I’ll admit that I am a noodle lover. There are unlimited combinations and recipes that can be quickly put together with noodles or pasta. Naeng Myun is a Korean summer-only noodle dish that is quite possibly one of my favorite Korean foods of all time. It is extremely unique in that it is served in an icy cold broth that sometimes even contains ice flakes. Once again, this soup is extremely time consuming to make, but can be found in a kit at the local H-Mart. The kit includes the noodles, a bag of broth, and spicy mustard for seasoning. I chose to top my noodles with sliced lettuce, ham, and a soft boiled egg. The broth itself is usually made using beef, but when topped with a splash of vinegar and spicy mustard is immediately becomes refreshing, acidic, clean, and sharp.
Cooking this meal is amazingly simple. The longest part of the task was boiling my egg for about 6 1/2 minutes. The thin buckwheat noodles are simply “shocked” in boiling water for 4o seconds, and them immediately put into an ice bath to cool them down. While I was preparing the garnishes, I kept the bag of broth in the freezer in order to really bring the temperature down.
With quick and easy assembly, this dish is satisfying for an end-of-work day kind of dinner; fast and delicious with barely any clean up necessary. 