Makguksu (Gangwon Buckwheat Noodles)

Makguksu is a buckwheat noodle dish of Gangwon-do, where the cool highlands suit buckwheat. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes buckwheat noodles served in cold kimchi broth — preferably a clear kimchi such as dongchimi or nabak-kimchi, sometimes cut half and half with chilled meat stock — topped with kimchi, salted cucumber, sesame and chili flakes. Once a late-night snack, it gradually became a lunch dish.

The name is explained in two ways in the Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture: mak as in "just now," because the noodles were pressed and eaten the moment the flour was ground, and mak as in "rough," because hand-milled buckwheat kept bits of dark hull and gave dark, speckled, coarse-textured noodles. Its earliest printed appearance found so far is a 1934 newspaper report of food poisoning in Pyongyang from what it called makguksu, glossed as "black noodles"; a hand-drawn 1930s map of Chuncheon marks a "Bang family makguksu house." A 1967 newspaper article pictured villagers in Chuncheon grinding buckwheat on long winter nights and pressing noodles through a wooden frame.

The folk encyclopedia also records traditions linking buckwheat to famine relief after the Imjin War and to slash-and-burn farmers' buckwheat dumplings, and notes that makguksu was once served at Gangwon ancestral rites and village feasts. A winter food at first, it became a summer dish after the Korean War and a year-round one from the 1970s. More recently a viral video by a K-pop singer made perilla-oil makguksu a craze in Korea and abroad.

• Buckwheat noodles supply carbohydrate with more fiber than refined wheat noodles of the same weight, by the Korean food composition table.
• The MFDS analysis shows a serving providing more than an adult's daily selenium.
• Cucumber, radish and kimchi make it a cool, vegetable-forward summer meal.

• Chuncheon: noodles rinsed and topped with a spicy seasoning, then loosened with dongchimi broth or meat stock as each diner likes; the cloudy noodle-cooking water is drunk with a little soy sauce.
• Mul vs. bibim: served in cold broth (mul-makguksu) or tossed in chili sauce (bibim-makguksu); many restaurants pour broth on the side.
• Binding: because buckwheat has little stickiness, cooks traditionally mixed in starch, or dried elm-bark powder in parts of Gangwon.
• Deulgireum makguksu: a recent favorite of noodles dressed with perilla oil, soy sauce, toasted laver and sesame.
• Pyongyang connection: the folk encyclopedia notes that in the 1930s the name was also used in Pyongyang, as another name for a dark buckwheat naengmyeon.