Ice Cold Bovine Refreshment

So you've probably established that the Koreans do meat pretty well. Especially beef. And they also do pretty good noodles too. So beef + noodles equalling something good might seem like a logically excellent combination. But did adding an ice cold bovine broth to the mix come to your mind? I would have guessed not.

Mulnaengmyeon, an originally North Korean dish from Pyeongyang, is exactly the refreshing, slurp-worthy bowl of beef-based deliciousness that you never knew you needed in your life. Actually, you probably need it even more if you're reading this in the midst of summer or some sweaty tropical urbanopolis in SE Asia. If you like a pure, unadulterated beef broth, with chewy buckwheat noodles, Asian pear, radish and cucumber, and of course cooked beef slices then mulnaengmyeon is for you.

At first, the cold beefyness is a little strong, but after a while, you learn how to appreciate the subtle interplays between the ingredients; the sweetness of the pear, the bitterness of the radish, and for some heat, add a little mustard.

If it's your first time trying this dish in Seoul, try it at Woo Lae Oak, a name synonymous with this bowl of noodles whose status ought to be elevated in the noodle world.

Woolaeoak
62-29 Changgyeonggung-ro, Jung-gu, 서울특별시 South Korea
Tues – Sun: 11.30am ; Closed Mondays
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=349050