The Spicy Master

Left: Bibim Naengmyeon, Right: Mul Naengmyeon

One of my favorite foods in Korea is a tangy, cold noodle dish called 냉면, or naengmyeon. It's essentially sticky buckwheat noodles in either a beef and vinegar-based broth (above right photo) or a thick, chili paste-based sauce (above left photo). My mouth is watering just writing about this.

Naengmyeon is usually only available at restaurants in the summer and fall, but there are specialty houses that serve it year round. The weather's actually been warming up just a tiny bit over the past week, and since it was such a mild day out yesterday I got the craving again for some cold naengmyeon. Nissa and I found a good-looking restaurant near the Sunghsin Women's University subway stop and stepped inside to give it a try.

Now I've been to places before that serve up an incredibly spicy version of this dish, so when the menu gave a range of choices from mild to spicy, I went with the mild mul naengmyeon. Nissa, however, was a little more adventurous. We used to argue about who could eat spicier foods but I have totally conceded defeat. She is a spicy master. She regularly orders the spiciest version of dishes at restaurants, only to have the waiter or waitress inevitably warn her they're not joking around, to which she politely answers back in Korean, "That's OK." And then she scarfs the whole meal down with just a few beads of sweat on her nose.

This case was no different. I had about two bites of her spicy bibim naengmyeon and told her she was crazy. Even after watering down some of her noodles in my soup they still had a tongue-splitting kick. She wasn't able to finish the whole dish this time (midway through she mentioned her ears were ringing), but it was still quite a feat.

You win, Nissa. You win.

The spicy master at work.