Jajangmyeon or Zha Jiang Mian, Seoul.

12.02.2009 @ Coex Mall @ chinese restaurant, Seoul. Me & Mom, dinner with our family friend Kim Hee Sun at a Chinese Restaurant at Coex Mall.

I have been looking forward to try this noodle for so long, this is all because i have been watching too much Korean dramas eating Jajangmyeon! :) I was so keen to try the real Jajangmyeon in Korea myself and its a dream come true! I requested Hee Sun to bring me to the best in the city. So there she bring us to this Chinese Restaurant in Coex Mall. The portion is big and generous.

I got this from the Jajangmyeon wikipedia. Jajangmyeon is a popular Korean dish, derived from the Chinese dish zha jiang mian. It consists of wheat noodles topped with a thick sauce made of chunjang (a salty black soybean paste), diced meat and vegetables, and sometimes also seafood. Jajang (also 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."

According to Hee Sun, korean celebrates every 14th in the calender. On this particular date, the 14th April, they called it a "Black Day" in korea. On the 14th April, those who are single and not in a relationship meet and they eat Black Noodle ( jajangmyeon ) together. :)

Let me explain more about the noodle, the noodle texture is thick made from white wheat flour. The noodles, which are made entirely by hand and not by machines. The sauce is made with a dark soybean paste called chunjang (hangul: 춘장; Chinese: 春醬). The paste, which is made from roasted soybeans and caramel, is called chunjang (literally "spring paste") when unheated, while the heated sauce (containing vegetables and meat or seafood) is called jjajang (literally "fried sauce"). Chunjang is stir-fried with diced onions, ground meat (either beef or pork) or chopped seafood, and other ingredients. When cooking the sauce, usually meat stock is added to reduce the salty taste of cooked chunjang, andpotato starch or cornstarch is added to give the sauce a thick consistency. The sauce is served hot over noodles, sometimes with sliced raw cucumbers.

If u wish to understand more about the noodle, search jajangmyeon wikipedia.