- published: 27 Nov 2012
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Jajangmyeon (alternately spelled jjajangmyeon; 자장면; 짜장면) 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 (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."
Jajangmyeon was first created in the city of Incheon, where early Chinese migrants to Korea began to settle in the Korea under Japanese rule. In 1905, the dish was arguably first developed in a Chinese restaurant called Gonghwachun (공화춘; 共和春) (literally means "Republican Spring") in Incheon. The city of Incheon sponsored the "100 year anniversary of the birth of jajangmyeon" in 2005.
The dish originated from zha jiang mian (炸醬麵, literally "fried sauce noodles") in China's Shandong region. The pronunciation of the dish's name is nearly identical to that of its Korean counterpart. But Korean jajangmyeon differs from Chinese zha jiang mian, as Korean zajangmyeon uses black Korean chunjang including caramel, and onions that Chinese zha jiang mian does not use. Korean-style jajangmyeon has also been gaining popularity in China recently.