14.065 Mul Naeng Myeon (with a Medium-Boiled Egg)

Cycle 14 – Item 65

11 (Sat) March 2023

Mul Naeng Myeon (with a Medium-Boiled Egg)

4.0

at Jinmi Pyeongyang Naeng Myeon

-Nonhyeon, Gangnam, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

solo

Personally, I abhor hard-boiled eggs, which I find to be dry and soulless (see for comparison 2.365 Perfectly Boiled Eggs (with recipe)), like a well-done steak.

Alas, Koreans tend to hard-boil their eggs, by default.

Never in my hundreds of experiences eating MNM have I encountered a boiled egg that wasn’t hard-boiled – this medium-boiled egg was undoubtedly a kitchen error.

As a topping for MNM, particularly in a restaurant setting, I concede that hard-boiled makes sense. The eggs are typically cooked in large batches and cut in half, far in advance of service, so soft yolks would get kinda icky/gummy sitting in the open air. Piled together at the garnish station, the yolks would also bleed onto each other, and then into the soup once served.

Almost always, I only eat the white and discard the yolk of the egg when eating MNM, or give the whole thing to W, who grew up eating overcooked eggs (at her mother’s hand) and still doesn’t seem to mind them, even though she’s since learned the joy of properly cooked eggs (at her husband’s hand).