Most local Korean food court aficionados are familiar with the varied delights at the Super H Mart in Niles and the more tightly focused offerings at Avondale’s Joong Boo Market. You don’t often as hear much about the food court at Assi Plaza in Niles, a mostly Korean supermarket that’s slightly smaller than the former but dwarfs the latter.
To the right of Seoul Seolleongtang, there’s another rarity at Chu Ga Dek Snacks, which specializes in kongkuksu, or chilled soy milk noodle soup. This is an enormous bowl, filled with a cold, alabaster substance with the viscosity of yogurt, made from ground soybeans. Garnished with a hard-cooked egg, a dab of sesame seeds, and julienned cucumber, it comes with a choice of wheat, buckwheat, or acorn flour noodles. Like the buckwheat noodle dish naengmyeon, this is a summertime dish, though otherwise it’s unlike that relatively light, cold soup. I’d pay good won to see anyone stay awake after polishing off a bowl of this thick, chalky soup. This one’s all about the texture and temperature—it doesn’t have much flavor at all ($9.99).
