hot weather, cold noodles?

I live in the tropics. Hot (and the occasional rain ^^) weather is a given 365 days of the year. That means it's summer all year long here!

Since there's hardly any seasonal change (if you consider rain as seasonal), we do not have special foods to mark the seasons. Also berries do not grow on trees here ^^||.. Anyways, whatever we lack, we are blessed with an abundance of other stuff.. sunny weather (^^||).. cheap and good food, fruits and produce.. stability.. food.. did I mention food again? ^^ I count my blessings every day ^^

Anyways, despite the heat.. I mean sunny weather, we don't normally take our food cold. Though we enjoy our ice-creams and drinks icy-cold, we generally prefer our mains hot. So it is interesting to note that the koreans (the japanese too) enjoy cold noodles during summer.. and even better, they like them spicy ^^

So when I saw sook's spicy nengmyon sauce, it really piqued my interest.. especially when it's made from scratch with lots of fruits! and no cooking required! I knew I had to try it out!

Spicy naengmyeon sauce (recipe from sook ~ heartmindandseoul) 

1 korean melon/ asian pear or 1 cup pineapple chunks (I used a mix of pear + pineapples)

1/2 green apple, remove skin (I used a whole red apple) 

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup korean cider or sprite/7-up (I used sprite)

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 cloves garlic

2 green onions (I used green onions + 1 yellow onion)

1-inch ginger piece, remove skin

1/2 cup gochugaru (chili powder)

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp honey

a pinch of salt

3 tbsp toasted sesame oil (I used the usual sesame oil)

sesame seeds to garnish (optional) 

1. Process the fruits, water, cider, soy sauce, garlic, green onions and ginger till you get a smooth mixture.

2. Pour fruit mixture into a big mixing bowl. Add gochugaru, sugar, honey, salt and sesame oil one by one to the fruit mixture and mix till well combined. 

3. Serve cold with cold soba/noodles.. topped with julienned cucumber/pear, hard-boiled egg and sliced meat, if you like.. and enjoy ^^!

 

* see sook's post for the step by step of making this sauce and yummy pictures!

My very first made from scratch sauce!

Though I did find this cold noodle with spicy fruity sauce yummy and refreshing, I still prefer my noodle sauces a little bit more savory and robust. However, this could be just the thing for you! And for some strange reason, me and papa pig find this dish tasting a lot like the rojak mee we have here (minus the peanuts) (??!)

Anyways, I really enjoyed making the sauce.. it felt very wholesome.. and right. (^^)