Typically my front room feels just like the Earth’s core, the partitions seething with a relentless warmth that penetrates my soul. This summer season has been particularly brutal. I’ve not consulted any precise climate information to make this conclusion, simply the variety of occasions per week I really feel like all of the droplets of sweat clinging to my clothes are merging right into a pool of sizzling lava I can’t escape. I discover solace within the air-conditioned houses of sympathetic associates, and within the icy chilly cubicles of Bistro Na’s restaurant in Temple Metropolis.
It’s a restaurant I frequent for the crispy shrimp, fried and lacquered in a sticky glaze constituted of candy hawthorn. And for the spicy rooster, the gelatinous slivers swimming in chile oil ok to sip.
Due to a current suggestion from deputy Meals editor Betty Hallock, you’ll now discover an order of the Beijing Yanji chilly noodles on my desk.
It’s a tangle of buckwheat noodles in an ice-cold broth, with sliced beef shank, beef tongue, kimchi, watermelon, boiled egg, shredded cucumber, pickled radish and chile sauce all organized excessive like a coloration wheel.
This dish is influenced by Korean naengmyeon, chilly noodles with a historical past that dates to the Joseon Dynasty in Korea (1392-1910) and contains myriad preparations. There’s mul naengmyeon in a relaxing broth. Hoe naengmyeon with uncooked fish and chile pepper dressing or yeolmu naengmyeon served with fermented child radish.
The unique Pyongyang naengmyeon at Seogwan by Yellow Cow in Koreatown.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Instances)
The preparations differ all through the nation, with distinct kinds in Pyongyang and Hamhung amongst others.
A metropolis in northeast China’s Jilin province, Yanji is situated close to the North Korean border and serves as a form of gastronomic crossroads, the place the culinary panorama bears the imprints of its neighbor.
“What makes Yanji cold noodles so distinctive is their chewy texture and refreshing taste,” says Bistro Na’s government chef Tian Yong.
The chef grew up consuming Yanji noodles as a boy in Xidan, Beijing. He lived on a hutong, or slim alleyway close to the unique Huatian Yanji Restaurant, a spot that specialised in Yanji noodles.
On his walks residence from faculty, he would catch a whiff of vinegar-tinged broth wafting from the restaurant and discover himself wandering in for a bowl of noodles.
“Decades later, I still crave that exact bite,” he says.
Now, the noodles are featured on Yong’s seasonal menu, a group of greater than a dozen dishes that shift about 4 occasions a 12 months.
To make his broth, Yong simmers water, beef and beef bones with apples, pears, carrots, ginger, garlic, quite a lot of Mexican chile peppers, scallions, soy sauce and yellow soybean paste for 3 hours. Then he steeps extra fruit and veggies within the broth for a full day earlier than serving.
A bowl of Beijing Yanji chilly noodles from Bistro Na’s restaurant in Temple Metropolis.
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Instances )
My server instructs me to first take just a few sips of the broth, then dig into the noodles.
There’s an preliminary shock of refreshment because the cool liquid hits my lips. The broth is suspended in good equilibrium, simply candy sufficient, with a meaty spine and a slight tang.
As a substitute of the extra conventional apple, Yong makes use of watermelon to garnish his noodles. The squares of fruit, already practically solely composed of water, act like little sponges, every bit glutted with the tangy broth.
The noodles are lengthy and springy, with an earthy, nutty taste that solely intensifies as you make your method by means of the bowl. The bits of sizzling pink pickled radish are good and briny. The ribbons of cabbage kimchi sizzling and bitter. Each chew delivers a hanging array of textures and flavors.
It’s a dish at odds with the formality of the Bistro Na’s eating room, ever regal with its ornate carved wooden and crimson trim. However it’s a bowl of noodles that begs to be slurped, the sound chopping by means of the refined ambiance and the broth soiling my stark white tabletop. The mix of the icy broth and the totally functioning air conditioner is solely beautiful. Although I believe I’ll really feel the urge to maintain slurping after the summer season temperatures dip.
The noodles, and the remainder of Yong’s seasonal menu, will probably be out there by means of November. The stir-fried beef with naan, laced with cumin and crowded with deep-fried strips of bread, can be to not be missed.
The place to get your Yanji noodle repair
Bistro Na’s, 9055 Las Tunas Dr #105, Temple Metropolis, (626) 286-1999, www.bistronas.com
