Article by Gil "hannaone"
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Image by hannaone: Jjajangmyeon

자장면

Jjajangmyeon originated in Incheon, Korea, where Chinese migrant workers brought over a dish called zhajiangmian from Shandong in the late 19th century. It’s a delightful blend of Chinese culinary influence with Korean tastes.
When we started serving this dish back in the mid 1990s, very few Americans had heard of it, and many would not try it until we fell back on a common Korean to Non Korean description "It's like a Chinese Sphaghetti".
Skip forward to 2017 and many people came in to try Jjajangmyeon because their favorite K-Pop star was seen eating it, or they had seen the dish in a Korean Drama.

Servings: 4
Recipe Type: Noodle, sauced
Note: Fresh jjajang noodles usually come in packages with 4 or more "twists" of noodles. 1 "twist" is usually considered 1 serving. Dried noodles come in various sized packages, but 1 standard serving is about 1 to 2 ounces.

Ingredients
1 package fresh jjajang noodles (Udon style noodle) OR 8 ounces dried noodle
1/2 pound pork shoulder
1 small carrot
1 small zucchini
1 small potato
1 small onion
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
water
Sauce:
1/4 cup chunjang (Korean black bean paste)
2 tablespoons of corn or potato starch
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Garnish
1 small cucumber

Directions
Prepare by dicing the pork, carrot, zucchini, potato, and onion into roughly 1/2 inch cubes.
Mix the Potato starch and sugar with 1/4 cup water and set aside.
Heat a lightly oiled stir fry pan over medium high and add the pork. Stir fry until lightly browned,
Add the potato and carrot and stir fry until lightly browned.
Add zucchini and onion, brown slightly.
Pour off any excess oil.
Push meat and vegetables to the side of the pan, add the chunjang, and fry about 2 minutes. Stir everything together, reduce heat to medium low, and add about 2 cups water. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Uncover, add the starch water and the sesame oil, and mix well.
Simmer until thickened.
Noodles
Bring a pot of water to a full boil and add the noodles.
Return to a boil and cook until noodles are done to your personal preference.

Final
Mound the noodles in serving bowls, spoon some sauce over the top, garnish with shredded cucumber, and serve it with kimchi or pickled radish.