Jajangmyeon
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Jajangmyeon (also spelled jjajangmyeon) is a Korean dish, derived from the Chinese dish zhajiang mian. It consists of wheat noodles topped with a thick sauce made of chunjang (a salty black soybean paste), diced meat and vegetables, and sometimes also seafood. Jajang (also spelled jjajang), name of the sauce, is the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese characters 炸醬, which literally means "fried sauce." Myeon (also spelled myun) means "noodle."
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[edit] Ingredients
[edit] Noodles
Jajangmyeon uses thick noodles made from white wheat flour.
[edit] Sauce
The sauce is made with black bean paste, called chunjang (hangul: 춘장; chinese: 春醬), to which are added sauteed diced onion, zucchini, and ground meat (either beef or pork) or chopped seafood. When cooking the sauce, potato starch or cornstarch is typically added to give it a thick consistency and it is served hot over noodles. The paste, which is made from roasted soybeans, is called chunjang (literally "spring paste") when unheated, while the heated sauce (containing vegetables and meat or seafood) is called jajang (literally "fried sauce").
[edit] Variations
Variations of the jajangmyeon dish include ganjajangmyeon (간자장면), which is jajangmyeon served with the jajang sauce without the starch, with the sauce and noodles being served separately in different bowls, and samseon jajangmyeon (삼선자장면), which incorporates seafood such as squid, shrimp, sea cucumber, and others (but never fish). Samseon ganjajangmyeon (삼선간자장면) consists of noodles served with sauce, which contains seafood on the side.
In everyday speech, Koreans sometimes omit the syllable myeon and refer to the aforementioned dishes, in shorthand manner, as jajang (자장), ganjajang (간자장), samsun jajang (삼선자장), or samsun ganjajang (삼선간자장).
Another common dish using this jajang sauce is jajangbap (자장밥), which consists of jajang sauce served over cooked rice. Usually a more popular dish consists of jajang sauce over bokeumbap (볶음밥) or fried rice.
A common accompaniment is a side dish of danmuji (yellow pickled daikon).
[edit] History
[edit] Spelling variations
The first syllable of jajangmyeon is sometimes spelled with the hangul syllabic block 짜 (jja). The syllable 자 (ja), however, is the correct one, as 짜 is only used in indigenous Korean words that are not of Chinese origin, as ja/zhà (炸) is.
[edit] Cultural trivia
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (February 2009) |
- In South Korea, singles eat jajangmyeon on Black Day. The noodles are a comfort food for those who have no significant others.
- Jajangmyeon is known as an inexpensive noodle dish that can be delivered for free in many places around South Korea. It costs around 4,000 won (approximately US$4.00).
- A double serving of jajangmyeon in a single bowl is called jajang gop-ppae-gi (자장 곱빼기).
- A South Korean man named Kim Jae-hyun is famous for having eaten only jajangmyeon for five years (between 1970 and 1975) and is a common symbol of jajangmyeon all over South Korea. He is still alive at 64 years old. Se-Young Lee from Seoul was known to have beaten this record by 2 years and 6 months, finally giving up in 2005.
- In the animated television show Pucca, the heroine Pucca is crazy for jajangmyeon. She is also the niece of three Chinese noodle house owners, who serve jajangmyeon as a main dish of their restaurants.
- The South Korean movie The Great Chef: Peking Restaurant (1999) is a story about jajangmyeon.
[edit] See also
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