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| Milmyeon is made with a mixture of flour and starch dough and is served with red spicy sauce on top, along with chopped cucumber, thin-sliced beef and pickled radish. Gettyimagesbank |
By Lee Gyu-lee
BUSAN ― Each city has its own food. The local specific food could be indigenous having originated there, or it could be a localized dish that came into existence to delight the locals who longed for comfort food they had enjoyed in other cities but struggled to get certain ingredients in the new place. So they modified the recipe with ingredients available.
A homegrown Busan delicacy, "milmyeon" is considered a localized dish as it first appeared in the southern coastal city as an adapted version of Koreans' summertime favorite ― "naengmyeon," or cold noodles.
The milmyeon recipe was born with the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War, according to Yoo Jae-woo, owner of Naeho Naengmyeon restaurant in southern Busan. His great grandmother, who had run a naengmyeon restaurant in present-day North Korea, invented the recipe with ingredients available in Busan.
The eatery is a century-old family business.
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| A picture of Jung Han-geum, left, the second-generation owner of Naeho Naengmyeon, who is known to have invented milmyeon. Courtesy of Yoo Jae-woo |
The fourth-generation owner Yoo explained that his grandmother came up with the recipe for using flour for noodles. "At first, my grandmother mixed flour, which was provided by a nearby U.S. aid supply base, into the dough for noodles for us to eat," Yoo said in an interview with The Korea Times held at the restaurant this month.
Since the restaurant was located near the U.S supply battalion, they had easier access to flour than other powders and starches for the dough. So Yoo's grandmother tried different ratios for the mixture of flour and starch to make what was called "nongma noodle." It is a Hamhung-style cold noodle which is more widely known as Hamhung naengmyeon that is usually made with starch dough. He noted that the dish was first called "Gyeongsang-do naengmyeon" or "milgaru (flour) naengmyeon." But as the time passed, people came to shorten the name milgaru naengmyeon to milmyeon.
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| From left, husband Yoo Sang-mo, third-generation owner Lee Chun-bok, wife Park Si-yoon, and current owner Yoo Jae-woo pose for a picture in front of their restaurant. Courtesy of Yoo Jae-woo |
Though milmyeon is a representative dish in Busan, it's hard to find restaurants selling the dish in Seoul. Yoo said the strongly flavored milmyeon is not popular in Seoul maybe because Seoulites have a rather bland palate.
Milmyeon, nowadays, usually has brown-colored broth from herbs, which adds a strong scent and savory taste. The ingredients used as a base of the broth vary from pork or chicken bones to dried tuna flakes, depending on the restaurant.
But at Naeho Naengmyeon, the same broth is used for milmyeon and naengmyeon, which is made with beef leg bone and tendon without using herbs. This recipe has a less strong taste, giving more blend tastes than most other restaurants do.
Much similar to naengmyeon ― Korean-styled cold noodle, milmyeon has a less chewy texture with a sweeter taste. It does still have the sour and vinegar flavors that naengmyeon has. However, it is distinguished by more savory ― umami ― flavors from the herbs used in the broth.
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| A picture of Naeho Naengmyeon milmyeon./ Korea Times photo by Lee Gyu-lee |
This homegrown Busan dish has a long history with few theories to back how it was invented. According to the National Folk Museum of Korea, there are three most widely known theories for its origin.
First is that the dish was invented by the North Korean refugees during the Korean War. They longed for naengmyeon they used to enjoy during wintertime in the North. So they improvised a recipe that was similar to it with ingredients available in the port city. Since naengmyeon's main ingredient ― buckwheat powder or potato starch ― was not widely available there during the time, they substituted those with flour. And this led to the birth of milmyeon. Flour was more accessible at the time because it was distributed by the U.S Army as food aid.
The second theory is that the mother-daughter owners at Naeho Naengmyeon invented the recipe when they used flour dough to make nongma noodle.
The last one is that the noodle was originated in Jinju, a nearby city. The dish was introduced and spread to Busan when the South Gyeongsang Province government building was relocated to Busan in 1925. This theory is not plausible as the ingredients used in the two dishes are quite different.
The story that Busan-based noodle restaurant Naeho Naengmyeon's current owner Yoo had was a combination of the first two theories.
Yoo has a strict standard on how milmyeon should be served. "The combination of noodle, sauce and broth is essential for a tasty dish of milmyeon," he said.
"When it comes to recipes, we stick to the basics, which were set by my great-grandmother and grandmother," Yoo said. Although some people would complain about its less-strong taste, he noted he has not changed anything from the original recipe.
And such consistency is the key to the restaurant's long-term standing.
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| Naeho Naengmyeon, located in a narrow market alley in Uam-dong, southern Busan, has been passed down the generations since it was opened there in 1953 by the first-generation owner, to continue the cold noodle restaurant she started in present-day North Korea in 1919. Korea Times photo by Lee Gyu-lee |
Located in a narrow market alley in Uam-dong, southern Busan, the restaurant occupies seven separate houses. As the business expanded, the restaurant could have relocated to a larger space. But instead, they decided to stay in the same spot where it first opened. "When my grandmother was alive, she would tell us not to move the eatery to another location," Yoo said. "And I think such effort for consistency is the reason people continue to visit us for a long time."
To keep the freshness of the noodles, he said he doesn't offer takeout. The flour noodle becomes mushy and soggy fast, changing the taste of the dish. This strict rule of no take-out is because he wants people to enjoy their food in the best quality possible.
Although he has been sticking to the foundation his family established, he does get into the dilemma of keeping up with fast-paced trends sometimes. "Being a 100-year-old restaurant has significant meaning and is a valuable asset. But sometimes, I do feel I'm lagging behind the times and wonder if I should meet that pace as everything changes so rapidly these days," he said.
One thing he has in mind is to open a branch in Seoul. This is the challenge that he wants to take as a step moving forward. "Some people failed to run milmyeon restaurants in Seoul because the taste was too strong. So I feel that our dish might be more suitable when introduced to Seoulites," he said, adding that people who like Pyongyang-style naengmyeon ― which has widely been accepted in Seoul ― tend to enjoy their milmyeon.
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