RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK Geuni Sikdang offers a taste of North Korea in Cheonan

Eobok jaengban, or boiled meal platter, is served at Geuni Sikdang in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, Friday. Courtesy of Kevin Grabb

CHEONAN, South Chungcheong Province — In Cheonan, behind what can only be considered the most unassuming storefront in the country, lies a local favorite. This is Geuni Sikdang and it specializes in North Korean cuisine. Most will be familiar with Pyongyang naengmyeon (cold noodles), but this restaurant offers something a bit rarer: "eobok jaengban" (boiled meat platter).

Eobok jaengban started in Pyongyang Market and was often shared when doing business deals to impress potential clients. It consists of beef brisket, beef broth, leafy vegetables and dumplings. When ours arrived, the beef cuts were splayed out beautifully around the outer edge of the pan and the fire underneath was immediately lit, both in the stovetop and in our appetites.

We dug into the dumplings first and they were extremely subtle. A very mild kimchi was mixed in with tofu and bean sprouts. There was a surprising, yet welcome, parmesan flavor to the whole affair. The restaurant makes the broth every day and uses hanwoo 1++ Korean beef for this dish. Brisket and other “off-cuts” can be tough to use properly and even tougher to eat, but whatever they’re doing in the kitchen works. The broth is both flavorful and rich, yet really clean. Whatever the opposite of malatang is, this is a contender. It’s accompanied by a red dipping sauce that gives off a very neutral but lasting heat, and I couldn’t stop dunking my brisket in it. This was a tremendous dish.

Naengmyeon, a cold noodle dish, is served at Geuni Sikdang in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, Friday. Courtesy of Kevin Grabb

Next? Pyongyang naengmyeon. I’ve heard it many times about how “boring” it is, that it lacks the “flavor” of its southern cousin, Jinju naengmyeon. I don’t even disagree with this, but it’s important to understand that while these are both cold noodles of the same name, they aren’t the same thing at all. I’d had Jinju-style for lunch, so comparisons were inevitable. The Geuni one is much closer to an angel hair pasta and easy to chew. I have to imagine there’s more wheat, compared to the heavy use of buckwheat in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province. The lighter color of these noodles is another giveaway of this.

The restaurant only makes 50 servings of naengmyeon per day with the noodles and broth being made in-house. It reminded me of the eobok jaengban — clean. There were memories, or hints, of salt and meatiness. It’s topped off with slices of beef and Asian pear.

A bottle of Blue Dragon Bamboo soju is served at Geuni Sikdang in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, Friday. Courtesy of Kevin Grabb

We paired all these delights with a Blue Dragon Bamboo soju from Damyang, South Jeolla Province. It contains 1 percent bamboo sap and it was light, a bit floral and had a welcoming burn, with an alcohol by volume of 25 percent. A word kept intruding into the center of my brain used to describe things: clean.

Clean beef soup, clean dumplings, clean naengmyeon and a clean soju. I love Indian food and Chinese hotpot as much as any eater, but there’s something to be said about being able to distill the essence of an ingredient and let it shine without any interference. Anyone can throw an inordinate amount of herbs into a pot, but it takes true skill to be able to boil Hanwoo 1++ beef and have it turn into something not only edible, but something special. Highly recommended but come early, these dishes sell-out well before last call.

Kevin Grabb is a Canadian homebrewer and YouTuber. His channel Korea Brewing Adventure covers Korean alcohol from production to consumption.