Haengbok Noodles from The Official Netflix Cookbook (Extraordinary Attorney Woo)

Continuing my quest to make everything in The Official Netflix Cookbook, the next dish that I cooked was its recipe for Haengbok Noodles, from Extraordinary Attorney Woo. This is one of the dishes in the cookbook that is actually made and eaten on the show it comes from, rather than being inspired by it.

For the uninitiated, Extraordinary Attorney Woo is a Korean legal drama about a young autistic lawyer, Woo Young-woo. As she always introduces herself, "Whether it’s read straight or flipped, it’s still Woo Young-woo. Kayak, deed, rotator, noon, racecar. Woo Young-woo."

She joins Hanbada, a major law firm in Seoul, and uses her emotional intelligence, eidetic memory and mastery of Korean law to help her clients. Because of her autism, Young-woo had trouble finding work until she was hired at Hanbada. The way she communicates is viewed as awkward, blunt and withdrawn by her neurotypical colleagues at first, especially when she goes off on tangents about whales, her special interest. However, she gradually earns their respect. The 16 episode series follows the beginning of Attorney Woo's career, and subplots involving her first romance, the identity of her mother, and the rivalry between Hanbada and Taesan, another law firm whose CEO is a candidate for Minister of Justice.

The show aired in the summer of 2022, when I was preoccupied by a depressing event that took place in my personal life. It wasn't until reading the Netflix Cookbook, and vowing to make everything in it, that I'd heard of Extraordinary Attorney Woo or decided to watch it. K-dramas are not something I usually watch, but the story sounded intriguing. I found the show to be very charming, beautifully acted, and suspenseful with remarkable performances, particularly from Park Eun-bin, who plays Young-woo.

Episode 3 was the most heart wrenching for me. In it, Young-woo defends a severely autistic man accused of killing his brother. In a monologue, Young-woo reflects on the namesake of Asperger syndrome, Hans Asperger, who is alleged to have been a Nazi collaborator and complicit in the murder of neurodivergent children. Young-woo believes that she and her client Kim Jeong-hoon would have been executed by Nazis as "unworthy of life" due to their autism. Certainly, there are moments on the show where Young-woo faces discrimination, but on the whole the series is very uplifting.

By now you're asking, all right, what about Haengbok Noodles? What are they? It's an important plot point in episodes 13 and 14 of the show. In this two-part story, the Hanbada team goes to Jeju island when Young-woo picks up a case there. On the trip, Jung Myeong-seok, Young-woo's mentor at Hanbada, hopes to have the meat noodle soup from a local restaurant, Haengbok Noodles, but is disappointed to learn that it closed under unclear circumstances.

Jung Myeong-seok: Goodness. Haengbok Noodles makes the best meat noodles.

Choi Soo-yeon: Is this place that good?

Jung: Well, "bejigeun" is an expression used in the Jeju dialect. It's used to describe meat broth that is rich and greasy while having a great, deep flavor. Their soup is exactly like that. The flavor is deep, rich, and heavy, but without the smell of pork. That "bejigeun" soup is their secret recipe.

Kim Min-shik: Hearing you talk about it really makes me want to try the broth.

Jung: And the owner was very generous with the amount of meat he gave. He gave a lot of huge chunks of boiled pork with the noodles. It was literally half meat and half noodles.

Dong Geu-ra-mi: But they're closed. Let's just go to Haengun Noodles. I'm starving.

Jung: Sure. We'll just have to go there.

Later, while in court, Attorney Jung collapses and is diagnosed with stage 3 stomach cancer. Young-woo suggests finding the owner of Haengbok Noodles and asking him to make the meat noodle soup for Jung, but he reminds her to concentrate on winning the trial. While doing so, she, her colleagues and two personal friends that came on the trip split up to track down the owner.

Lee Jun-ho: Attorney Jung, did you make a surgery appointment?

Jung: Of course. I booked a surgery at the hospital in Seoul where I got diagnosed before coming to Jeju. I'm doing fine on my own, so don't worry about me.

Choi: Shouldn't you eat a bit more? You barely had a bite.

Jung: I have no appetite and my stomach gets upset if I force myself to eat.

Min-shik: Then should I ask them to make you some porridge?

Jung: No, it's all right. I doubt it'll be any different.

Woo Young-woo: Well… What about meat noodles? Meat noodles from Haengbok Noodles.

Dong Geu-ra-mi: Haengbok Noodles! But they're not in business.

Woo: What if we find the owner of Haengbok Noodles and ask them? That it's for an attorney who might die of stage three stomach cancer?

Jung: There's no need for that. Don't think about doing anything unnecessary and just focus on the Hwangjisa case. Understood? [characters go outside]

Woo: What do we have to do to find the owner of Haengbok Noodles?

Choi: You're really going to? Attorney Jung said not to do anything unnecessary.

Woo: Attorney Jung did say not to do anything unnecessary, but I never agreed to that.

Geu-ra-mi: Gosh. I raised her well.

Woo: Attorney Jung… Might not have a lot of time left to live. If not now, he might never be able to eat Haengbok Noodles again.

Geu-ra-mi: You're right. They do say we only regret the chances we didn't take.

Min-shik: It's been bothering me a bit too. He did seem quite disappointed while eating at Haengun Noodles.

Jun-ho: Then shall we all look for the owner together?

Choi: Why are you so quiet?

Kwon Min-woo: What do you mean?

Choi: I mean, this is usually when you would say something and sound like a jerk. "Why would we all do that together? You guys do it. I'm out."

Kwon: I mean, well… It wouldn't be a bad thing if we can find the owner. I wanted to try those meat noodles too. It must be really delicious for him to describe them like that.

Choi: Are you sure you're not the one who's sick? I heard people suddenly change when they're nearing death. What did I do? Why are you…

Jun-ho: All right. We have to canvass the area to find the owner's whereabouts.

They eventually find him cooking the dish at the local temple and help him get his restaurant back. He then repays them by making the noodles for everyone, although Young-woo doesn't eat hers since she only likes to eat gimbap.

Kim Byung-soo: All right. The noodles are ready.

Jung: Thank you so much for opening the restaurant for us like this.

Byung-soo: You said you'll be going back to Seoul soon. The least I could do before you go is make you some noodles. Though I'll be seeing you soon when I commission the case.

Jung: Yes, take your time to think about it and contact us.

Byung-soo: Are you sure you don't want meat noodles? I made this so you could at least try the broth.

Woo: No, I'm okay.

Jung: Shall we try it?

Min-shik: The richness of the broth looks so good.

Jung: This is so good.

Byung-soo: Thank you. Enjoy.

In essence, Haengbok Noodles is a soup consisting of pork broth, noodles and pork topped with shredded carrots and scallions, gochugaru and a spicy chili paste. Anna Painter, the author of the Netflix Cookbook, said in an interview with Smitten Kitchen that she rewound the final 5 minutes of the episode over and over again to study how the dish looked and what went into it. Haengbok Noodles is similar to a real staple dish on Jeju called Gogi-guksu, a pork noodle soup with garnishes and spices.

It took me a while to make Haengbok Noodles, mostly because it took a long time to get through the show. This was due to life commitments and each of the 16 episodes being over an hour long. That's practically a 16 hour movie! Additionally, I needed to source pork belly and bones, and planned to make it with friends who were interested in trying it. Once I got both, I froze them until I was ready.

Now, Kim Byung-soo likely sits over a simmering pot of the broth for hours watching it cook. As lovely as that is, I don't have the patience to stand by a pot for an entire day. I have things to get on with! Thankfully, the cookbook's version of the broth has you do it in a slow cooker. I was able to put it on in the morning, and fuhgeddaboudit until I had to strain, cool and store it in the evening. I did that the day before I made the dish. The broth is flavored with bay leaves, peppercorns, garlic, onion and mirin. I tasted it when it was done, and found it to be very mild. That was going to change once the pork had simmered in it.

Usually when I make meat broth (mostly chicken), the fat rises to the top and solidifies so it can be easily scooped off. This time it didn't do that, so the fat was kind of marbled throughout the stock. Oh well, this was a once in a while sort of dish and I wasn't going to let that stop me. I made the mistake of not taking out the pork belly to come up to room temperature, but it didn't ruin the dish, although it did curl up a bit as it boiled. The recipe has you boil it for about a half hour, which is how long it took for my pork belly to become tender.

After it rested for a few minutes, I was ready to carve the pork into slices. Although in Korea you're meant to use somyeon noodles with this sort of recipe, I could only find Udon noodles, which was sort of close. I'm sorry if the purists disapprove.

While Haengbok Noodles was a big production, and it's certainly not a weeknight-friendly meal, it was absolutely worth making! I prefer pork belly roasted with crispy skin and tender flesh, but when cooked like this it wasn't flabby at all. Far from it, the pork and broth were both rich in flavor, and the spicy chili paste enhanced it. Despite burning our mouths, it did so in a way that made us want to keep eating more. Afterwards, there was no meat leftover, but plenty of noodles, broth, carrots and scallions. I cooked rice in what remained of the broth, to be cooled, frozen and thawed for fried rice at a later point in the future.

If you want to make this recipe for Haengbok Noodles yourself, you can get it in The Official Netflix Cookbook: 70 Recipes from Your TV to Your Table.