My Favorite Summer Dish: Naeng-Myeon

Preemptively, let me say that I seem to use the term "my favorite" quite loosely. I should start saying "one of my favorites," but that's just too long and unwieldy.

Today was the first cold day in my area. I live in Playa del Rey, one mile from the Pacific Ocean, and I work in Culver City, full of studio stages and therefore always hotter. I work at the Sony lots, which means that I work adjacent to a giant power grid that is on the land here, and that place seems to just emit heat. So usually, home is about 10 degrees cooler than work.

Because I woke up to a cold, crisp day, my mind immediately told me that it was fall, and that summer was over. (It helps that I had to wake up at the crack of dawn for an 8:00 a.m. meeting. No one in visual effects is a morning person, least of all me!) Because I thought summer was over, my body immediately told me that I wanted naeng-myeon, a classic Korean summer dish. I always want what I can't have, like Asian pears in the middle of May or pumpkin pie in June. I'm weird, what can I say?

Naeng-myeon (냉면) literally means "cold noodles" (naeng = cold, myeon = noodles). You'll see the word "myeon" a lot in Korean cuisine. Although it's usually spelled "ramen," most Asian languages pronounce the word "la-myeon." Again, because "myeon" means noodles. (Also spelled naeng-myun, nang-myeon, naang-myun, etc.)

Naeng-myeon is a cold noodle dish in an icy soup (broth?) that's usually served in a stainless steel bowl with stainless steel chopsticks. The soup is ensured to be extra chilly by adding crushed or cubed ice (it's delicious when it's slushy ice and you can eat it with the noodles).

The actual noodles are usually made from buckwheat or kudzu and have a lovely springy, chewy consistency. I'm very sensitive to the textures of food- I don't like mushy food, I like chewy food. I've been told that naeng-myun noodles are a weird color, which I don't really get, but that's probably because I've been eating it since childhood. They're sort of brown, I guess, usually with little black specks.

I have to clarify here and say that I'm talking about naeng-myeon in soup (물 냉면; 물 = (mool) means water), not "dry" naeng-myeon (비빔 냉면; 비빔 = (bibim) means mixed) that's served dressed in a sauce made mostly of chili paste (고추장). I've always loved naeng-myun in soup, and am not all that partial to dressed "dry" naeng-myun. The soup (called 육수, pronounced yook-soo) is tangy, tart, sweet, icy, and perfectly spiced (assuming you get good yook-soo). I eat naeng-myun for the soup as much as I do for the noodles.

I've been day-dreaming about naeng-myeon and I've totally forgotten the point of this post. Oh, well.

So continuing on with my random rambling about it, naeng-myeon is usually served with boiled egg and thinly sliced cucumber. That's all I like to put in my naeng-myeon, occasionally floating some quickly pickled slices of radish and thinly sliced beef, when I'm feeling like an over-achiever. It's delicious with just the egg and cucumber, I promise. Sometimes, I'm really lazy and just eat the noodles with the soup and nothing else.

Some people really love the liquid mustard that comes with the noodles, but I really don't like the flavor. It has a horseradish-y flavor that I don't like. I find that I enjoy vinegar-y, pepper-y spice, but I don't like horseradish or wasabi, which hits a different part of your tongue.














I'm starting to miss the summer, and it was 85 degrees just two days ago!

Naeng-myeon might look rather complicated, but it's very easy to prepare. Having boiled eggs on hand helps, but isn't necessary.
















The noodles can be purchased dried or frozen. I think the frozen is supposed to take less time to cook, but I like the taste of the dried noodles better. They're a little thicker and a little chewier, and I can leave them as al dente as I please. The frozen noodles seem to get a bit waterlogged in the freezing process, which makes them softer once cooked. (The picture above is one of dried noodles. I'm being selective and only blogging photos of things I like).

Regardless of what kind of noodles you have, they must be boiled in water that's been brought to a roiling boil. The more roiling, the better! A wimpy boil will result is oddly cooked noodles that are cooked through in some places and crunchy in others. Boiling in a large amount of water is recommended, too, so that the water temperature doesn't drop too much once you've added the noodles.

The noodles need to be constantly tossed and turned while boiling- they are highly prone to sticking (to each other, the pot, your hand, the stove...) and moving them around keeps them from doing so.

Once the noodles are cooked, they should be drained (regular American colanders don't work because the holes are too big and the noodles will slide out, but a sieve will work just fine) and then rinsed in cold water. Rinse until the noodles don't produce any more bubbles, which means that the starch is off of them and they won't stick together too much while they sit in the sieve.

My mom makes little noodles nests, which I love. You take some noodles in one hand and pinch the center of them in with two fingers of your other hand. Wind the noodles around the hand pinching the noodles in, and leave the noodles in a little ball. Naeng-myeon will stick to itself as it dries, and the nests are a perfect way to just pick up a certain amount of noodles, rather than trying to de-tangle the noodles and somehow get a portion into your bowl. The noodles can be kept in nests in the fridge (I put them into a Tupperware container). They keep very well and since they're supposed to be eaten cold, it's a perfect leftover dish.

The soup is much, much easier than the noodles. They come in powders or in frozen liquids. The frozen variety are usually pre-portioned for one person, in a sealed pouch. They look kind of like frozen Capri-Sun pouches. I prefer the powders, because you can control how strongly flavored you want your soup to be. I usually like mine very strong, with lots of ice in it that melts (and so dilutes) it. If using the powder, make sure you prepare it before you start boiling the noodles, so you can refrigerate the soup for as long as possible.

After the noodly nests have been prepared (I like small nests, and since I have small hands, I need about 3 or 4 nests for one serving) and the soup is chilling, slice up some cucumbers (the thinner the better) and perhaps some radish (Korean radish is like daikon, but chubbier and shorter).

I put the noodles in a big bowl (I don't own stainless steel bowls, so just a big ol' soup bowl), add the soup, throw in as much ice as I can, and then top with cucumber and whatever other toppings I have (I really do enjoy boiled egg in this).

I have to go home and make some for dinner tonight...