Jajangmyeon

Jajangmyeon (Korean: 자장면) or jjajangmyeon (짜장면) is a Korean Chinese noodle dish topped with a thick sauce made of chunjang, diced pork, and vegetables. It is a variation of the Chinese dish zhajiangmian; it developed in the late 19th century, during the Joseon period, when Chinese migrant workers from Shandong arrived in Incheon. The Korean variant of the dish uses a darker and sweeter sauce than the Chinese version. Variants of the dish use seafood, or other meats.
Jajang or jjajang is borrowed from the Chinese word zhájiàng (炸醬), which means "fried sauce", while myeon (면; 麵) means "noodles", itself a Sino-Korean loanword in place of the native guksu (국수). The Chinese characters are pronounced jakjang (작장) in Korean, but the noodle dish is called jajangmyeon, not *jakjangmyeon, because its origin is not the Sino-Korean word, but a transliteration of the Chinese pronunciation. As the Chinese pronunciation of zhá sounded like jja (rather than ja) to Korean ears, the dish is known in South Korea as jjajangmyeon, and the vast majority of Korean Chinese restaurants use this spelling.
For many years, until 22 August 2011, the National Institute of Korean Language did not recognize the word jjajangmyeon as an accepted idiomatic transliteration. Jjajangmyeon did not become the standard spelling because the transliteration rules for foreign words announced in 1986 by the Ministry of Education stated that the foreign obstruents should not be transliterated using doubled consonants except for some established usages. The lack of acknowledgment faced tough criticism from the supporters of the spelling jjajangmyeon, such as Ahn Do-hyeon, a Sowol Poetry Prize winning poet. Later, jjajangmyeon was accepted as an alternative standard spelling alongside jajangmyeon in the National Language Deliberation Council and, on 31 August, included as a standard spelling in the Standard Korean Language Dictionary.
Jajangmyeon was brought to Incheon, Korea during the late nineteenth century by migrant workers from Shandong province, China. At a time when both Qing and Japanese businesses were competing against each other, jajangmyeon was offered at the Chinese restaurant Gonghwachun in Incheon Chinatown, which was founded in 1905 and run by an immigrant from the Shandong region. The restaurant is now the Jajangmyeon Museum.
Both the name and dish originate from the Chinese dish zhájiàngmiàn (炸醬麵). The common copied features of both are pork, long wheat noodles, and a sauce made from fermented soybean paste. Originally the sauce that was introduced from China to make the noodle dish was saltier, richer, and of a deep brown color. Chefs at Incheon, Korea later added in caramel to sweeten the sauce, and added grains that darkened the sauce to copy the jet-black-brown color over time.
In the mid-1950s in South Korea, immediately after the Korean War, jajangmyeon was sold at low prices so that anyone could eat it without economic burden. The new Korean-style jajangmyeon became popular among merchants visiting the port of Incheon, the center of trade, and the many dock workers working in the fish market, and quickly spread throughout the country, being recognized as its "own dish" rather than a copied version of the traditional Chinese one.
Jajangmyeon uses thick, hand-made or machine-pulled noodles made from wheat flour, salt, baking soda, and water. The sauce, jajang, is made with fried chunjang with other ingredients, such as soy sauce (or oyster sauce), meat (usually pork, but sometimes beef), seafood (usually squid or shrimp), fragrants (scallions, ginger, and garlic), vegetables (usually onions, zucchini or Korean zucchini, or cabbage), stock, and starch slurry.
When served, jajangmyeon may be topped with julienned cucumber, scallions, egg garnish, boiled or fried egg, blanched shrimp or stir-fried bamboo shoot slices. The dish is usually served with danmuji (yellow pickled radish), sliced raw onions, and chunjang sauce for dipping the onions.
Variations of the jajangmyeon dish include gan-jjajang, jaengban-jjajang, yuni-jjajang, and samseon-jjajang.
There can be combinations. For example. samseon-gan-jjajang may refer to seafood jajangmyeon made without adding water.
Dishes such as jajang-bap and jajang-tteok-bokki also exist. Jajang-bap is essentially the same dish as jajangmyeon, but served with rice instead of noodles. Jajang-tteok-bokki is tteok-bokki served with jajang sauce instead of the usual spicy sauce. Bul jajangmyeon is a spicy variation of jajangmyeon.
Instant jajangmyeon products, such as Chapagetti, Chacharoni, and Zha Wang, are instant noodle versions of jajangmyeon consisting of dried noodles that are boiled in the same manner as ramyeon, using dried vegetable pieces that are drained and mixed with jajang powder or liquid jajang sauce, as well as a small amount of water and oil.