1. Ingredients for Jjajangmyeon
- Primary ingredients: Pork and flour noodles
- Secondary ingredients: Chunjang (black soybean paste) and vegetables (onion, cabbage and carrot)
2. Taste evaluation
-Spicy: :☆☆☆☆☆
-Salty: ★★★☆☆
-Sweet: ★☆☆☆☆
-Sour: ☆☆☆☆☆
-Toasted flavor: ★★☆☆☆
3. Introduction to Jjajangmyeon
There’s something in Korea that has been so popularized so that you can eat it even in a really small town in Korea. It’s called Jjajangmyeon.
It’s one of Chinese foods but is only available in Korea but nowhere in China. What am I talking about?
In the Joseon Dynasty era around the end of the 1800s, Incheon port opened to other countries for importing foreign cultures.
At the time, people living in Shandong Province of China moved to a region near Incheon Port and started to open restaurants. And they came up with this food called Jakjangmyeon(炸醬麵, zhájiàngmiàn) they used to eat it from their hometown.
Jakjangmyeon is a simple home meal in Shandong Province that is basically noodles mixed in Chunjang, Chinese traditional sauce.
As it got difficult to get Chunjang from Shanding Province due to far distance, they started to make Chunjang themselves. In that time, they added some caramel into Chunjang for Korean people’s appetite and there it was! Korean style Jjajangmyeon.
It can be said that Jjajangmyeon is the first food that was made for the delivery in Korea where the delivery system has well been rapidly developed. Chinese restaurants opening near Incheon Port in the 1900s started to deliver Jjajangmyeon to workers at the pier and there have been various delivery foods since then.
Jjjangmyeon was also popular menu for families when they went out to eat in Korea.
In old times, Korean people used to go out for lunch or dinner to celebrate special occasions like birthdays, school entry or graduation. And they went out to eat something that they could not eat everyday. So instead of Korean traditional foods, they regarded Chinese food Jjajangmyeon as very special.
So the middle-aged people have happy memories about Jjajangmyeon as a kid.
Jjajangmyeon is noodles mixed with black Chunjang sauce.
This sauce is made by boiling pork, cabbages and onions at a high temperature, putting Chunjang and water, and boiling until it gets gooey. And spaghetti-thick noodles are boiled and served with that sauce on it, pretty simple, huh?
Chunjang sauce was made for Korean people’s appetite so it tastes toasted and sweet.
This sauce is so attractive that everybody enjoys and it makes you want to keep eating once you try it so Jjajangmyeon is one of noodles Koreans eat very often.
It’s easy to make it so the dish will be served in 10 minutes after you order and it’s just one dish so that you will finish it quickly.
For these merits, it is enjoyed by people who have a short lunch time.
When there’s a little time left until you catch your airplane, train or bus, you should try Jjajangmyeon because all you need is 30 minutes.
4. Kinds of Jjajangmyeon
Jjajangmyeon uses basically the same Chunjang sauce and noodles but there are different kinds of them depending on ingredients used.
I’ll introduce some of those Koreans enjoy.
Botong(Regular)-jjajang: Put pork and vegetables in gooey sauce made of Chunjang, water and starch.
Gan-jjajang: Chunjang is fried in oil without water or starch so it has deeper flavor.
Samseon-jjajang: Seafood is used instead of pork such as shrimps, squids and sea cucumber.
Sacheon-jjajang: Spicy sauce made from dou ban jyan sauce or chili pepper sauce mixed with Chunjang is used.
5. How to enjoy Jjajangmyeon even more
There’s no specific way to enjoy Jjajangmyeon because it’s a simple dish of noodles and sauce.
However, there are other Chinese foods that have been adapted for Korean taste.
I suggest you should try Jjambbong and Tangsuyuk.
Jjambbong is noodles in very spicy soup so you should be ready for it.
Tangsuyuk is a pork dish with sweet and sour sauce on it, and it is one of dishes that everybody can enjoy.
You’ll probably finish one bowl of Jjajangmyeon quickly. When you’re abroad, every meal times is a special experience and memory for you.
Won’t you miss your meal time if it passed too quickly?
Why don’t you make a shocking memory with spicy Jjambbong and sweet memory with Tangsuyuk?
