Kongguksu

Thin wheat noodles served in a chilled, creamy soybean broth — the quintessential Korean summer noodle.

Kongguksu is Korea's answer to the heat of midsummer: soybeans soaked overnight, blended with cold water, strained, and served as a thick, milk-white broth over thin noodles with nothing more than a pinch of salt and a few cucumber strips. The flavor is mild, nutty, and surprisingly filling — a full protein-rich meal that requires almost no cooking beyond the initial boiling of soybeans. The dish appears reliably on Korean restaurant menus between June and August, and its arrival signals summer as surely as watermelon or patbingsu. Regional and household variations are many: some add sesame seeds or pine nuts to deepen the nuttiness, others use black soybeans for a richer, earthier flavor. For many Koreans, the pleasure of kongguksu lies in its restraint — in a cuisine full of bold, complex flavors, this dish asks you to slow down and appreciate pure, clean simplicity.