Ja Jang Myun:
Chinese Noodles, Korean-style

Ja Jang Myun is a Korean noodle dish of Chinese origin. A quick and tasty meal, Ja Jang Myun is often delivered in urban areas on the backs of scooters. Children, in particular, love Ja Jang Myun, which consists of thick wheat noodles served with a special black bean sauce. The best Ja Jang Myun noodles are made by hand and served immediately.

The dish, as known by Koreans, is said to have originated in Incheon, a port city where Chinese laborers congregated in the Chinese quarter, or what is now the city's Chinatown. Restaurants started out serving Ja Jang Myun to the Chinese community, but the taste soon caught on and spread to other parts of the city and country. Today, Incheon is deeply proud of its heritage as the birthplace of the nation's much-loved noodle, and every year a Ja Jang Myun eating festival takes place here.

The Chinese dish on which Ja Jang Myun is based is known as Zha Jiang Mian, a specialty of northern China. Tasty and cheap to prepare, Zha Jiang Mian has been a popular dish in northern China for centuries, and if you believe the tales of Marco Polo, may even have inspired Italian spaghetti.

In any case, although considered by Koreans to be a distinctly Chinese dish, Ja Jang Myun has taken on its own identity and tastes quite different from its Chinese equivalent. The difference lies mainly in the paste itself. Koreans have a centuries-old tradition of fermenting soybeans and appreciate great subtlety in different fermentation methods. For example, Koreans distinguish between paste made with beans that are boiled or steamed and those fermented in hot or mild weather. Chunjang, the Korean recipe bean paste used in Ja Jang Myun balances the slightly bitter taste of fermented soybeans with a slight tinge of sweetness and for Koreans, simply has no substitute.

Call it a national obsession, but according to the Korea Times, the average price of a bowl of Ja Jang Myun in Korea rose a startling 10.8% between 2002 and 2003, well outpacing inflation and marking the biggest price hike among all dishes tracked. Officials from Korea's Ministry of Finance and Economy largely attributed this sharp rise to unrelenting demand for the dish. "Although consumers have recently tightened their belts, [Ja Jang Myun] seems not to have been affected", the paper quotes an official as saying.

That's good to know, but where can you get a piece of the action? For your benefit Asiafood has compiled a list of known sources in and around NYC. Fill us in on any we have missed!

Hyo Dong Gak
51 W. 35th Street
New York City
(212) 695-7167

Uncle King's
136-75 Roosevelt Ave.
Flushing, Queens
(718) 353-2261

Sam Won Gahk
82-83 Broadway
Queens
(718) 458-0700

Mandarin Chinese Restaurant
110 Broad Avenue #10
Palisades Park, NJ
(210) 313-0121

Crystal Palace
150 Sylvan Avenue
Englewood Cliffs
New Jersey
(201) 816-8999

Edison Noodle House
775-2 Old Post Road
New Jersey
(732) 572-0600

Ming's Restaurant
121 South York Road
Hatboro, PA
(215) 674-8804