korean cold noodles

I am not too crazy about entree that is served cold. May be is just I am aware that our taste receptors don't work as well in cold. Case in point, you have to add much more sugar in a cold drink such as ice coffee to taste the same sweetness than if you drink the same coffee hot. Likewise in Northern China there are appetizers that are served cold. To make them tasty the flavor and seasoning have to be more concentrated than if you serve them hot.

I was in South Korean on a business trip. I have time to myself during the weekend and I went exploring in Suwon. I was hungry when shopping in a department store downtown and saw this restaurant that serves bowls of noodle. It was jam packed so I figure it should be good. The shop serves nothing but these bowls of noodles in vacuum stainless steel bowls. These bowls are constructed as a vacuum thermos to keep the food insulated. Not knowing a word of Korean I went in.

The service lady came and I ordered by pointing to the picture. At the mean time another lady came and pour me a cup of hot beverage. It is a pork bone broth and it is good. There is a hint of daikon.

It didn't take long for the bowl of noodle to show up. The lady who brought the noodle cut the grey color noodle with a huge pair of scissors. I then realize all the noodles there are served cold. It is my first experience with Korean cold noodle called naengmyeon. While I was a bit disappointed because I was expecting a bowl of pipping hot soup noodle. The broth the noodles were in is strange too. It is a mixture of sweet and tangy sour mixture with a few thin slices of beef on top. I soon warm up to the unfamiliar taste of this strange cold noodles.

The most incredible thing is the noodle is so toothsome unlike any noodle I had ever have. One would have difficulty breaking the noodles with your front teeth. No wonder the service cuts them to manageable length with the scissors. I drank many cups of the hot pork bone broths which was served bottomless (you can have as many cups as you want).
there are three servings in the package.

A few weeks ago I came across these ready made naengmyeon on sale in a Korean supermarket. There are 3 flavors and I bought one of each. I used some of the stringy noodles as artificial shark fin.

the package says kudzu cold noodle with dongchimi (korean daikon kimchi)

the noodles straight from the package - the tiny pouch is deoxidizer

There is a bag of broth which you use for the soup base. No cooking required. I just simply blanched the noodles and quench in cold water to bring the temperature down. Placed the noodles in with the cold broth and it is done.

i topped the noodle with thin slices of cold braised beef tendons. the red paste is a sweet mixture of slightly hot chili and may be korean miso (bean paste)