Korean Food story Episode 1 - Cold noodles (냉면, 冷麵, Naengmyeon)

Korean Food story Episode 1 - Cold noodles (냉면, 冷麵, Naengmyeon)

It is a traditional Korean noodle dish with boiled noodles in cold broth with spices and garnish. Naengmyeon is said to have originated in the past when food was very precious in the winter season and this was made by using potato crops and buckwheat.

  

Although the history and origins of naengmyeon are not exactly known, the old literature says, “It is said that cold noodles are made by mixing buckwheat noodles with radish kimchi, cabbage kimchi and pork. The taste of cold noodles in the northwestern area especially Pyongyang, is most excellent.

Cold noodles (naengmyeon) spread throughout the country and Naengmyeon was mentioned as one of the representative foods of Korea around the Korean War in 1950. The Korean food culture has changed rapidly since the Korean War in 1950, when countless refugees made their hometown foods. In the case of naengmyeon, at first, it was eaten mostly in the northern part of the country, but it was spread out the south through refugees. In particular, as it moved south, various changes began to occur in cold noodles. The broth of cold noodles were used with beef and chicken instead of pheasant, and the noodles were made by using sweet potato starch and flour.

Pyeongyang naengmyeon

Pyeongyang naengmyeon, winter food, was a representative food of Pyeongan-do Province, where buckwheat noodles are soaked in long radish water kimchi broth that grew in the northwestern region. Originally, it added beef stock in summer and radish water kimchi broth in winter, but it was unified as beef broth after the 1960s. Pyongyang's naengmyeon is characterized by its thicker noodles than ordinary naengmyeon and high in buckwheat content, which makes the noodles easily cut off.  

Hamheung naengmyeon

Unlike Pyongyang cold noodles, which are the main ingredient of buckwheat, Hamheung naengmyeon are cold noodles that are eaten without broth by adding  Sliced Raw Sole and seasoning to noodles made from potato or sweet potato starch. It is widely known as spicy naengmyeon (bibim naengmyeon), and is also known as raw fish naengmyeon because it is mixed with raw fish. In the past, Hamkyong Province was unable to grow buckwheat, the main ingredient of cold noodles, due to its rugged terrain, and instead, Nongma noodles (North Korean noodles made by green corns) were popular.

  

Hamheung naengmyeon was also known to the southern region by refugees after June 25, with many differences in ingredients due to its different climate from Hamkyong-do. First, starch in cold noodles was changed from potato starch to sweet potato starch, and raw fish was also used as an easy-to-use red fish dish.

 Jinju naengmyeon

It is the only cold noodle derived from Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do, not North Korea. It features noodles containing green beans. Jinju Naengmyeon is characterized by using beef meat fancake as a garnish after boiling broth with seafood such as dried pollack head, dried shrimp, dried mussel.

Eggs in naengmyeon, that's what they mean.

The eggs on top of the cold noodles are not simply decorative purposes.  Buckwheat, the main ingredient of naengmyeon noodles, is rough-tempered and can damage the stomach if eaten with an empty stomach.  A device to protect this damage is a boiled egg topped with a garnish.

Eggs serve to prevent buckwheat from causing discomfort to the empty stomach wall , and to help digest well.  In the case of water-cold noodles, eating eggs before noodles can prevent buckwheat and cold broth from causing discomfort to the stomach wall, and it helps digestion. However, in the case of raw fish (bibim) naengmyeon, the seasoning is spicy and salty, so eating eggs at the end is good for removing the spicy taste in your mouth. In addition, eggs are rich in protein, so it makes up for the lack of protein in cold noodles.