Tom Kim

Nehng-myun is a cold Korean noodle soup. An ultimate summer dish that can have a bit of a kick (I like to go heavy on the hot mustard oil).

The keys to really good nehng-myun are the broth and the noodles. Proper broth requires a bit of experimentation; it’s a rough combination of beef broth, chicken broth, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar.

The noodles are a matter of smart shopping — look for noodles that are made primarily of buckwheat flour. Lesser flours (wheat, yam, rice) should be kept secondary at best. If buckwheat is the first ingredient listed, you should be good to go.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb beef brisket or flank steak
• 1/2 an onion (optional)
• Nehng-myun noodles (look for ones with buckwheat as the primary ingredient)
• chicken broth
• soy sauce
• rice wine vinegar (you could substitute kimchi-mul for this)

Optional additions:

• cucumbers
• boiled eggs
• kimchi
• hot (mustard) dressing oil
• ice cubes

Beef broth:

1. Cut steak into large chunks
2. Boil 4 cups of water
3. Add steak and onion
4. Boil for 20 minutes, occasionally skimming off the scum at the top
5. Let cool and put into the fridge
6. Skim fat off top. Remove the beef chunks.

Assembling the nehng-myun:

1. Noodles
   • Boil water
   • Add nehng-myun noodles. These cook very quickly (about 1-2 minutes), so keep an eye on them. Once they seem limp (less than al dente), drain them and rinse them under cold water to stop them from cooking.
2. Combine in bowls roughly equal portions of beef and chicken broth. Adjust and add soy sauce and rice wine vinegar to taste.
3. Add noodles
4. Break apart the beef into bite-sized strips and add them to the broth.
5. Add cucumbers, boiled eggs, kimchi. Cucumbers can be sliced into coins or thin matchsticks. Boiled eggs can be cut into halves or thinner slices. You can sometimes specifically ask for nehng-myun kimchi, which is light and refreshing.
6. The hot dressing oil is VERY spicy. Add sparingly.
7. I like to add ice cubes to my nehng-myun to make it extra cold.

Chef Boyardee had a recent post looking for a new small business idea.

I’ve been daydreaming about a particular restaurant concept off and one for a year or so now.

The idea for it actually came from one of those small group icebreakers. One popular way to quickly introduce everybody in a small group is to have everyone take turns answering a silly, profound, or personal question. Well, this particular question was: If you had the opportunity to start your own restaurant, what would be the concept of your restaurant? Brilliant question, you know, because each person can decide how far to take it beyond the basic “favorite food” aspect.

And when it came to my turn, I had a really inspired answer. My place would be a hipster takeout joint, specializing in creative interpretations of Asian street food. There would be an ever-evolving and rotating menu of street food with a gourmet twist. You know: dumplings, pad thai, pho, falafel, ragda patties, samosas, dok buk gee, jip poh… but with a little Iron Chef inspiration.

I imagine a small, cramped place, maybe just enough room for one or two small tables, filled with bright colorful kitsch. Anime and mech dolls. Crazy Asian snacks. Bubble tea. J-punk, K-pop, and Bollywood filmi music on the speakers. Precious and raw at the same time: an atmosphere that gives you the flavor of a true Asian cosmopolis – Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Mumbai, Beijing.

I envision it to be an inconspicuous place with real reasonable prices, but surprising, outstanding quality. A dynamic place where you never know what to expect, where your palate will be constantly challenged, a place where you have to go every week just to see what’s new. A place with strong flavors delicately balanced off each other. A place with an electric energy awesomely and efficiently managed.

An interstitial place where the entire diversity of a neighborhood could flow through and bump into each other. Where east meets west, rich meets poor, hip meets square, and guys meet girls.

What else would I call it? Kung-fusion.

Somebody take this idea and make it happen. I’d love to eat there.

Metroblogging has a great new post about pho in Philly. Marisa (aka Apartment 2024) forgot the name of her new favorite pho place, which happens to be my own personal favorite pho place, which is Pho Ha (or Pho Hoa).

Down a couple blocks is Pho 75, another popular destination. In fact, that’s where I took my kids when we took our field trip to South Philly as part of our Immigrants in Philadelphia Neighborhoods project:

Definitely, in my dream restaurant, one of the staples is going to have to be pho. It is Asian street food at its finest. It’s the perfect alternative to chicken soup, and it’s even great in summer (unclogs all your pores).

philly, pho, vietnam, restaurant, south philly

Dana and I stopped by South Philly to give Nancy a fix of kimchi. Shady.

It’s funny how Nancy likes the stuff more than I do. There were a bunch of guys who lived in the floor above me in my apartment building when I was at Baltimore. The Chinese guys used to complain about the kimchi the Korean guys left in the fridge — mostly about how pungently it stank — until they started getting hooked. I think every Korean has some story about a Chinese friend of theirs who used to beg them to bring back some kimchi when they went home.

food, kimchi, nancy

Dana’s folks treated Dana and I to a meal at Seoul Hanyang. It was a near flawless meal. It would be the meal I want to order were I on my last night on death row. Man, I could explound on personal relationship with each of these dishes in length. But I won’t, I’ll just list what I had. Please excuse my transliteration of Korean dishes, I’m sure they’re incorrect:

• Poh-ri cha (barley grain tea)
• Assorted pan-chan (gotta have kimchi, spinach, potatoes, bean sprouts, candied anchovies; I wish I also had zucchini and small black beans)
• Bowls of keh-lan jigae (something between a quiche and an egg custard) and dwen-jang jigae
• Pajun
• Kalbi gui cooked over a bucket of hot coals (not gas) and served with lettuce, hot pepper, garlic, dwen-jang (and I should’ve asked for go-chu jang)
• Sashimi (particularly fresh fatty salmon and tuna)
• Shik-hye as a dessert drink

Trivia: according to this article, the Portuguese introduced chile to Korean cuisine in the 16th century. Obrigado, Portugal!

korea, food