1. Ingredients for Makguksu
-Primary ingredients: Buckwheat noodles
-Secondary ingredients: Beef broth, chili sauce, radish or cucumber seasoned with vinegar, dried laver, egg, etc.
2. Taste evaluation
-Spicy:★★★☆☆
-Salty:★★☆☆☆
-Sweet:★★☆☆☆
-Sour:☆☆☆☆☆
3.Introduction to Makguksu (buckwheat noodles) 막국수
Cold noodles could stimulate your appetite when you lose it in hot summer.For Koreans’ favorite noodles, Naengmyeon is followed by Makguksu, which is buckwheat noodles.
Makguksu is buckwheat noodles served in a cold soup. It’s from Gangwon Province that is the largest producer of buckwheat in Korea.
This dish dates back to the King Inju in Joseon Dynasty era. At the time, people could not afford to eat due to wasteland from Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1591.
Meanwhile, there was something that people could quickly harvest in about 80 days. And the country suggested that people should harvest buckwheat, which led to invention of many variations, and one of them is Makguksu.
The reason it was named Makguksu even if its main ingredient is buckwheat was because it refers to ‘dish you can make any way you like any time you like.’
Makguksu noodles are made with buckwheat. Buckwheat is not chewy with no elasticity and has a toasted and bitter taste.
Although restaurants today mix buckwheat with wheat flour, it was not intended.
On top of buckwheat noodles of tough texture, toppings are added including spicy Gochujang sauce, egg, cucumber or radish (radish slices seasoned in vinegar), chopped seaweed and sesame oil.
So if you mix it all without any soup, it becomes Bibim-makguksu. And it is served with a kettle filled with cold broth, which you can pour in the noodles to make it Mul-makguksu.
Bibim-makguksu has a strong flavor of Gochujang sauce and Mul-makguksu tastes good and so flavory coming from slightly frozen broth.
This broth is Dongchimi (radish water Kimchi) soup made of radish or cooled beef broth.
It’s cold, tasty and neat.
Although it is one of special foods representing Gangwon Province, it is enjoyed by many people all over the country because its cold and spicy taste would increase their appetite in hot summer.
It’s similar to Naengmyeon, which is popular among foreign tourists yet different so I want you to try at least for once.
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4. Kinds of Makguksu
When people say Makguksu, they normally mean Mul-makguksu, noodles in cold broth.
And there are Bibim-makguksu, noodles with no broth but with Gochujang sauce, and Onmyeon-makguksu, noodles served in hot broth.
And in Chuncheon, you can also find Jaengban-makguksu, noodles served in a big plate with chili sauce and various vegetables for a few people.
Canon EOS 550D | f/5.0 | iso 100 | 2012:02:01 14:50:25 | Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode | 23mm
5.How to enjoy Makguksu even more
Each restaurant uses different noodles.
If it’s a specialized restaurant, you’re going to have to wait a lot because they start to make buckwheat noodles right after you order it.
The 100% buckwheat dough gets hard if it’s made in advance, so they start to cook only after they get an order. Although you have to wait for long, it tastes deep and delicious but it’s not chewy at all.
So most of Makguksu restaurants use dried noodles consisting of wheat flour and buckwheat. It takes less time to cook and the texture is chewy but it is less tasty than the original one.
So I suggest that you try it at a specialized restaurant that uses noodles with high buckwheat content, but I cannot be sure you will love the non-chewy texture.
And if you made an effort to find the specialized restaurant, I want you to try the dish without adding more sauce.
You cannot feel the toasted flavor of sesame oil and original taste of buckwheat if you add too much sauce because of its strong flavor.
Canon EOS 550D | f/5.0 | iso 100 | 2012:02:01 14:51:06 | Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode | 26mm
