How to Eat to Beat the Heat, Korean Style

Korea’s refreshing repertoire of chilled noodle dishes is everything you want right now. Think of them as edible air conditioning

AROUND THIS time of year, the weather in New York parallels that in Seoul; humidity and overbearing heat press in from every direction. I seek refuge in Manhattan’s Koreatown and the cold noodle soups I grew up with. Eating this way cools you from the inside out.

Recently, Korean and Korean-American chefs have been putting new spins on traditional cold noodle dishes. At Hanjan in New York, chef Hooni Kim makes an exceptional mul naengmyeon, a dish of buckwheat or sweet-potato-starch noodles served in a frozen beef broth...