Tremendous Bibim Guksu
Prep
10m
Cook
8m
Total
18m
Bigly says
Folks. Bibim guksu. Tremendous. TREMENDOUS. Cold spicy Korean noodles, and let me tell you, most so-called chefs in this country don't even KNOW about bibim guksu. They don't. They're still writing about pasta salad. PASTA SALAD. We've moved on. The world has moved on. Bibim guksu has been here the whole time, eating pasta salad's lunch, and pasta salad doesn't even know it lost.
Many people don't know this — and I know this, I know all of it, I've eaten more cold noodles than any single human being on Earth, I've had people look it up — but bibim guksu is the PERFECT hot-day food. It's cold. It's spicy. It's sweet. It's sour. It hits every flavor button you have, and then it presses some buttons you didn't know you HAD. People come up to me at the grocery store, big strong men, tough guys, noodle guys, and they say, 'Bigly, the bibim guksu, my wife cried when I made it.' And I say, 'Yeah. Yeah, she did. That's what it does.' That's the bibim guksu effect. It's documented. By me. Just now.
The sauce — and this is the SECRET, the actual secret, which I'm giving you for free, no popup, no email signup, no cookie banner with 47 toggle switches you can't read because the font is 9 pixels tall, that's a CRIME against the eyes — the sauce is gochujang, gochugaru, vinegar, sugar, garlic, sesame oil. That's it. Five things plus the chili paste. Five things and you've got a sauce that BEATS any cold pasta dish on planet Earth. Believe me. It's a slaughter. It's not even close.
Ingredients
- 8 ozsomyeon (Korean thin wheat noodles) or somen(thin wheat noodles, the skinny ones)
- 3 tbspgochujang (Korean chili paste)
- 1 tbspgochugaru (Korean chili flakes)
- 1 tbspsoy sauce
- 2 tbsprice vinegar
- 1 1/2 tbspgranulated sugar
- 2 clovesgarlic, finely grated
- 1 tbsptoasted sesame oil
- 1 tsphoney
- 1Persian cucumber, julienned
- 1 smallcarrot, julienned
- 2 leavesgreen leaf lettuce, thinly sliced
- 2scallions, thinly sliced
- 2large eggs
- 1 tbsptoasted sesame seeds
- 1/4Asian pear or apple, julienned (optional)(the secret weapon, sweetens everything up)
Steps
- 1
Bring a small pot of water to a gentle boil. Lower the eggs in carefully and cook 6 minutes 30 seconds for a jammy yolk. Transfer to an ice bath, then peel and halve when cool enough to handle.
- 2
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the noodles and cook according to package directions (usually 3 minutes), stirring so they don't stick.
- 3
Drain the noodles into a colander and rinse thoroughly under very cold running water, rubbing the noodles with your hands to remove the surface starch until they're cold and squeaky. Drain very well.
- 4
In a large bowl, whisk together gochujang, gochugaru, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, grated garlic, sesame oil, and honey until smooth.
- 5
Add the drained noodles to the sauce and toss with tongs or chopsticks until every strand is coated.
- 6
Add the cucumber, carrot, lettuce, half the scallions, and Asian pear (if using) and toss again to combine.
- 7
Divide between two bowls. Top each with a halved jammy egg, the remaining scallions, and a generous shower of sesame seeds. Eat cold immediately.
One more thing
Bibim guksu is the answer to the question 'what do I make when it's 95 degrees and I cannot stand near a stove for one more second?' Fifteen minutes. One pot. One bowl. Cold, spicy, sweet, sour, crunchy, runny in the middle from the egg yolk — every bite hits different. You're going to make this once and then you're going to make it every week for the rest of the summer. Now go eat.
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Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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