13.093 Mil Myeon

Cycle 13 – Item 93

POST 4,476

8 (Fri) April 2022

Milmyeon

3.0

at Haeundae Milmyeon

-Jung, Haeundae, Busan, Republic of Korea-

with the Family

Spring Break Holiday in Busan (Day 2)

In Busan.  My first time ever.  Our first family trip in 2 years and 5 months (previously to UAE in 2019 (see 10.301 Fish Harra)).

I did zero restaurant research for the trip, leaving everything up to W.

LUNCH

Haeundae Milmyeon is a Korean restaurant.  Specializes in milmyeon.  Established 1995.

Located less than 1 km from the beach.

One of two items on my food request list for the trip was milmyeon  While mul naengmyeon is my favorite dish, I had never tried its southern counterpart.

Restaurants serving milmyeon keep their menus simple, like MNM joints in the north.

W’s 1-minute phone research on the way into the city returned Haeundae Milmyeon as a reliable venue, favored by locals.

Milmyeon is a Korean dish.   Essentially the same thing as mul naengmyeon, the key difference in the noodles: while the name of the dish is usually translated into English as “wheat (mil) noodles (myeon),” the noodles are actually made from refined wheat flour (standard cooking flour is called “mil (wheat) + garu (powder)”), plus potato starch, resulting in white noodles, in contrast to the darker buckwheat noodles found in MNM.  The broth is derived from pork.  Busan’s signature dish.

Mandu (3.0)

The noodles were developed in Busan during the Korean War, when refugees fleeing the North were pushed to the southern end of the peninsula.  To make MNM, buckwheat was scarce, so a new-fangled noodle was developed from flour provided by UN humanitarian support.

Pretty good.  The broth was on the tangy side, with a dollop of a garlicky gochujang-based sauce for kick.  The noodles were pleasantly light in flavor, pleasantly chewy in texture, somewhere between the rubberiness of Hamheung-style and the mealiness of Pyongyang-style.  A fine lunch dish, especially on a balmy spring afternoon near the beach.

SIGHTSEEING

Busan Metropolitan City is Korea’s 2nd biggest urban center.  Population around 3.6 million, about 1/3 of Seoul.

In the summer, the beach will be packed to the point of absurdity (e.g., see image search for “haeundae in summer”).
Finding analog pleasure in digging a hole in the sand, though of course he had to take a photo and post it on Instagram.
As far as I could recall, this was IZ’s first experience with a sandy beach; he claimed otherwise, but couldn’t remember where/when.

Haeundae-gu is a district in northeast Busan.  It became a part of the city only in 1976, undergoing rapid development during the 1980s.  Nowadays, Haeundae represents the modern glitz and glam of Busan, akin to Gangnam in Seoul.  The district includes Haeunda Beach, one of Korea’s most famous beaches, certainly Busan’s most popular tourist destination.

SNACK

Goraesa is a Korean restaurant chain.  Specializes in eomuk.  Established 1963, according to the sign (I doubt it).

Located along the main drag just north of Haeundae Beach.

The other item on my food request list was Busan odeng.

Self-service.

Another 1-minute phone search by W returned Goraesa as the go-to venue, especially for tourists.

Self-service for dine-in.
Packaged for home preparation.

I was disappointed to find that the fish cakes were overly fancy.

DINNER

The original destination for dinner had been a restaurant specializing in galbi.  On arrival, the waiting list had 107 parties ahead of us (remarkable that 107 parties would be willing to wait).  Estimated waiting time of 2 hours (remarkable that 107 parties could be served in 2 hours).  Though somewhat tempted to see if the food would be worth the wait – my hot take is that Busan doesn’t have a lot of good BBQ restaurants, so the yokels are insane about this one – we declined.

Instead, we went to a restaurant serving dweji gukbap, another beloved dish in Busan.  I won’t bother to explain.

(See RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)

(See HANSIK)

(See MNM)

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