because it was cold. I was 11. But it’s real soup and so much more just like this one. Give yourself some time to prepare it because the brisket takes time. Hope you’re well!
Yes, thanks! It’s probably like gazpacho in that home made is best 🙂
You almost make me wish I lived in a big city! The soup is so intriguing and I love your photos! I was once walking around Boston by myself when my husband was doing something at Harvard, and I stopped into a little Vietnamese place and bought a pre-packed lunch, which isn’t what I typically do but I wanted to cover more ground, and it was an unbelievably fabulous meal, and it cost $4.
So funny you’d say that. I’m in Maine now rediscovering how much I love being out of a city and yet this is one if the very things I love about being near a cultural center. The soup is such a great way to cool off and such a wonderful experience to eat, slurping though a giant bowl. Boston us a fun city. Im glad you got to galavant a bit.
Wow this looks amazing! Your pictures are wonderful and the recipe sounds so different! Thanks for sharing! Lovely blog!
Thank you so much. The soup is so good I even order it in winter sometimes 🙂 xo
This is one of my Korean husband’s favorite dishes, and yours looks great. I haven’t made a Korean dish in ages because we usually just go to Koreatown when the cravings strike, but you have inspired me to try again. I will definitely make your recipe. Thanks!
I hear you. The most authentic and easiest is just to hit up ktown. If you really want to impress him i also have an easy recipe for bi bim bap that came out amazingly well and soondubu for colder days. I really love Korean food. So cool that your husband loves this dish. Enjoy!