Chinese food in Korea

Last night we went to eat in our favorite Chinese restaurant in Jeonju. It is really close by. The name of the restaurant is a bit hard to pronounce so I still haven't memorized it yet, but I took a photo last night. It is: hongrumong. The food tastes good, you usually don't have to wait too long, but the tables... the tables are aweful! Either the chairs are too high or the tables are too low but anyway, there is no space for your legs when you sit so it is a bit uncomfortable.

Anyway, what I wanted to say was... there are Chinese restaurants pretty much anywhere, right? But in my experience Chinese food tastes a bit different in every country. I've had Chinese food in Korea, Japan, Slovenia, Germany and in England. And in each country they offer different types of dishes and even if you eat the same dish it tastes somewhat different. Or is it just me?

So today I'd like to tell you about some of the most popular dishes you can find in Chinese restaurants here in Korea.

First, my personal favorite: Jajangmyeon

I love jajangmyeon. It is a dish made of noodles in a black soybean sauce. It might look scary 'cause of the color, but it tastes awesome! Usually there are also onions and some pieces of pork inside. Sometimes even some seafood, but luckily not often. It is really good. I took my Slovenian friend who lives in Japan and came to visit me this spring to one of the Chinese restaurants in Busan to try it. I wasn't sure if she'd like it or not, but she did :)

There is even a special day in Korea called black day and comes every year on April 14th. After Valentine's day on February 14th and White day on March 14th, which are both couples' holidays, black day is for all the single people that didn't receive any gifts on those two holidays. They meet and complain about their love lives over some jajangmyeon :) It says on wikipedia they wear black, but I don't think so. But a lot of people actually do eat jajangmyeon on that day (including me) not to complain about the problems, but just because it tastes so good :)

There's one thing you have to be careful though when you eat jajangmyeon. No matter how good you are with chopsticks you can easily get some sauce on your clothes... I know I always do and I believe I am quite good at using chopsticks. So take my advice and wear something dark or something that you don't really care about when you go eat jajangmyeon. Here's some jajangmyeon sauce on my skirt last night. Luckily I got this skirt online for only 3000krw (3$) and I have two lol so I wasn't too upset. :)

If you're not a huge fan of noodles or if you're afraid you'll get the sauce all over your clothes, you can get jajangbap instead. Which is pretty much the same dish, only you get rice instead of noodles. But trust me, jajang goes better with noodles.

You can of course get fried rice in Korea also. Here it is called bokkeumbap and though it might be similar to the fried rice you get in my country, you usually get some black soybean sauce on the side. Also omuraisu can sometimes be found in Chinese restaurants, although I believe that is more of a Japanese dish than a Chinese one and it also tastes better in Japan.

Next really popular dish in Korea is Jampong.

Not my favorite because it is very spicy. These are noodles served in a very spicy soup together with seafood. Even if you don't try it you can see it is spicy. There is a special restaurant for Jampong I once went to in Seoul, where you could also get a non-spicy version of jampong in a creamy sauce. Now THAT was good! :)

Another yummy food is Tangsuyuk

It is kind of a Korean version of the sweet and sour pork dish. It tastes really good, a bit sweet maybe. The pork strips are usually a bit crispy. Although from my experience you don't usually just order tangsuyuk for yourself. But when two or more people eat jajangmyeon or jampong they share tangsuyuk together with that. In some Chinese restaurants you even have sets of two jajangmeyons plus a tangsuyuk. It is really good.

There are of course others dishes on the menu, but I would say these are the most typical or the most popular in Korea. You usually get danmuji and some onions as a side dish. Danmuji is a yellow pickled radish which is known as daikon in Japan. Also you can order kkotbbang which is literally translated as flower bread. It might be the same in any other country but I first tried this in Korea and it is so soft and sooo yummy. Not something I would call bread, but it is good! ^^

Did reading this make you hungry? :D Wanna try it? Have you? What is your favorite dish in Chinese restaurants? Feel free to comment ^^