For those who love pasta, more precisely noodles, should know jajangmyeon (자장면) or jjajangmyeon (짜장면), a noodle that originated in China but has Korean adaptations. It is usually topped with a thick chunjang sauce, diced pork, and vegetables.
The dish originated in Incheon, South Korea, where Chinese workers began the process to make zhajiangmian, which is basically a stir-fried bean sauce, as early as the late 19th century. What differentiates the flavor in the Korean version is the darker and sweeter sauce. There are also people who prefer to use seafood or other types of meat. After all, cooking allows many adaptations according to each taste!
Table of Content
history of jajangmyeon
Jajangmyeon arrived in Korea through migrants from Shandong province in China. During this period, there was competition between Qing (the last imperial dynasty of China) and Japanese. But jajangmyeon was only offered for the first time in 1905 at a Chinese restaurant in Incheon Chinatown called Gonghwachun ( 공화춘 ;共和春). Currently, the restaurant no longer exists, but it has become the Jajangmyeon Museum.
The original sauce introduced by China is a light brown with a saltier flavor. Later, Korean chefs added caramel to sweeten it, in addition to using grains to darken it.
Around the 1950s in South Korea, jajangmyeon was sold at a price well below the market so that more people could have access to it. The dish began to attract the attention of Incheon visitors and merchants, and the result was national popularity.
Name origin
Basically, in eastern culture, every name is accompanied by some history, especially with regard to food. Jajang (자장) is of Chinese origin zhájiàng (炸酱), which literally means “fried sauce” and Myeon (면) “noodles”.
Chinese characters are pronounced as jak ( 작 ;炸) and jang ( 장 ;醬) in Korean. However, the correct name is jajangmyeon , due to its origin which is not Sino-Korean, but is a conversion of the Chinese pronunciation. Despite this, most restaurants use the spelling: jjajangmyeon, due to the Chinese pronunciation zhá which sounds like jja instead of “ja” to Koreans.
As of August 22, 2011, the National Institute of Korean Language does not recognize the word jjajangmyeon as an accepted idiomatic transliteration.
Features
To make jajangmyeon, a thicker noodle is used, with homemade dough or pulled by the machine. For this dough, wheat flour, salt, baking soda, and water are used. The sauce is made with chunjang (soybean paste) fried with soy or oyster sauce; meat (pork or beef); seafood (squid or shrimp); spring onions; ginger and garlic; assorted vegetables; broth and starch paste.
The dish is commonly served with cucumber, spring onion, egg gun, boiled or fried egg, poached shrimp or fried bamboo shoot slices. It can also be used on top of ready-made jajangmyeon radish, raw onion and chunjang sauce (for dipping the onions).
Learn to do jajangmyeon
Recipe from https://www.receiteria.com.br/
Ingredients:
- 500 grams of udon noodles
- neutral oil
- 150 grams of jajang
- 400 grams of pork loin, cubed (it can be another soft pork cut or beef)
- 2 medium diced onions
- 1/4 cabbage cut into cubes
- 1 zucchini cut into cubes
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in a little water
- 4 eggs
- 1 Japanese cucumber cut into thin strips
Preparation mode:
- In a pan, heat the oil and sauté the jajang, stirring constantly so that it does not burn.
- Remove from the pan and set aside.
- In the same pan, sauté the meat, onion and cabbage, stirring constantly.
- Return the paste to the pan, add water, reduce the heat, mix well, cover and let it cook until the ingredients are cooked.
- Add the zucchini and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.
- Put the dissolved corn starch, mix and stir until thickened.
- Turn off the heat and set aside.
- In another large pot, boil a lot of water.
- Put the pasta and let it cook.
- If it foams too much, add 1/3 of a cup of cold water.
- When you reach the desired point, turn off the heat and drain the water.
- Assemble by placing the macaroni in a deep dish. On top of the sauce, a fried egg with a soft yolk and cucumber.
- Now it's just serving. Enjoy.
Did you already know this type of pasta? Feel like trying it out?