G Daniela Galarza
THE WASHINGTON POST – When asked about his go-to comfort food, my friend Sam Kim doesn’t hesitate: “It’s jajangmyeon”. The chewy bowl of noodles topped with a sweet-and-salty black bean sauce, thick with hunks of meat and vegetables, may have roots in Chinese cuisine, but today it’s thoroughly Korean.
Chocolatier and the founder of Stick With Me Sweets in New York City Susanna Yoon shares Kim’s sentiment. “It was a popular noodle dish for family outings. We enjoyed it together quite often,” Yoon told me, noting that she grew up outside Seattle, where there were many restaurants that offered the dish. “My dad would make it for us at home, too, sometimes,” she said, adding that she loves its “super-hearty, salty and sweet flavours”.
While jajangmyeon is made and enjoyed year-round, I only recently read in chef Peter Serpico’s book, Learning Korean, written with Drew Lazor, that it’s traditionally served on April 14, known as Black Day in Korea. This anti-Valentine’s celebration follows Valentine’s Day on February 14 and White Day, another couples’ holiday, on March 14. On Black Day, “single people dress in gothic attire and drown their romantic woes in mountains of noodles the same colour as their clothes, and maybe their souls”, Serpico wrote.
Serpico, whose birth name is Kyung-ho, told me that he doesn’t have memories of eating jajangmyeon as a kid because he wasn’t raised on Korean food. “Like my siblings, I was adopted. My parents were very adamant about raising me American. They wanted us to fit in, and part of that was not eating Korean food as a family,” he explained.
As a result, Serpico spent most of his life feeling caught between several worlds.
More than a decade ago, well into his career as a chef at some of New York’s most acclaimed restaurants, something clicked.
“The spark came to me in Queens, around a modest table covered end-to-end with the first, and best, real Korean food I’d ever tasted,” Serpico wrote of his Korean mother-in-law’s spread. The first time he had the black bean noodles she made for the family – alongside other Korean dishes – Serpico tasted something that finally felt like home. He credits his wife, Julie, and her parents for introducing him to the home-cooked Korean food that was the key to understanding his heritage and, by proxy, himself. “I’d eaten Korean cuisine before,” he wrote, “but it took intimate, substantial moments like these for me to finally get it”.
Today, Serpico makes Korean food for his daughter, Charlie, and it’s a bonding and learning experience for them both.
“Jajangmyeon is Charlie’s favourite dish,” Serpico told me, noting that he makes it with whatever vegetables he has around. Though meat is used in traditional recipes, sometimes he skips them. He specifies honey instead of sugar in his recipe, “because I try to make things a little healthier for us at home”.
The sauce’s striking onyx colour comes from chunjang, Korean black bean paste. Find it at Asian grocery stores and online; it lasts a long while in the fridge. In this recipe for jajangmyeon, adapted from Serpico’s book, carrots, zucchini and potatoes add flavour and texture to the sauce. Serpico’s recipe makes enough to feed four to six, but if you’re feeding just yourself, the sauce freezes extremely well.
Serpico noted that this can come in handy in the future “in the event of a bad break-up”. Jajangmyeon is a recipe for comfort.
JAJANGMYEON
If you can’t find Yukon Gold potatoes, any type of potato will work.
For rougher-skinned varieties, you may want to scrub them well or peel them before chopping. In place of zucchini consider cabbage or extra carrots. Instead of meat, Serpico recommends tofu or seitan.
Udon isn’t essential. Feel free to use another type of long noodle, including one that’s gluten-free.
INGREDIENTS
– Two tablespoons vegetable oil
– Half pound meat, cut into bite-size chunks (optional)
– One large yellow onion, diced
– Four cloves garlic, sliced
– Two tablespoons honey
– One tablespoon peeled and minced or grated fresh ginger
– One teaspoon fine salt, plus more as needed
– One large carrot, peeled and sliced
– Half cup chunjang
– Two and half cups no-salt added chicken or vegetable broth or water
– One Yukon Gold potato, diced
– One zucchini, diced
– Two pounds fresh udon noodles
– Sliced scallions, for garnish (optional)
DIRECTIONS
In a large pot over medium-high heat, heat the oil until it shimmers.
Add the meat, if using, and cook, stirring, until browned on all sides, about five minutes. Add the onion, garlic, honey, ginger and salt.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to brown, about eight minutes.
Add the carrot, chunjang, and broth or water. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil.
Decrease the heat and adjust as needed to maintain a high simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally and scraping the bottom of the pot to prevent sticking, until the sauce thickens and turns glossy, about 25 minutes.
Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the potato and zucchini, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until both are tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the udon noodles and cook until soft and chewy, 10 to 12 minutes.
Drain the noodles and divide them among four bowls. Portion the sauce evenly atop the noodles and serve hot, garnished with scallions, if desired.
