Jjajangmyeon + tangsuyuk — Korean-Chinese feast ($59.40)!
Korean-Chinese restaurant at Novena — 3 bowls of jjajangmyeon (black bean noodles) + tangsuyuk (sweet-sour pork) + kimchi + danmuji. $59.40 for 3 pax.
Dinner at a Novena Korean-Chinese restaurant — three bowls of jjajangmyeon (자장면) + one big plate of tangsuyuk (탕수육) + banchan sides. $59.40 for the family table. 😋
What was on the table ($59.40 for 3 pax):
- Three jjajangmyeon bowls — each white bowl with thick chewy wheat noodles smothered in a deep dark black bean sauce (chunjang) with minced pork + onions + chopped potato, topped with julienned cucumber strips for the green contrast.
- Tangsuyuk (top-centre plate) — chunks of deep-fried pork in glossy clear sweet-sour sauce with black wood ear mushrooms + carrot + onion + bell pepper + a touch of pineapple.
- Side dishes (right) — kimchi in red, yellow pickled radish (danmuji), and a small dish of chilli oil.
Korean-Chinese (jjajangmyeon + tangsuyuk) is the delivery-night staple in Korea, ported into SG by Korean expat-run restaurants. The cuisine is its own genre — Chinese ingredients (black bean sauce, sweet-sour pork) reinterpreted by Korean cooks over 100+ years. Korean-Chinese restaurants in SG (like Wang Da Bak, Joo Bar) have been growing the past 5 years.
Jjajangmyeon is the headliner — the chunjang (fermented black soybean paste) is fried with oil + minced pork + diced onion + potato + zucchini until the paste releases its dark colour and savoury-sweet depth. Tossed with thick chewy noodles + cucumber strips. The dark colour is the visual hallmark — properly executed jjajangmyeon should be near-black, not brown.
The eating ritual: mix everything thoroughly before eating (the noodles + sauce + cucumber need to blend). Eat fast before the noodles soften too much. Drink water often (the sauce is salty + rich).
Tangsuyuk is the obligatory side dish — Korean-Chinese deep-fried pork in sweet-sour sauce. Different from Chinese sweet-sour pork in two ways: (1) the batter is chewier + thicker (uses sweet potato starch instead of cornstarch), (2) the sauce is clear/glossy rather than red, more vinegary-sweet than ketchup-sweet. The mushrooms + wood ear are the Korean twist.
The eating debate: bukkeummyeon vs jjikmyeon — should you pour the sauce on the noodles (mixed) or dip the noodles into the sauce (dipped)? Korea has clans for each side. Our table: mixed-camp.
Total: $59.40 for 3 pax — about $20 per head with one shared appetiser + individual mains.
Overall: 4.5 / 5. Jjajangmyeon had proper dark colour + savoury depth (not too sweet), tangsuyuk batter was chewy-crispy, kimchi was fermented at the right tang. Will queue for more Korean-Chinese. 😍👍🏼
