Every summer growing up, from when I was in my mother' womb until I was 16 and wanted to stay home and work instead, we shipped off to Seoul the minute the school bell tolled on the last day. I was always sad to lose the opportunity to hang out with my friends all summer, but the excitement of watching movies on the plane and walking through the arrival gates at Kimpo Airport to the eagerly awaiting faces of my kin more than made up for it. For three whole months every year we lived with my grandmother, immersed in Korean society and culture. Every late August my sister and I would wonder, "would we even remember how to speak English when we got back?"
Since we were always only there for the summer, and since we had such a big extended family with varying tastes, the one constant for lunchtime meals was NAENG-MYUN. These cold buckwheat noodles, which actually hail from North Korea, are the perfect way to beat the heat and feed young and old alike.
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Naeng-Myun
Korea's #1 summertime meal
Buckwheat noodles in cold beef broth topped with flank steak, cucumber, Asian pear, pickled radish, white kimchi, hard boiled egg, spicy sauce, and yellow My Friend's Mustard
LA Kalbi
popularized in LA's Koreatown
Thin cross-cut BBQ short ribs marinated in soy, onion, & Asian pear
Melona Ice Cream
honeydew melon flavored ice cream