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GangwonVisited October 2022 Views –

Samgyo-ri Dongchimi Makguksu, Gangneung: Buckwheat Noodles You Finish with Cold Radish Broth

A steel bowl of buckwheat noodles in clear broth, topped with a ground, sesame-like topping, seaweed flakes, a mound of red seasoning, slices of white radish and half a boiled egg.
How to order Address & map

Makguksu, buckwheat noodles, is one of Gangwon's signature dishes. At the head branch of Samgyo-ri Dongchimi Makguksu (삼교리동치미막국수), outside central Gangneung, the bowl is only half the order. The other half arrives in a black earthenware pot: dongchimi, radish water kimchi, whose clear brine is served cold with a ladle.

The same bowl before any broth is added: grey-brown buckwheat noodles under a heap of ground, sesame-like topping and seaweed flakes, with red seasoning and half a boiled egg.
How the noodles arrive: no broth yet.

You add the broth yourself

The noodles come to the table dry, under seaweed flakes and a heap of ground toasted topping that looks like sesame, with a mound of red seasoning and half a boiled egg on the side of the bowl. The pot of dongchimi comes with it. In my photos the outside of the pot is covered in condensation, and a half-moon of radish and a single red jujube float on top.

A black earthenware pot beaded with condensation, filled with clear dongchimi broth, a half-moon slice of white radish, a red jujube and a metal ladle.
The dongchimi pot, cold enough to bead with water.

Ladle in as much broth as you like and the dish changes: the same bowl, once the broth is in, is a cold noodle soup with slices of radish on top. A tourism listing for the restaurant says the dongchimi is aged for more than a year before it becomes the broth, and that the noodles are made to order in the restaurant.

How it began

According to the same listing, the business began some fifty years ago in Samgyo-ri, a village in Jumunjin up the coast, where the founder served makguksu to neighbors. The Gujeong-myeon restaurant is listed as the head branch (본점).

Order the pork too

Slices of boiled pork on a white plate printed with the restaurant's name in Korean, with a red seasoned side dish, pale pickled cabbage and chopped green chili.
Suyuk on a plate printed with the restaurant's name.

Suyuk (수육) is boiled pork, served in slices. Here it comes with a red seasoned side dish, pale pickled cabbage and chopped green chili. The listing also mentions buckwheat dumplings (메밀만두) and buckwheat pancakes (메밀전) as sides, and hoe-bibim makguksu (회비빔막국수), mixed noodles with raw fish.

How to order

Show this to the staff

동치미 막국수 하나 주세요.

Dongchimi makguksu hana juseyo.

One dongchimi makguksu, please.

수육도 하나 주세요.

Suyuk-do hana juseyo.

One boiled pork, too, please.

덜 맵게 해 주세요.

Deol maepge hae juseyo.

Please make it less spicy.

If you are not sure how much broth to add, start with two or three ladles, taste, and keep going.

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