There’s a place that showed up on Sung Si-kyung’s YouTube show “Meokeul Tende,” where he said it was delicious. It’s called Seongcheon Makguksu… and it has a reputation for being very love-it-or-hate-it. With a review like that, I was way too curious not to go.

Sapiens

Volume 4 of Sapiens: A Graphic History is out, and that wraps up the series. Seems like a decent ending, too.

Chipotle under construction

It’s already open now, but back then I was wondering when it would ever open. Anyway, once it’s open I’ll have to drop by at least once.

Seongcheon Makguksu

It’s near Nonhyeon Station. It’s in a spot where you’d think, wait, was there ever a place like this here? But plenty of people were coming in. No idea if that’s the Sung Si-kyung effect.

Menu

A pretty standard makguksu-shop menu.

Side dishes

These were surprisingly good.

Makguksu

The broth is well-fermented dongchimi (radish water kimchi) broth with zero sweetness… and the radish is dongchimi radish too… I’d never seen makguksu like this before; next to it, regular Pyeongyang naengmyeon is on the sweet, easy-going side… It tastes like really salty, sour dongchimi brine… If you already know this flavor, maybe, but for anyone who doesn’t, the difficulty level is way too high… Still, being dongchimi broth, it’s great ice-cold in summer. The noodles were very springy, which isn’t my thing… If they’d had the texture of pure buckwheat noodles, I think I could have enjoyed them even with a broth like this, but this isn’t that kind of place.

Inside

It’s kind of funny that a place that doesn’t seem made for mainstream tastes is this popular, but hey, diversity is a good thing.

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