It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I learned ‘Korean Chinese food’ exists. Like American Chinese food, Korean Chinese food are Chinese dishes adjusted to suit Korean cuisine. In this subcategory of cooking, jajangmyeon, derived from 炸酱面
Instant Jajangmyeon
(zhajiangmian) is probably most well known. I vividly remember seeing and hearing about jajangmyeon on the internet back in middle school but I never put the pieces together (I’m a little slow like that). For those unfamiliar with Asian cuisines, jajangmyeon is a derivative of zhajiangmian, a popular Chinese noodle dish originating from Beijing. Both feature fermented pastes as the base for their sauce, but the taste and other common ingredients differ. I’ve only had jajangmyeon twice. So I’ll be focusing on what I’m familiar with, which is the Chinese dish, zhajiangmian.
Zhajiangmian translates to ‘fried sauce noodles’. Traditionally, 甜面酱 (tianmianjiang) is used as the base for the sauce. Ideally (for the most authentic taste), you’d use tianmianjiang, but if I’m being honest, there’s a lot that can be used as a substitute. For a substitute to functionally act the same, it needs to have two qualities.
- It needs to have a strong, salty flavor. Since this is what primarily flavors the dish, it needs to have the savory, umami qualities that carry the dish.
- Based on how the sauce is made, that is, literally pan fried, it needs to be thick enough to be able to cook it in this way.
An easy substitute that comes to mind is Miso. Salty with a good umami quality and thick enough to fry, my mom has actually used miso in the past when we’ve run out of tianmianjiang. She also used it during her ‘I don’t trust products from China because I think they add unregulated chemicals into their food’ phase. Bottomline is, if you have no idea what tianmianjiang is, think of something along the lines of Miso for the base of the sauce.
The other components that go into the sauce are as follows:
- Any cooked aromatics. Fry up some ginger and garlic in the pan before putting in the base to add flavor. I feel like most people know that adding ginger and garlic makes the flavor more complex, but I still feel obligated to say it. So if you didn’t know why people use ginger and garlic, now you do.
- Meat. Pork is the most commonly used meat, but anything works. Pork is preferred because it’s fatty and the grease adds a
Marinated Pork
depth of flavor. It’s usually sliced pretty thin (since it’s part of the sauce) and is oftentimes marinated using my favorite Chinese cooking technique: velveting! I’m considering doing a whole post dedicated to this technique after my noodle series so I won’t go too in depth now. If I don’t end up doing a post about it, I guess you guys will just never know what it is (unless you google it I guess). Sometimes, people use eggs along with the meat or as a meat substitute.
- Any other cooked vegetables/ingredients. For this dish, everything cooked goes into the sauce. I used mushrooms and some chili pepper this time because we had it in the house, but any cooked vegetables or other components in the dish should be part of the sauce. Jajanmyeon has cabbage, zucchini, and potatoes, and though these aren’t typically added in Zhajiangmian, that shouldn’t deter anyone from adding what they want.
Ginger, Garlic, Chili Pepper
Making the sauce is pretty simple. When the pan is heated, add oil and fry up any meat or eggs. After they finish cooking, take them out, and use the leftover oil/grease to fry the aromatics. Add in the other vegetables, reincorporate the protein, and put whatever you’re using as the base into the pan to fry. When it smells right (you’ll know if you have any cooking intuition at all), pour in a cornstarch slurry to thicken up the sauce. After the sauce has thickened, it’s done.
The sauce is the most cooking this dish requires. The other parts are the noodles and the raw toppings.
For noodles, anything works. It’s honestly a matter of personal preference. I’m not a huge fan of the wide noodles so I don’t use them, but if you like those you should use them. It doesn’t matter and it won’t make or break the dish so just use whatever you have on hand.
For the raw toppings, cucumber and green onion are the most basic. Again though, it doesn’t really matter so you should add
what you like. This time, I found out halfway through that I didn’t have any green onion and I almost started crying but it really wasn’t that big of a deal in the end. The one thing that I would recommend is slicing the toppings really thin. Besides that, I don’t have much else to say.
For me, this dish is just alright. It’s not my favorite way of eating noodles, but it’s definitely something I’ll crave from time to time. And when I do have it, it’s a satisfying meal. If my sister was writing this post she would have a lot more to say because there was a point in time when this is all she would eat, but this dish was never that for me. It is an iconic Chinese dish though so I would give it a try if you’ve never had it.
5 Comments
Hi Kathryn,
Another banger blog this week. I love the idea of connecting Chinese and Korean cuisine, and even though I can’t speak Chinese or Korean I feel like I can see the relationship in the spellings showing how similar the two are. Overall the blog is very well constructed; similar to the last post with the added twist of comparing the two versions.
I can’t rave enough about your outlines. If the whole history thing doesn’t work you need to be a food blogger. You’ve once again dissected what is critical to the dish and what is extraneous, and it really helps us as readers get an idea of what making the dish entails. I also love how devoted you are to saying that you can just add whatever you want. It makes the process much more approachable for a reader who might consider making it, and I know I can just throw something together that would vaguely resemble the dish while still giving a similar experience. You also smoothly integrated the description of the dish with the recipe. We learned how to make it while also learning what it is and what makes it zhajiangmian.
On an unrelated note, I think the idea of crying over not having onions is pretty ironic. But I guess it is related because you seem to have figured out the recipe for a good food blog post; interweaving the description with the narrative all over the actual recipe. Bravo
Can’t wait til next week!
Hi Tyler!
Thanks for your comment. I really appreciate you taking the time every week to read and comment, it really makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Let me know if you have any dish suggestions!
Kathryn — I always enjoy reading your blogs; you blend interesting culinary knowledge and entertaining commentary so seamlessly. I was excited to see that this week’s topic is zhajiangmian! I’ve always taken after my dad in terms of taste. Being from Xi’an, he’s passed down an appreciation for noodle dishes, so zhajiangmian is a familiar and favorite dish for the two of us.
Your discussion of substitutes for the sauce base was really interesting! My technical knowledge about cooking is almost nonexistent, despite several Bon Appetit YouTube video binges, so it’s fascinating to read your explanations. Tianmianjiang is such an iconic sauce; the first thing that comes to mind for me for some reason is jianbingguozi, a street food I vaguely remember having for breakfast in China at some point. On that topic — would love to hear your thoughts on the best breakfast foods, because I feel like you’d have some cool takes.
Anyway, totally agree with Tyler regarding your food blogging prowess. Your breakdown of the components of the sauce and the process of making the noodles was super fun to read. I’d also definitely watch if you ever made a cooking YouTube channel.
Hi Kathryn!
I also didn’t know that Korean-Chinese food existed until recently. When I saw “Jajangmyeon” on the internet for the first time, I actually had a mini crisis in wondering which one came first. I also grew up eating 炸酱面, and it’s been one of my favorite dishes since childhood. My family uses a mix of ladoubanjiang and tianmianjiang. I haven’t used miso paste as the base before, so I might try that the next time my family starts craving it. My zhajiangmian often has ground pork, doufugan (dried tofu), and green onion. My dad has a strange but intense distaste for cucumber, so we never really use it on top of our noodles. Personally, I really like wide rice noodles, so I like to use those as our noodles.
I thought it was interesting that jajangmyeon has zucchini and potato. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of potato in a noodle dish, but now I’m tempted to try it.
Despite not commenting before, I’ve really loved reading all of your food blogs, and it makes me happy to see the foods we eat at home all the time on your page! All of your pictures look really good, and your instructions are really clear!
Hi Kathryn! I love your piece! Your love of cooking shines through your writing, and I love how you are able to share culture as well. I know that there are many Korean Chinese foods, and this is definitely one of my favorites. As somebody who is Korean-American, this dish was a staple growing up. Whether it be the instant version or a more elevated version, I have many fond memories of jjajangmyeon. It was my aunt’s favorite dish to serve to all the cousins, and I especially remember how one time, my younger cousin who lives farther away (and thus didn’t grow up with jjajangmyeon like the rest of us) was terrified at the sight of the noodles in the black sauce. As much as I ate it growing up, I don’t think that I have ever made it at home, and your piece inspired me to! You are such a talented writer, especially with food! I will try and start with a miso-like base, add aromatics, a protein and vegetables! Your detailed, step-by-step but also flexible instructions make the task of cooking seem much more approachable. Overall, I loved your piece, and the inspiration it gave me!