Rice & Noodles
Bibim Naengmyeon (Spicy Cold Buckwheat Noodles)
Prep
20 min
Cook
5 min
Servings
2
Photo: KOREA.NET - Official page of the Republic of Korea · CC BY-SA 2.0
Steps
- 1
Mix gochujang, gochugaru, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and grated pear into a thick sauce and chill it.
- 2
Boil the noodles for the time on the packet - usually only 3-4 minutes - and no longer.
- 3
Drain and plunge them into ice water.
- 4
Scrub the noodles between your hands under cold running water until the water runs clear and they squeak.
- 5
Drain them hard; wet noodles will thin the sauce.
- 6
Toss the noodles with the chilled sauce until every strand is coated.
- 7
Top with cucumber, pear slices and egg.
- 8
Finish with sesame seeds and eat immediately.
Did you know — Korean culture
Naengmyeon is a northern dish that became a southern staple through displacement. Both famous styles - the clear-broth Pyongyang version and the spicy, chewy Hamhung one this recipe follows - are named for cities now in North Korea. They spread across the South after the Korean War, carried by refugees who opened restaurants, which is why a cold northern noodle is now most associated with Seoul summers.
The cold-water step is a scrub, not a rinse. Naengmyeon noodles are heavy with surface starch when they come out of the pot, and starch left on them makes the finished dish gluey and dulls the sauce. Working them hard between your hands until they squeak produces the clean, springy chew the dish is known for, and the cold shock tightens them at the same time.
Because there is no broth here, the sauce has to do everything. It needs to be thicker than a dressing and sharper than it tastes on a spoon, because the noodles are cold, bland and slippery and will mute it considerably. Grated pear is doing real work: sweetness, and enough body to help the sauce cling.
Drain the noodles more aggressively than feels necessary. Water clinging to the strands pools in the bottom of the bowl and turns a carefully built sauce into a thin pink puddle within a minute. Shake them out properly, then toss.
Troubleshooting
Noodles gluey and clumping? Not scrubbed enough. Work them under cold running water until it runs clear.
Sauce sliding off into the bowl? The noodles were still wet, or the sauce is too thin. Drain hard and thicken with more gochujang or grated pear.
Noodles gone soft? They cook fast - 3-4 minutes at most, and they keep softening until the cold water stops them.