Jjajangmyun!!!

[kimtae]

Jjajangmyun (짜장면) is made with black bean paste more commonly known as chunjang (천장). You can find this in any Korean grocery. A good substitute is the Chinese Black Bean sauce that serves as the base for Hoisin sauce.
The myun (면) or noodles can be any variety, from Japanese udon to the traditional thick eggy noodles to spaghetti in a pinch. I prefer mine with rice and an egg cooked over easy on top.
To make 3-4 servings (or two for me):

4 Tbsp of Jjajang (check to see if itís roasted or not)
4 oz of pork meat diced
1 small onion diced
1/2 cup of chopped green onion (leave off the green ends)
1/2 cup of zucchini squash diced
2 Tbsp of chopped garlic
2 Tbsp of chopped ginger
2 tsp of sugar
4 Tbsp of cooking oil, traditionally this would be rendered pork fat but who needs a coronary.
1/2 cup of water
2 Tbsp of starch (optional)

- If your Jjajang is unroasted, in a skillet, stir the jjajang and 2 Tbs of oil over medium high heat for about 3 minutes (donít burn it!). If itís pre-roasted just leave out this part.
- Sautee garlic and ginger with remaining oil (donít brown the garlic!). Stir pork and keep cooking.
- When pork is cooked, add in the veggies.
- When everything is cooked, stir in the jjajang, water, and sugar. Keep cooking until it boils. Simmer until the squash is cooked through.
- Now, depending on whether you like it saltier and more pungent, you can add in more jjajang to thicken or you can thicken with starch (1 or 2 Tbsp of starch mixed in 1 or 2 Tbsp of water). This is impossible to fuck up. If it gets too thick, add a little water, if itís too salty, add more water and a little more sugar, if itís too thin, add more starch/water.
Try serving with a garnish of fresh julienne cucumbers on top.
I like to make it with seafood as well. Squid, scallops, and shrimp all work well. Different veggies like peas and corn can be nice. Have fun!

[vsoy]

If all you had was the Chinese black bean sauce instead of the chunjang, would you recommend cooking it as if it was unroasted chunjang? Just wonderig.

[kimtae]

If all you had was the Chinese black bean sauce instead of the chunjang, would you recommend cooking it as if it was unroasted chunjang? Just wonderig.Probably, but even with the unroasted chunjang, you don't really have to cook it separately if you don't want to.

[ZhuBaJie]

Chinese people have the same dish. i think it's basically called the same thing - 炸醬麵 (zha jiang mian in Mandarin or Ja Jeung Min in Cantonese).

[kimtae]

Chinese people have the same dish. i think it's basically called the same thing - 炸醬麵 (zha jiang mian in Mandarin or Ja Jeung Min in Cantonese).I think the Koreanized version is a little different, not exactly sure how though since I've never had the Chinese. In any case, jjangmyun as we know it in Korea was originally created by Chinese cooks in Inchon in the 1800's as a cheap way to feed dock workers. It was tailored to meet the taste buds of the Korean workers much like all of the other Koreanized Chinese foods like jjamppong 짬뽕 and jabchae 잡채 which are barely recognizable from the original Chinese dishes that inspired them. I guess that goes to the heart of the reason why you can find Chinese restaurants in every country in the world. It may be the world's most adaptable cuisine.

[Scowl]

I guess that goes to the heart of the reason why you can find Chinese restaurants in every country in the world. It may be the world's most adaptable cuisine.

General Tso would certainly attest to that!

[seoulbrotherno1]

It seems like 짜장면 (jjajangmyeon) is one of those things that everyone eats but no one knows how to make (자파게티 -jjapagetti- doesn't count!)

I imagine that noodles aren't too hard to make either. I guess if you really wanted to impress a woman, you could make her 짜장면 (jjajangmyeon) and noodles. You could feed her some bullshit line about how your 할아버지 (grandfather) learned the recipe while he was a resistance fighter in Manchuria, and how your 할아버지's (grandfather's) anti-Japanese activities resulted in family tragedy, which led you to become an outlaw biker. (Every bad boy needs a tragedy to appeal to the women!)

Hmmm... now that Truebrother is gone, I seem to be ranting about nothing important... Anyways, thanks for the recipe. I'll definitely try it out!

sb1

[ZhuBaJie]

Chinese people have the same dish. i think it's basically called the same thing - 炸醬麵 (zha jiang mian in Mandarin or Ja Jeung Min in Cantonese).I think the Koreanized version is a little different, not exactly sure how though since I've never had the Chinese. In any case, jjangmyun as we know it in Korea was originally created by Chinese cooks in Inchon in the 1800's as a cheap way to feed dock workers. It was tailored to meet the taste buds of the Korean workers much like all of the other Koreanized Chinese foods like jjamppong 짬뽕 and jabchae 잡채 which are barely recognizable from the original Chinese dishes that inspired them. I guess that goes to the heart of the reason why you can find Chinese restaurants in every country in the world. It may be the world's most adaptable cuisine.

oh, i didn't know this.

anyway the Chinese version is basically the same. but it may be slightly different depending on what restaurant or who cooks it. each cook can take a lot of liberty in changing how the dish is cooked and it's not like there's a definitive way that you must never deviate from. i mean, the only people who sticks strictly to a recipe are those who are learning how to cook or learning a new dish.

[kimtae]

Chinese people have the same dish. i think it's basically called the same thing - 炸醬麵 (zha jiang mian in Mandarin or Ja Jeung Min in Cantonese).I think the Koreanized version is a little different, not exactly sure how though since I've never had the Chinese. In any case, jjangmyun as we know it in Korea was originally created by Chinese cooks in Inchon in the 1800's as a cheap way to feed dock workers. It was tailored to meet the taste buds of the Korean workers much like all of the other Koreanized Chinese foods like jjamppong 짬뽕 and jabchae 잡채 which are barely recognizable from the original Chinese dishes that inspired them. I guess that goes to the heart of the reason why you can find Chinese restaurants in every country in the world. It may be the world's most adaptable cuisine.

oh, i didn't know this.

anyway the Chinese version is basically the same. but it may be slightly different depending on what restaurant or who cooks it. each cook can take a lot of liberty in changing how the dish is cooked and it's not like there's a definitive way that you must never deviate from. i mean, the only people who sticks strictly to a recipe are those who are learning how to cook or learning a new dish.I had a Chinese friend try jjajangmyun here in Korea and he said it was a little different but couldn't really tell me how. Still, i love jjajangmyun in all of it's versions.
SB1, try taking out the garlic and ginger and adding a little cumin for something really freaky. And don't follow my recipe too closely, cooking is, after all, an art and not a science which means it's all up to your own personal interpretation. I'll post a noodle recipe later!

[ellencho]

I just found a pic of take-out jjajangmyun that I had a while ago. ALthough I haven't made my own jjajang sauce in a while, I believe I have the bean paste somewhere in the back of my fridge. Considering how much salt that stuff has in it, I can't imagine it going bad any time soon. And while I do appreciate home made jjajangmyun, I prefer for others to make it for me.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a120/foxandpoo/everythingelse/IMG_0749.jpg

[kimtae]

Where's the red pepper? I need about three big spoonfuls of red pepper!

[Shifting Paradigm]

Oh man, this thread makes me miss Jjajangmyung in Korea. The delivery guy brings it cheap, good, hot and even picks up the bowls after you are done with them. Of course, like every single college student in Korea knows every jjajangmyun delivery house in the local area, and knows which one is good, getting better, and got worse bc of new ownership, etc...

Delivery service is seriously top notch in Korea.

I do believe that the Chinese Koreans (Chinese who escaped to Korea during the Cultural Revolution, or something like that) introduced Jjajangmyung like you said. I remember eating Chinese jja-ja- mein one time, and the noodles were thinner, sauce had more oil in it, and it tasted slightly different... I know there are some Chinatowns in Korea, just like there are Koreatowns in the Jilin province in former Manchuria. Some of those Chinese Koreans immigrated again to the US (Just like Chinese Vietnamese immigrated to the US), so many times, you will find Chinese restaurants in LA where the waiters and owners speak perfect Korean.

Jjajangmyun and Tang-sooyuk is such a good combo. I dunno why it is, it just is.

[seoulbrotherno1]

Kimtae,

What's this crazy talk about cumin in jjajangmyeon?! Are you mad? How would you ever come up with such an insane idea? What kind of miserable failures did you come up with before you discovered "cumin"? (Basil Jjajang? Mint Jjajang?)

Personally, I think that the quality of jjajanmyeon is about 30% sauce and 70% noodles. I don't care how good the sauce is, if the noodles are shitty, then it is bad jjajangmyeon. Conversely, I have had some pretty mediorce sauce on kick-ass noodles. The result? Fantastic jjajangmyeon and all kinds of awful brown spots on my clothing (on my shirt, you foul minded fools!!!).

I have found a couple places that I like where they make the noodles by hand. I think that would be a kick-ass job, but then again, I am the only one who things that jjajangmyeon deliverymen are cool.

As an aside, lemme tell you a story about a jjajangmyeon delivery guy. It was winter and the roads were covered in "black ice" -a thin sheet of transparent ice that you can't really see at night. Anyways, this delivery guy comes tearing down the hill at a dangerous speed (gotta get the jjajang there on time!) with a bowl of food on one hand. He hits a corner and the bike begins to slide out from under him. He jerks it in the opposite direction in a vain attempt to regain control, but this just sends him flying over the handlebars. He bounces and rolls and his bike goes crashing into the bushes next to the corner. The guy is laying on the ground, groaning, but his left hand is up in the air -the bowl of food balanced atop his hand -unspilled.

It was the craziest thing I have seen in a long time. I thought that it was so fucking cool, I wanted to grow long spikey hair, dye that shit orange, drive a moped, and act more 느끼해 (greasy) than all the food in a Chinese restaurant.

sb1

[cattygurl]

I have never tried this. When I go to a Korean restaurant, I'll have to chekkit out.

[Hater Depot]

More commonly known as cheonjang huh.. not in Koreatown last night. Thanks for the recipe though!

[maogirl]

I thought that it was so fucking cool, I wanted to grow long spikey hair, dye that shit orange, drive a moped, and act more 느끼해 (greasy) than all the food in a Chinese restaurant.

sb1


don't sb1!

knowing my fatal attraction for orange-haired, greasy, bad scooter drivers, i'll end up being impregnated by you and you'll lose your chance at korean super-race children!

[seoulbrotherno1]

LMAO@ Maogirl! I can imagine that when she calls the Chinese delivery place, all hell breaks loose. I can picture a buncha skinny bare-chested and tank-topped delivery boys yelling at each other with cigarrettes hanging out of their mouth:

"No, I AM going to deliver the noodles!"

"Ni yao si le?"

*third driver pushes the second*

"I'm going!"

I never knew the whole delivery boy fantasy worked cross culturally.

*Maogirl answers the door in her lacy night gown*

"You must be so hot from delivering all that jjajangmyeon. Why don't you come in for some lemonade..."

sb1

[maogirl]

:lol: :shock:

that's exactly how i got into trouble the last time.

[Hater Depot]

What's the bitter black paste that they serve next to the danmuji and the raw onion slices?

[kimtae]

What's the bitter black paste that they serve next to the danmuji and the raw onion slices?That's the raw uncooked chunjang.

[Taliesin Stormheller]

I eat this stuff with tofu bits instead of meat. Chinese folks make it with soy sauce/beef instead of pasty sauce and pork. I am from Beijing so I eat it regularly.

[vsoy]

The Korean-Chinese restaurant I wanted to go to lunch today is closed for the entire month of March for renovations. :mad: What are the chances of that happening? So I picked up some supplies at the grocery next door and made Korean jjajangmyun for the first time with ground pork and zucchini.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v734/vsoy/IMG_0138.jpg

Even got gimbap and kimchee going on too
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v734/vsoy/IMG_0140.jpg

I got the Assi brand jjajang black bean paste which I thought would be safer than the Wang brand. This stuff is not spicy at all, wtf? Otherwise it was pretty tasty.

[ellencho]

Ha! It's not supposed to be spicy - just messy :) Looks good though. Did you make the gimbap yourself?