After golf yesterday, Twoin, Kat, Ricky, Esth and I hit You-Chun restaurant in Palisades Park for some cold noodles; the perfect treat after being in the hot sun all day. Seems my experience with Korean food is broadening every week hanging out with these guys. My only prior experience with Korean cold noodles, naeng myun, was at Madangsui. You-chun’s version was much richer, with a darker, more flavorful broth with shaved ice adding texture to it. They used thin brown noodles and even added a hunk of asian pear which I thought was a particularly nice touch. At Madangsui, you had to add both the vinegar and the hot mustard yourself, but here at You-Chun, the vinegar was already in the broth, and you just had to do the mustard. I should note that the mustard at You-Chun was much milder than at Madangsui. All things considered, I’d say that You-Chun’s naeng myun is hands down much better.

In addition to the cold noodles, we also had some mung bean pancakes which were excellent for what they were, but just not the sort of thing I’d ever crave (just too seemingly healthy, even though it’s fried). Interestingly, every table was served a thermos full of hot beef broth which you’re supposed to drink out of coffee mugs. Seemed to be a strange an arbitrary thing to serve, especially since they didn’t provide the usual array of panchan that you would normally get at a Korean joint. Hrmmm, broth for panchan; I’m not sure that’s a very good trade-off, but I’m not complaining because the broth was delicious and we loved it so much we even asked for a second thermos. Yeah, it was a little bizarre. Having cold noodles on a hot day makes sense but chasing it with hot broth? Not so much. But all I can say is it was pretty darn good.

On a completely unrelated note, the Yankees absolutely obliterated the Devil Rays this weekend, putting up 7 and 17 runs in two double header games on Saturday and following that up with a 21 run performance yesterday. Part of the festivities included 3 home runs (and three curtain calls) for the rookie slugging sensation Shelley Duncan. He sure is bringing a lot of fun to the Bronx. Even better, he totally looks like he should be a Simpsons character. Just coincidence that they called him up from the minors in time for the premier of the Simpsons movie? Hmmmm…