Black Day and JJM
wulijohyunjae | April 14, 2010 | 7:00 amApril 14 is Black Day in South Korea, where they have an informal tradition for single people to get together and eat “jajangmyeon” (JJM – noodles with black bean paste.)
Jajangmyeon (also 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 (also spelled jjajang), 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.”
Well, I’m not a great fan of jajangmyeon, but it seems at least two JHJ characters in his dramas are. Here you see Andrea and Han Yi-Joon sampling these noodles with black bean paste. It’s OK to get your mouth all messy – it means you’re enjoying the jajangmyeon.
With this video you see them in action – very interesting – especially in the case of Han Yi-Joon. Remember that scene when Eun-Jae asks him why he is always taking her to eat jajangmyeon, and he says because it’s her favourite. For himself, I’m sure he prefers steak, or pasta.
(Credit: Video by Param of CarpeDiemJAPAN; johyunjae.hk; mysinablog.com. Thanks!)
WuliJHJ, thank you for explaining where the black sauce for JJM comes from. JJM is such a staple in many Korean dramas that I have always wondered what the black sauce is made of. I often wondered if the black sauce in JJM came from pig’s blood. In the Philippines we have a pork dish called “Dinuguan” (in English “Dinuguan” means “blood added to it”) which has a black sauce too (no noodles, though); but the black sauce comes from the pig’s blood added to it. I know pig’s blood in one’s food may seem gross, but it is a very tasty dish. Anyway, I love the JHJ scenes involving JJM in the video.