I have fond memories of being little and enjoying a bowl of Chapagetti, those sweet and sticky blackbean noodles that never failed to get all over your face and clothes. Since we’ve found the Korean store I’ve been able to buy some but now as an adult I have to ask myself what the fuss was all about. imagine my surprise when I found the recipe for the real stuff, jja jang myun, on Maangchi’s site, proving to be perhaps the most popular of her recipes. I liked the idea of it being full of vegetables and pork and it looked like a much more substantial dish. Still slightly skeptical I went to the store and picked up the ingredients.
I was not prepared for how nice this would be. This was not Chapagetti, this was jja jang myun, full of flavour and vegetables. I used what I had in the house: courgettes, potatoes, onions, and carrots and I had to force myself to stop tasting the sauce it was so good. I now understood why it is so popular, I would have eaten a bowl of the sauce on its own, or just on some rice but putting it together with noodles was when the magic began.
I still have some packets of Chapagetti in the cupboard for those days when I can’t be bothered to cook anything or want a snack, but now I know that it is truly just a shadow of the real dish.
