Jajangmyeon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jajangmyeon | |
|---|---|
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| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 자장면/짜장면 |
| Hanja | 炸醬麵 |
| Revised Romanization | Jajangmyeon/Jjajangmyeon |
| McCune–Reischauer | Chajangmyŏn/Tchajangmyŏn |
Jajangmyeon (also spelled jjajangmyeon; 자장면; 짜장면) is a popular Korean dish, derived from the Chinese dish Zha jiang 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] History
Jajangmyeon was first created in the city of Incheon, where early Chinese migrants to Korea began to settle in the late 19th century. The dish was arguably first developed in a Chinese restaurant called Gonghwachun (공화춘; 共和春) in Incheon around in 1905. The city of Incheon sponsored the "100 year anniversary of birth of Jajangmyeon" in 2005.[1]
The dish originated from Zha jiang mian (炸醬麵, literally "fried sauce noodles") in China's Shandong region. Although spelled differently, the pronunciation of dish's name is nearly identical to that of its Korean counterpart. But Korean Jajangmyeon differs from Chinese Zha jiang mian, as Korean Jajangmyeon uses black Korean Chunjang including caramel, and onions that Chinese Zha jiang mian does not use. Korean-style Jajangmyeon has also been gaining popularity in China recently.[1]
[edit] Popularity
With about 100 years of history, Jajangmyeon is called one of the "national foods" of South Korea. It has been by far the most popular delivery food in Korea, and almost every Chinese restaurant in Korea has Jajangmyeon on its menu. As of 2009 March, six million servings of Jajangmyeon are sold in South Korea per day, and it was chosen as one of the top 100 "Korean cultural symbols" by the South Korean Government in 2006.[1]
[edit] Ingredients
[edit] Noodles
Jajangmyeon uses thick noodles made from white wheat flour. Noodles made entirely by hand and not by machines, which are called sutamyeon (수타면; 手打麵) are praised in South Korea as an essential ingredient of good jajangmyeon.
[edit] Sauce
The sauce is made with black bean paste, called chunjang (hangul: 춘장; chinese: 春醬). The paste, which is made from roasted soybeans and caramel, is called chunjang (literally "spring paste") when unheated, while the heated sauce (containing vegetables and meat or seafood) is called jajang (literally "fried sauce"). Chunjang is stir-fryed with diced onions, ground meat (either beef or pork) or chopped seafood, and other ingredients. When cooking the sauce, usually meat stock is added to reduce the salty taste of cooked chunjang, and potato starch or cornstarch and is added to give the sauce a thick consistency. The sauce is served hot over noodles, sometimes with sliced raw cucumbers.
[edit] Accompaniments
Jajangmyeon is always served with a small amount of danmuji (단무지). And the dish is often served with a small amount of sliced onions, seasoned with rice vinegar, accompanied with a little Jajang sauce. The diner eats the noodle with danmuji and onions dipped in Jajang 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; 三鮮자장면), which incorporates seafood such as squid, shrimp, sea cucumber, and others (but never fish). Samseon ganjajangmyeon (삼선간자장면; 三鮮간자장면) consists of noodles served with sauce, which contains seafood on the side.
Instant Jajangmyeon is also popular in South Korea. Dried noodle is boiled in the same manner as instant ramen with dried vegetable bits, drained, and mixed with Jajang powder and small amount of water and oil.
[edit] Korean spelling and pronunciation controversy
The dish has been known in South Korea as Jjajangmyeon (or Chajangmyeon; 짜장면) since the first time the dish was imported to Korea. Even in current times, vast majority of Korean Chinese restaurants keep using this Korean spelling.
However, Korean Alphabetization of Foreign Words (외래어 표기법; 外來語 標記法) manual under a regulation issued by Korean Ministry of Culture and Education (문화교육부; 文化敎育部) (currently Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (교육과학기술부; 敎育科學技術部) in 1986, ruled that the Korean alphabetization of Stop consonants (e.g. 짜; jja; Cha) should not use Korean fortis except for some established usages. According to this rule, the Korean alphabetization of word '짜장면' is Jajangmyeon. As a result, the alphabetization of the dish has been Jajangmyeon for the recent years in official government documents and mainstream media. .[2]
However, there have been noticable criticism recently on the Korean alphabetization of this word. For example, the side in favor of Jajangmyeon ask, "If Jjajangmyeon should be written Jajangmyeon, should Champon be writeen Jangpon? (Champon is another very popular Korean-Chinese food, but the dish was allowed to be alphabetized Champon; JJanmpon as an exception to the rule for an unknown reason.) According to the 95th episode of Korean food culture cartoon Sikgaek (식객; 食客), Ahn Do Hyun (안도현), a Korean poet, announced that he would always write the dish's name as "짜장면', not '자장면', because the former is the name with which he have all his childhood memory.
Also, in most old Korean dictionaries, the hanja for 'Jajangmyeon' is "酢醬麵", a Taiwanese dish that includes vinegar. The first hanja's Chinese pronunciation is similar to 'ja', and the hanja 炸's Chinese pronunciation is close to 'jja'.
[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, there is a recently established tradition that singles eat jajangmyeon on Black Day, which is April 14. The food is a comfort food for those who have no significant others.
- A South Korean man named Kim Jae-hyun (김재현) 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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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jajangmyeon |
[edit] References
Huh, Y. (2008). 식객 19 [Sikgaek 19]. Seoul, Korea: Kimyoungsa. ISBN : 9788934927860
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c [1] Weekly Kyunghyang article
- ^ [2] Korean Alphabetization of Foreign Words, The Hangul Foundation
