Chinese Food in Korea: Jjajangmyeon 짜장면

Jjajangmyeon

Jajangmyeon (자장면; 짜장면; jjajangmyeon), is a noodle dish topped with a thick sauce made of chunjang (a salty black soybean paste), diced pork and vegetables, and sometimes also seafood. Jajang (alternately spelled jjajang), the name of the sauce, is the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese characters 炸醬, which literally means “fried sauce.” Myeon (also spelled myun) means “noodle”. Source: Wikipedia

This is actually a Chinese Korean dish, found in Chinese Korean restaurants in Korea. The Chinese version is actually slightly different — it’s basically a Korean-ized Chinese dish. I like both versions, but it was a must eat while in Korea. During our trip, we ordered Jjajangmyeon twice: 1) at a Chinese restaurant in Daejeon 2) delivery. Honestly, it’s not a pretty dish and probably doesn’t look very appetizing if you’ve never tried it but I would definitely recommend that you try it! Every time I see people eat Jjajangmyeon all the time in Korean dramas etc. I start craving some for myself. Too bad there aren’t very many options in San Diego.

Chinese Restaurant: Tae Weon 태원

Jjangmyeon at Tae Weon

Getting there (phone number and address): 042-488-8838 1242 Dunsan 2(i)-dong (19 Munjeong-ro) Click here for a map and directions

We found this restaurant on our way back to our friends relatives house in DaeJeon; located down the street from the Samgyupsal restaurant we went to previous day (I wrote all about it in this post.) We were too tired to really search for something to eat or to try new foods, so we walked into this Chinese restaurant knowing exactly what we wanted to eat — Jjajanmyeon (and Jjampong — a spicy seafood noodle soup).

Jjampong

Upon walking inside, we knew we were in a Chinese restaurant with old traditional Chinese furniture and Chinese art work on the walls. The menu consisted of items like fried rice, sweet and sour pork, and of course Jjajamyeong.

Home Delivery

Ready to eat at home

When I was doing my research for my trip to South Korea, one warning I got was to be careful of motorcycles on the sidewalks. Most of these motorcyclist are on a mission to deliver (and pick up) food!

The concept: Check out this Eat Your Kimchi video on How To Get Korean Home Delivery.

Call a nearby restaurant
Order your food
Give them your address
Food get delivered to your house
Pack up all of the dishes and trash in a bag provided
Leave it outside and someone will pick it up

Food delivered at the door way. (Excuse the shoes, trash, etc)

For us, it was kind of a big ordeal ordering our food because our friend (who speaks Korean) couldn’t figure out how to call the restaurant on her Korean cell phone (I know, it sounds like a no brainer, but the call wouldn’t go through!) Anyways, she called her Dad, told him what we wanted, and he called for us. Our food came pretty fast, and we didn’t even need to tip the guy or anything. He simply dropped off all of the food just inside the house, took our money and left. The food was not in the styrofoam take out boxes we’re used to of seeing, our noodles were in plastic bowls wrapped with plastic wrap. In addition to the Jjajangmyeon we ordered were were given couple side dishes (kimchi and radish), as well as some fried buns. Once we were done, all we needed to do was pack everything up in a bag provided to us with all of the dishes AND trash. We didn’t need to do any dishes or worry about where to dispose of our trash (more on disposing of trash in South Korea in another post). There was no additional charge for delivery; so it was the same price as eating at the restaurant. If only we had that at home.