When the temperature rises, appetite often flags as the body craves hydration. Feeding ourselves during the hottest months can become a slog of repetition. We tend to fall back on the familiar and the easiest solutions which don’t require turning on the oven or even the stove. But each of us has different favorite four or five dishes we turn to over and over again. I’ve talked with Madeleine Brand about these three before, but I thought I’d share them again since they’re easy ways to sate hunger and thirst while cooling.
Cold buckwheat noodles are in a radish water kimchi broth. Photo by Shutterstock.
First up are cold Korean noodle soups. There are three that you can find for take-out in many places in Koreatown. They are dongchimi guksu, mul naengmyeon, and kong guksu. dongchimi guksu is an icey broth made from the fermented brine of dongchimi, a white and mild radish kimchi. It’s served with cold thin noodles, kimchi, and mung bean sprout banchan.
I give instructions for how to make it at home here. But you can find it so easily — it’s cooler to just order it and pick up. Get it from The Corner Place. Mul naengmyeon is an icy defatted beef broth with chewy acorn or buckwheat noodles. Get it at Yu chun. Kong Guksu is thick soy milk broth with cold noodles that’s simultaneously very filling and refreshing. Get it at Olympic Noodle.
Gazpacho is the ultimate cooling way to use summer tomatoes. Photo by Shutterstock.
We’re at the part of summer when great tomatoes are available at farmers markets all over the city. Make gazpacho. It’s so easy to do and really delicious, especially if made in the traditional Spanish style, pureed with a bit of bread soaked in vinegar with the addition of cucumbers, peppers, onion, and good olive oil to create more flavor and body.
And for something refreshing you can turn to all day long, please learn to make granita, the easiest way to turn summer melons into the icy treat of your dreams. I give a tutorial for the general granita rules, but here is my melon specific explanation. And here is a video of me using my zip close bag technique with watermelon granita. You have no excuse now. It’s the easiest way to coolness ever.