Buckwheat Noodles (Memil Guksu in Korean)

sue — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 10:24:34 +0000

It is the end of the year already. Time flies. One of the best things that has happened in my life this year is starting this blog and making some good friends with people from all over the world. Are you getting ready to welcome the coming year?

I wouldn’t usually eat these Buckwheat noodles in the middle of winter (Most Koreans eat these in summer), but it is Japanese culture to eat these noodles at dinner with family at the end of the year, which is today. (It has a meaning of wishing long and happy life, and the noodles are called toshikoshi-soba.) I wanted to bring back memories from my short adventure in Japan years ago, so I decided to make this noodle.

Ingredients for 4 people (for 2 people, reduce all the ingredients in half)

Buckwheat Noodles 600 g

Dashi

1 ½ cups of water
1/2 cup of liquid sauce from dried shaved bonito
1 cup of refined rice wine

A picture of the liquid sauce from dried shaved bonito.

Side additions

2 sheets of laver (Thinly shred them with scissors)
4 stalks of small green onion (Cut them into small pieces)
Grated white radish – 4 tbsp (Squeeze the water out from the radish)
Wasabi water (mix of wasabi 1 tsp + cold water 1/2 tsp)

Cooking (you will need 2 pots)

Boil the dashi for about 3 minutes, cool it down first then slightly freeze its surface.
Boil the buckwheat noodles in boiled water for 4 minutes and rinse them in cold water.
Serve the noodles on a plate with the dashi and side additions (I added some radish sprouts and laver as a topping but you don’t have to do the same.)

How to eat

Put the amount of the side additions you want into the dashi bowl and dip the noodles into the bowl and dig in. Enjoy!

Caution

It can make you really cold afterwards, so for people who live where it isn’t well insulated, I recommend not to eat them. Michael added that it is a very slurpy dish to eat so don’t eat them on a first date.

This is a picture from a near by park where I live and it is for celebrating New year. It was freezing cold, but I wanted to share the picture of the last day of the lights. (It is a bit blurry though I couldn’t keep taking pictures, because of the freezing cold weather.)

I hope you have wonderful, happy and healthy New year.

Happy New Year! 새해 복 많이 받으세요. (Korean)
明けましておめでとうございます(Japanese) 新年快樂 (Chinese)

Shellfish and Chewy Noodle Soup (Bajirak Kalguksu in Korean)

My Korean Kitchentoshikoshi-soba | My Korean Kitchen

Buckwheat Noodles (Memil Guksu in Korean)