A Cold Korean Noodle Delight: An Exploration of Bibim Naengmyeon

The sauce is the most important ingredient for bibim naengmyeon. There is total sweetness, spiciness, and acidity that really compliments the chewy noodles. Although egg and beef can be the common toppings for this dish, our version doesn’t include either of those ingredients to make this a pretty straightforward vegan dinner. Adding slices of fried or grilled tofu on top of the dish will make it a much better dinner meal. Finish this dish as soon as possible for the best results. Longer after, the noodles will be stiffer and more intractable to mix.

Of course, comfort foods tend to be served hot. There are casseroles and soups, for example. But of all the food that I look at that perhaps comforts me the most is a cold dish that is referred to as bibim naengmyeon, or sweet, spicy, and vinegary Korean noodles.

This is because this suits people like me who have been more driven to seek refuge from the heat than the cold. In the sweltering heat of summer in Southern California, where my mother had immigrated and where I had spent my childhood, bibim naengmyeon offered a cooling and revitalizing taste of Korean cuisine. Due to its distance from the cooling force of the ocean or the mountains, the San Fernando Valley has some of the highest temperatures in Los Angeles. Although the valley is not humid enough compared to Seoul, it is ranked amongst the hottest places on Earth.

When we got thirsty, my mother and I resorted to summery pleasures such as mung bean popsicles, chilled soups, and cold yogurt drinks. These are foods that can fulfill the soul while quenching the thirst. I was hoping for bi bim naengmyeon to come out as the most promising. I don’t just think of kitchen tables, but also food courts attached to Korean supermarkets.

By that, it becomes a dish that is not complicated in many respects. Beautifully messy as that made right before food consumption is vigorously mixed together. (“Bibim” is the Korean word for “mixed,” as in bibimbap, which is a type of rice that is blended.) And hard to be poised while slurping from a heaping bowl of noodles, which leaves an oily red mark around the lips and a foul odor in the air.

On sticky hot days, Bibim naengmyeon is one of those subjects you can talk about all day long, and in no hurry to be done with. There’s no way it’s going to melt or get cold, so there’s no pressure to wolf down as fast as can be. Plus, it is one of those starch dishes that is very filling without being overly heavy. This is because the noodles contain a mix of buckwheat flour and (typically) sweet potato starch that gives it its chewiness.

It doesn’t take long to be sitting around in some hot kitchen for this. In but a minute, the sauce can be prepared, and the noodles can be cooked in just a few minutes.

Since I left Southern California, I’ve been to many places where a far smaller number of Korean parts are available compared with what is available in the Korean minority enclave where I was raised. The first time that I really became very conscious of how much I had taken for granted the convenience of access to Korean things was just quite stunningly shocking.

My mother used to give me care packages full of seaweed and other lightweight goods when she was worried about the cultural shock that I would undergo. She did it in the hope that by so doing, shipping boxes, which were large in size, would turn out to be much lighter. Indeed, there were times when shipping costs outweighed the value of what one was shipping.

Yet, no matter the mileage, bibim naengmyeon has been a constant presence in one form or another through the whole process. It is a tangible representation of the various abodes that immigrant families end up living in, a testament to the reality that for many, an immigrant journey is never fully concluded and is, in a sense, a journey that extends well beyond generations.

So I have gotten into the habit of assembling non-traditional variations of this dish in pretty much every place I have ever lived. However, most of the ingredients usually would already be stocked in a typical Korean pantry and thus would render grocery shopping unnecessary in the first place.

The most indispensable ingredient is gochujang. It is a spicy-sweet paste used in many Korean dishes. If I can’t find gochujang, I will substitute it with Sriracha. If I can’t find sesame oil, I will use olive oil and try to use enough sesame seeds to substitute for the oil. For the naengmyeon noodles, you might use soba noodles as a substitute. Even if I was very honest, I could not tell the difference between rice vinegar and other flavors of white vinegar in this recipe.

With me now being vegan, I do not use the slice of eggs with the beef on top; however, fried tofu is fantastic instead. Of course, I will add that though I always use cucumbers, carrots, or zucchini to create this whirling pattern inside the noodles, almost any other veggies would do a wonderful job. About its preparation, I have to admit that I never bothered to add bits of pear or radish since, after all, other recipes already include them.

This recipe will no doubt terrify the purists, but I find it beautiful in its simplicity and flexibility. It is thus only appropriate that my version is a cross between two dishes that are akin to throwing noodles, bibim naengmyeon where noodles are made with buckwheat mix, and bibim guksu, which has a basic sauce.

The very mixed Korean nature of my own upbringing and family, now a blend of Mexican, Apache, Filipino, and North and South Korean families, is reflected in this borrowing. Like this giant bowl of noodles, my family is bibim, and no matter the weather outside, it is a source of comfort.

Ingredients

• This recipe requires one pound of soba noodles or naengmyeon noodles; see Note.
• Three tablespoons of gochujang
• The rice vinegar, three tablespoons
• the amount of three tablespoons of honey, maple syrup, agave syrup, or brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons of soy sauce with reduced sodium
• 3 teaspoons of sesame seed oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced cloves
• 1 English cucumber, cut to matchstick proportions
• Toasting sesame seeds to 2 tablespoons
• deep-fried slices of tofu (optional).
• Pickled razor slices (optional)
• Minced green onions (optional).

Directions

• Boil water in a large pot, add noodles, and cook for nearly five minutes in order to prepare them.
• Meanwhile, in a small bowl whisk gochujang, vinegar, agave (or other sugar substitute), soy sauce, sesame oil, and garlic together.
• This is a step performed directly when the noodles are still in the cooking pot. One should let them drain and then have them rinsed in cold water to cool them down.
• To cool your noodles faster, you can add some ice cubes in the colander.
• Also, you can chop your noodles into smaller pieces if you feel that they are a bit tough or in case you would like to chew them a lot and then break them up.
• Put noodles in six bowls. Pour about three tablespoons of sauce over each bowl of noodles. Add about half a cup of sliced cucumbers on top of each bowl of noodles.
• Add some sesame seeds to it. Then mix well before eating.

Note:

Naengmyeon are buckwheat noodles prepared in the style of Korea. You should be able to find them at Asian markets, or there are plenty of internet sources. Some may have seasoning included with them, which you can discard after use or save for later use.

Read more:- Easy Korean Recipes for Beginners: Simple Steps to Tasty Meals

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