[Korean Culture & Language] The Origin of 짜장면
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Ask any Korean what they’re planning on eating they day they move to a new place, and the answer will most likely be 짜장면 (jja-jang-myun). Topped with a thick black bean sauce and garnished with diced pork and vegetables, this Korean-Chinese noodle dish is considered a classic comfort food that’s cheap and easy to eat. You’d be hard pressed to find a person who makes this dish from scratch at home. Rather, the norm is to get it delivered from your local Chinese restaurant or nowadays, buy it as a prepackaged meal from the supermarket.
Up till the 1980s and 90s however, 짜장면 was a delicacy meant only for special occasions like graduations and birthdays. During the Korean war, the flour required for making the noodles was available only in limited quantities, and although more flour was imported from the United States post-war, 짜장면 still remained an expensive dish that one could not eat often.
These noodles were first introduced to Koreans in the early 1900s by way of a Chinese restaurant called Gonghwachun. This restaurant was located in Incheon, a port city where Chinese immigrants had settled, starting in the late 19th century, and home to the largest Chinatown in South Korea to date. The 짜장면 served at Gonghwachun was derived from the Chinese zhajianmian noodle dish, which has roots in the northern Shandong province. While zhajianmian is made with a soybean paste that results in a light brown-colored sauce, the 짜장면 sauce, also known as 춘장 (chun-jang), features an extra ingredient: caramel. This ingredient was added to the original zhajianmian sauce, in order to match the sweet taste buds of Korean consumers.
Today, 짜장면 is a much more casual dish for any and all occasions, whether it be a quick lunch during work or a late night dinner for students up late studying. Not to mention, there are several types of 짜장면 one can choose from. One such type is 간짜장. Regular 짜장면 has a thick sauce made with starch but the sauce for 간짜장 (gahn-jja-jang) is stir-fried with the vegetables and made sans starch, resulting in a more watery but richer soybean taste.
Other well-known types of 짜장면 include 쟁반짜장 (jaeng-ban-jja-jang), which is served in a wide bowl on a 쟁반 (jaeng-ban; tray) and has enough portions for 2 to 3 people, and 유니짜장 (yuni-jja-jang), which features ground pork, and 삼선짜장 (sam-sun-jja-jang), which is made with seafood.
Share with us in the comments below: what kind of 짜장면 would you want to try?
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