Buckwheat rice with its husks removed is brought in and stored in a low-temperature storage room. It is milled every time the dough is kneaded so that the buckwheat flavor remains. Buckwheat dough is made into noodles, which are boiled and drained. In all these steps, cold groundwater is used. The cooked buckwheat noodles are mixed with perilla oil and fermented soy sauce, transferred to another bowl, and then sprinkled with laver powder and sesame powder. The proper way to eat deulgireum makguksu (perilla oil buckwheat noodles) is to scoop it up into the mouth so that the laver powder does not become soggy. When there is about 1/3 left, pour in the broth and eat it. 

Article. Yoo Seonmi  Photo. Kim J

When we say makguksu(buckwheat noodles), we think of mulmakguksu(buckwheat noodles in broth) and bibim makguksu(mixed buckwheat noodles), but lately, “deulgireum makguksu” has been heating up the makguksu market. <A Good Day to Read about Korean Food> visited Gigiri Makguksu in Gogi-li, Yongin, Gyeonggi-do for its first story. This is the story of makguksu shared with Chef Yu Soochang. 

The Answer Lies in Korean Food

Q. Please introduce yourself. 
I run a small makguksu restaurant called “Gogiri Makguksu” with my wife and owner Kim Yoonjung in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do. It's been about 10 years since we’ve been running the store here, and we plan to keep this place as long as we can. Before this? I ran an izakaya in Gangnam, Seoul.  

Q. We are curious as to why you opened a makguksu restaurant after running an izakaya. 
What I realized while running an izakaya for about 10 years is that the answer lies in Korean food. Korean food is what we eat all the time. What we encounter on a daily basis is the charm of Korean food. I still tell my juniors to find the answer in Korean food. We chose “makguksu(buckwheat noodles)” as the menu because we really love makguksu(buckwheat noodles). The fact that it is familiar to everyone, you can have it today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow.  

Q. What was the most difficult aspect when you were developing makguksu(buckwheat noodles)? 
I think the key to makguksu(buckwheat noodles) is the noodles. The noodles should be delicious. In my opinion, tasty noodles must be thin and elastic to some extent. To achieve this, I touched, ate, and studied noodles, and repeated this process numerously. Also, a lot of research has been done to optimize the flavors of broth, seasoning, and kimchi while focusing on the noodles.

Q. You only use 100% buckwheat flour to make noodles. But is it elastic?
The characteristic of 100% buckwheat noodles is that they are easy to cut, and some say that is what makes the noodle tasty. But I think the noodles should be somewhat elastic and chewy. So we found a way, and that is the know-how of our store. The secret? Well, it’s a secret.(laughs)
 

Flavors Found in Daily Life

Q. Where do you get inspirations for your dishes? 
I get them in my daily life. I get, learn, and apply ideas from the food made by other people and in other stores, and from the food I eat at home, the mood of a meat restaurant, to the refined table setting from a Japanese restaurant.

Q. I know that “perilla oil makguksu” was created like that.
As I said earlier, my wife and I love makguksu(buckwheat noodles) so much that even before we started our makguksu restaurant, we visited various makguksu restaurants in Gangwon-do. After we started our own restaurant, we visited even more of them. What we constantly thought during those times was: “How can we eat it in a more delicious and new way?” In one restaurant, we saw perilla oil placed on the table. We asked the owner for soy sauce and mixed the noodles. At that moment, I thought I could propose a new way to enjoy buckwheat noodles with soy sauce, perilla oil, laver, and sesame seeds. That’s how perilla oil makguksu began.

Q. What was the most important thing in the process of developing “perilla oil makguksu”?
As I said earlier, the key to “makguksu(buckwheat noodles)” is in the noodles. However, perilla oil, laver powder, soy sauce, and sesame seeds all have strong scents. I think we made hundreds and thousands of makguksu to find the right amount and combination of seasonings that bring out the best scent of buckwheat.  

Q. Your recently released HMR product is also very well received.
We put our recipe as it is in the product. Perilla oil makguksu can be made and eaten at home as much as possible. However, the key to makguksu flavor lies in the noodles, and we have the know-how for the noodles. However, we plan to continuously develop it in the future. I hope that customers can enjoy perilla oil makguksu more conveniently. In fact, we wish that perilla oil makguksu becomes a food genre.
 

The Importance of Putting Sincerity and Happiness in a Dish

Q. I’m curious about your cooking philosophy.
Our goal is to serve good food made with good ingredients to our customers at a reasonable price. We try to create good flavors and harmonious taste by focusing on displaying the characteristics and advantages of good ingredients and preventing others from overshadowing the characteristics of the ingredients. Of course, it is my opinion that a single bowl should be enjoyed by customers without restriction. That is, I need to offer a “reasonable price” to our customers. This is why the standard of good ingredients is not focused on how expensive or rare they are, but on the ones that are often used on a daily basis, so much that they feel very common. Just like perilla oil makguksu.

Q. That is why you are present throughout the whole process of making a bowl of makguksu(buckwheat noodles), including the milling process.
It’s really difficult to do all the process manually. However, the buckwheat flour milled at present has the proper flavor of buckwheat, and the pork that has been boiled now has the right taste. I think this is the best way to meet the taste standards that our shop is pursuing.

Q. There was a long queue again today, but we think that’s the reason why the customers’ faces were all full of smiles.
Our customers’ happiness is what we strive for. We prepare food with affection and we greet our customers with sincerity. We feel rewarded when our customers enjoy eating our food and say, “Thank you for the good food”, even though there must be something lacking. We strive to provide good food at an affordable price while providing more value than its worth. We wish there is a heart symbol right next to the word Gogiri Makguksu. We want to become a well-loved restaurant rather than a famous one, and a restaurant that people want to visit with their loved ones. 

Q. Please tell us about your future plans.
We are always grateful to our customers who have made our restaurant what it is today. In order to repay that gratitude, I think that “doing our best in this place” is what we must do from now on. When we can afford it, we plan to introduce other dishes to our customers to make eating buckwheat noodles more enjoyable.