The food of North Korea is, logically, very similar to that of South Korea. However, the dish I made is specifically from North Korea, although according to the recipe I used, it became popular in South Korea during and after the Korean war as people fled from North to South. In fact, two variations of the dish are named after two cities in North Korea.
The dish I made is called naengmyeon--cold noodles. It's generally enjoyed in the summer, so of course I decided to make it in the middle of January. The noodles used are usually specific to this dish and are made of buckwheat and sweet potato. I couldn't find naengmyeon easily so I just used Japanese soba since they're made out of the same ingredients. They're a bit thicker than the Korean style noodles, but close enough.
The two styles of this dish are called mul naengmyeon and bibim naengmyeon. I sort of combined both styles together. I started with the broth: onion, scallion, ginger, garlic, and peppercorns. I used sichuan peppercorns because I still have a bag leftover from when I made mapo tofu for China. Usually this broth would also include beef and Korean radish. I didn't bother with any meat substitutes this time, since it's not the main feature of the dish.
And although I oddly enough had Korean radish, it was pickled from a month before. But, the broth ended up tasting really good after simmering with just those ingredients.
While the broth cooked, I sliced up my cucumber super thin. It's a simple ingredient, but it definitely helps with the cold crispness of this dish.
Once the broth is done, it's supposed to be chilled in the freezer until it becomes slushy. I didn't wait that long, but I did stick it in there while I cooked my noodles. Like rice noodles, these can go wrong really fast if you don't know what you're doing. You can't just put it in boiling water and walk away like pasta. The go into the boiling water for only about 5 minutes. Every time I make these noodles (did I mention I bought a 4-pack on amazon?) I make sure I'm stirring with bamboo tongs, lifting up some of the noodles and letting them drop to make sure they're not clumping together. Then, once they're tender, the pot is immediately drained and the noodles get a nice soak in some ice water, then they sit in a strainer until ready to use.
Once you have the noodles in your bowl, you can drizzle a little sesame oil over them, then start layering: cucumber and radish first.
Then a boiled egg on top. I found it quite hard to get that balancing on top there. The ice cold broth then gets added to the bowl. Sometimes an ice cube or two is added to the bowl if it's a particularly hot day.
If you're going for the brothy mul naengmyeon, vinegar and hot mustard are the condiments of choice.
But like I said, I didn't stop there. The second version of the dish, bibim naengmyeon, skips the broth and mixes the noodles with a gochujang sauce and kimchi. The condiment in the last picture is not actually vinegar but gochujang mixed with soy sauce. You can see in the picture above that I gave up on trying to keep the egg balanced on top once I added the kimchi, so I just turned it over and balanced it that way. Not as aesthetically pleasing, but much less frustrating.
I would definitely prefer to eat the bibim naengmyeon versus the mul naengmyeon any day. In fact, I sort of have, just a hot version instead. Since I ordered so many of these noodles, I've been making lots of stir fries with them, tossed in a gochujang sauce. Maybe when summer actually gets here and I don't feel like using the stove much, I'll make it cold and enjoy it more than I did in January. It definitely wasn't a bad dish--I can't hate anything that's covered in kimchi--but the cold broth didn't really hit the spot the way a warm bowl of noodles and broth does.
Recipes Used: Naengmyeon
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