What are JJAJANGMYUN Noodles? An Overview
Korea's uber-popular black bean noodles are ironically a Chinese-Korean fusion dish developed by Chinese restauranteurs in Korea who adjusted their menu to local tastes.
It actually doesn't exist in China or “authentic” Chinese restaurants anywhere in the world (Only in Korean-Chinese restaurants 😂). You can think of General Tso's Chicken and how it's an American creation to get a better idea.
Anyway, in the Korean supermarket, you'll find packaged noodles specific for this dish. They will be labelled 짜장국수 (“Noodles for Jjajangmyun”).
These noodles are medium thickness noodles made specifically for Jjajangmyun. But if you don't see this, 칼국수면 (“Knife-Cut Noodles”) is a common substitute.
They are both noodles made with wheat, salt and water. Although it's common knowledge that Jjajang Noodles in restaurants have added baking soda (or its mass-produced equivalent) added for the signature spring-y texture.
🤯Watch a 6-year old making noodles by hand.
Wanna know an easy hack if you don't want to pay a premium for imported noodles or you're just too lazy to go get them? Take your run-of-the-mill spaghetti noodles and when the water boils, add a spoonful of baking soda. It's definitely an imitation, but sometimes it's just too darn cold/hot/busy out there! I learned of this hack from this article at Serious Eats. Actually, linguine would be a better match size-wise but I never really get linguine.
Just remember to drain and rinse the noodles in cold water as soon as they're done. It's a thing. It washes away excess starch and keeps them from sticking while retaining that bouncy chew.
As for the sauce, I'll cover it under the menu SAUCES but you gotta get yourself 춘장 (“Choon-Jang”). You're supposed to pre-fry this stuff in oil to get rid of a bitter aftertaste. But we don't like doing that so we get 진미춘장 (Chunjang by Jinmi) that doesn't require any pre-frying. Just add toppings (meat, veg - classic are plenty of onions + pork) and cook!
Jinmi's Chunjang: The blurb reads “Ultimate smoky flavour! It's got the convenience of not needing any pre-frying!”.
They might have it at your local. Ask for it because for some reason they don't have it beside the regular Chunjang at my store- it's in some rando place beside soup stock 🤦.
I'm slowly but surely working on fleshing out all the Korean ingredients sold at the Korean markets so check back often! Also if you're curious about a specific product, don't hesistate to drop me an email, I'll put priority on it 😉.