Jjamppong


Jjamppong is a Chinese-style Korean noodle soup with red, spicy seafood- or pork-based broth flavored with gochugaru. Common ingredients include onions, garlic, Korean zucchini, carrots, cabbages, squid, mussels, and pork. The dish was inspired by Chinese cuisine.
Along with jajangmyeon, it is a popular dish found predominantly in Chinese restaurants in Korea as part of Korean Chinese cuisine.

History and etymology

While the dish is derived from the Chinese Shandong-style chǎomǎmiàn, the name of the dish was derived from chanpon, a Japanese Chinese cuisine dish itself derived from the Fujian-style mènmiàn. During the Japanese occupation of Korea, the Japanese saw chǎomǎmiàn in Chinese restaurants in Korea and named it chanpon, as the white soup seemed similar to the soup of chanpon to their eyes. The Japanese word was subsequently adapted phonetically into Korean as jjamppong.
When considering how chanpon is made, it is assumed that the exported version of chǎomǎmiàn, a type of tāngròusīmiàn, would have used boiled pork and chicken bones to make the broth, while the base broth of jjamppong differs in that it mainly uses stir-fried seafood and vegetables with the addition of gochugaru and chili oil, a practice that began in the 1960s.

Variations

In some restaurants, samseon jjamppong refers to a more expensive option with additional varieties of seafood. Inspired by gamja-tang, pork back-bone jjamppong uses a mix of pork bone broth, stir fried seafood, chili oil, and vegetables. Gul jjamppong contains oysters and is usually served with a spicy white broth, also called sacheon tangmyeon. Gochu jjamppong refers to a jjamppong with additional spiciness using Cheongyang chili pepper. A panfried variety of jjamppong is also served at some restaurants. In jjamppong bap, rice is used in the place of noodles.