What Makes Korea’s Favorite Noodle Dish So Good
This Korean takeout staple of chewy wheat noodles is universally appealing. Children and babies love it. Adults eat it on their cheat day, birthday, moving day.
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If you want to see your Korean friend revert to their childhood self, surprise them with a bowl of homemade jjajangmyeon.
Smothered in a supersavory gravy that’s studded with pork belly, this Korean takeout staple of chewy wheat noodles is universally appealing. Children and babies love it. Adults eat it on their cheat day, birthday, moving day. Korean singles eat it alone on April 14, or Black Day.
A variant of China’s zha jiang mian, jjajangmyeon (pronounced JJA-jahng-MYUN, the double “j” sound existing somewhere between cha and ja) was created in Incheon, South Korea, by Chinese migrant workers around the turn of the 20th century. Over time, its flavor has become sweeter and richer to match Korean palates. Words can feel inadequate to describe what these black bean noodles taste like. Sweet-salty comes to mind, as does the Korean word for umami, gamchil mat.
To achieve this depth of flavor, chef Keechang Kim of Dong Bo Sung in Fort Lee, New Jersey, takes his time browning the onions and rendering the pork fat that make up the sauce’s base, like his father taught him. It extracts a savory sweetness, only amplified by chunjang (pronounced CHOON-jahng), the fermented jet-black soybean paste that’s fried in the fat, then thinned into a gravy for the noodles.
Long in the shadows of its cousins gochujang and doenjang, chunjang — the ingredient that slicks the noodles black — shines in its own way, closer in flavor to Chinese tianmian sauce, or what makes Peking duck taste like Peking duck. Its salty-sweet darkness (the result of black soybeans, salt, wheat flour and caramel) is the stuff of jjajangmyeon dreams.
At the Korean Chinese restaurants that dole out bowls of these black bean noodles around the world, you’ll find even more chunjang served as a condiment, alongside raw onions and pickled yellow radish, often next to a bottle of white vinegar and a shaker of gochugaru.
For Sarah Ahn, an author of “Umma: A Korean Mom’s Kitchen Wisdom and 100 Family Recipes,” a splash of that vinegar (acid) and a shake of that gochugaru (heat) balance jjajangmyeon, an otherwise mellow brown food. It was a tip from her mother, Nam Soon, that surprised many Koreans when she shared it on social media, she said, because, while it’s on tables, vinegar doesn’t normally end up in the noodles.
Jjajangmyeon is a dish often cooked and eaten in a certain way, with tradition at its essence, so it can be a real “aha!” moment when there’s a change in a recipe, however small.
For me, that moment came from my mother, Jean, who uses grated potato in place of the traditional slurry of powdered starch and water to thicken the sauce without gloopiness. The spud’s earthiness also adds to the dish’s vegetal flavors, layers of charred cabbage, onion and potato, uplifting the aromatic richness of pork belly fat.
Another way to make homemade jjajangmyeon especially good? Taking care with the noodles. Delightfully chewy and elastic, fresh jjajang noodles are worth seeking out at your local Asian grocery store, though other wheat-based noodles, such as ramen or udon, are adequate substitutes.
Tora Yi, who owns the Korean Chinese restaurant Shanghai Mong in midtown Manhattan, rinses the boiled noodles under cold water to remove their claggy starch, then dunks them back in the cooking liquid to warm them up for serving. It’s a lesson, much like a beloved jjajangmyeon recipe, to hold onto for a lifetime.
Recipe: Jjajangmyeon (Black Bean Noodles)
Smothered in a supersavory gravy studded with pork belly, these chewy wheat noodles are South Korea’s cultural equivalent to delivery pizza in the United States. Traditionally a takeout food, this variant of China’s zha jiang mian was created in Incheon, South Korea, by Chinese migrant workers around the turn of the 20th century. Over the years, the dish has become sweeter and richer with pork to match Korean palates. A flavorful broth results in the most flavorful jjajang sauce, which is simmered slowly here to develop the deep comfort of onion and cabbage that scaffolds umami sweetness over the fragrant pork belly. Traditionally, powdered starch thickens the sauce, but here, grated potato achieves the same effect with less gloopiness.
By Eric Kim
Yield: 4 servings
Total time: 1 hour
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon canola or grapeseed oil, plus more if needed
- 8 ounces boneless, skinless pork belly, sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick pieces
- Salt
- 1 medium white onion, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 small green cabbage, cored and coarsely chopped
- 2 1/2 tablespoons chunjang, sometimes labeled as jjajang (fermented black bean paste; see Tips)
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 small russet potato
- 1 1/2 pounds fresh wheat noodles for jjajangmyeon (see Tips)
- 1 small cucumber, cut into thin matchsticks
Directions
1. Heat a large Dutch oven or large, deep skillet over medium. Add the oil and pork belly, season with salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and some fat has rendered, about 10 minutes.
2. Raise the heat to high. Add the onion and cabbage and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and the bottom of the pot starts to get brown and sticky, 3 to 5 minutes. Add more oil if the bottom is dry.
3. Add the chunjang and cook, stirring constantly, until the pork is slicked with the paste, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
4. Stir in the chicken broth and maple syrup, scraping the bottom of the pot to release any caramelized brown bits. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer until the pork is tender, about 20 minutes.
5. Peel and grate the potato, then stir it into the sauce and raise the heat to high to bring to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thick like gravy, 10 to 15 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the noodles according to package instructions, then transfer with tongs to a colander or sieve in the sink. Rinse under cold water until no longer sticky, then dunk back into the hot water to reheat the noodles. Drain well, then distribute the noodles among bowls.
7. Generously ladle the jjajang sauce over the noodles, top with the cucumbers and eat immediately.
Tips
Chunjang, the word for the fermented black soybean paste that forms the base of jjajang sauce, isn’t always listed on the label for this product. What you’re looking for is a jet-black paste, often labeled “black bean paste,” with ingredients including black soybeans, salt, wheat flour and caramel.
Jjajangmyeon-specific fresh wheat noodles can be found in the refrigerated and frozen sections of Korean grocery stores and most Asian markets. Delightfully chewy and elastic, they’re worth seeking out. They’re thicker, chewier and more substantial than Italian pasta, but a pound of linguine, thick spaghetti or bucatini can be substituted.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
