Cold Noodles

There is a certain belief in Korea that eating hot soups in the summer will cool you down (simplified form: you eat, you sweat, you feel cool).

Personally, I can do without the hot soups and the resulting sweaty body during these humid summer months.

Luckily, there is an alternative: cold noodles (naengmyeon; 냉면).

Properly made and served, they are not only delicious but also a remedy for summer temps and their effects upon the human body.

Above you can see a large bowl of cold noodles (in this case "water cold noodles"; mul-naengmyeon; 물냉면), served in icy water (there are actual bits of shaved ice) with cucumber slices and part of an Asian pear. (There's also a hard-boiled egg.)

When mixed and cut with scissors, the noodles look like this; some vinegar and mustard sauce has been added to the noodles, and there is a little bit of red pepper that is a standard serving.

For two people, a table setting might look like this: two bowls of cold noodles, a plate of dumplings (만두), a light kimchi side dish, and soy sauce for dipping the dumplings.

Delicious, filling, and cooling--in my mind much better than eating a hot soup (though, I have to say, those soups are usually delicious too!).