This dish originated in China and brought by Chinese merchants when they resided to joseon. This was originally a Chinese dish. Zhajiangmian was an easy to eat food that most Chinese merchants brought to joseon. The popularity of this Chinese dish makes joseon people to create their own style of this dish. To all who doesn't know about Chinese history. You must search the Tang Dynasty where all Chinese culture, tradition,clothing's are shared by the tang emperor to joseon and Japan. Tang emperor shared it as a means of friendship and tang emperor even invited joseon scholars,Japan scholars to study in China to know and learned different Chinese arts etc...
Hey guys, a few notes: 1. I suppose I was a little overzealous with my denunciation of yellow bean paste (黄豆酱). Here's the thing: unless you live in China, I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and say that you won't be able to find the ganhuangjiang. So when it comes to subs, it's not the worst for sure. But IMO a much closer Chinese ingredient would be mianchi (面豉)... and as we covered in the Char Siu video, akamiso is basically exactly the same (the Japanese red miso you get is quite close to what the artisinal mianchi producers make in Guangdong). 2. Red Miso is a bit less salty than ganhuangjiang though, so you might need to up the salt content in the final seasoning to arrive at the right taste. I'd start with a half a tablespoon of salt and go from there. 3. As you could probably see, the red radish we used was... pretty big. It's called 水萝卜 in Chinese, you could absolutely use the little round ones as well. 4. One thing that's worth emphasizing is that you still want to do a good job stirring the zhajiang as it's cooking - this will help the oil incorporate into the sauce. Using non-stick simply means that it doesn't have to be literally *constant* stirring. If you're using a wok you like can't move away for even ten seconds else it'll start to stick and you gotta scrape it off. Non-stick simply gives you a bit of breathing room. 5. Question for any of you that're familiar with Korean cuisine: could you possibly give me more information on 'chunjang'? Wikipedia says it's a type of tianmianjiang (which's made with fermented mantou), is chunjang the same or is it made with soybeans? I know that the Korean version of this dish, Jajangmyeon, uses chunjang as a base. I'm wondering if that sauce has any similarities to ganhuangjiang or if it's basically tianmianjiang? 6. Regarding vegetarian versions, often you'll see this made with egg. Unfortunately didn't get around to testing this with egg, apologies. 7. Muslims in the North will opt for lamb or beef in this dish, with is totally cool as well. Be sure to get a nice, fatty cut - if using beef, you might want to augment things with a bit of pure beef fat as well. 8. Something we totally forgot! Top the whole thing with a clove of raw garlic for a proper Beijing feel.
Sure thing, though if keeping kosher lamb/beef would be ok too, right? Fatty cuts of those two meats are what the Muslim Chinese in Beijing would usually opt for. Of course, chicken would also be tasty too. Maybe a bit of the fatty end of the chicken, a bit of the thigh... both together with the skin. Would taste pretty good, for sure.
Hmm... I'm terrible at describing tastes, but I'd say that ganhuangjiang's a lot more mellow than tianmianjiang. To my taste buds, really does taste like a saltier akamiso. The dish definitely needs tianmianjiang too... ratios vary (I've often seen 3:1 to 5:1), we settled on 6:1 maybe a bit as a function of personal taste :)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I just tasted both, I would say the chungjang is basically the same. Of the two I had the tianmianjiang was more sour and less umami. Ingredients looked the same besides a few ingredients like msg (in the chunjang-more umami) The Chunjang included the koji starter culture in the ingredients.
When I was a kid in Korea in the early 80s, my family would often order jjajangmyun, which was delivered on bicycles in big metal boxes. I have never forgotten the taste that jjajangmyun, and the sauce was far more greasy and dark. Unfortunately, the recipe has changed over the years and now the dish tastes somewhat different, and since then I have been searching that "magical ingredient" which made the jjajangmyun taste so good back then. Watching your video, I wonder if the dish tasted different back in the 80s because it was still closer to the Chinese version of the dish. I will see if I can track down this red bean paste and give it a shot.
"Why does jjajangmyun taste worse these days" used to be a common topic of discussion in Korea. The consensus (that I am aware of) is that the biggest factor is that jjajangmyun back then used to use lard instead of vegetable oil.
@@DoHyunKil The decrease in quality is because most Chinese restaurants in Korea these days are no longer operated by Hwagyo (ethnic Chinese) but by Koreans.
It's funny how so many people out there actually believe that zhajiangmian is a Korean delicacy. Meanwhile, the Korean term for it, jjajangmyeon, is actually a loanword. I mean, even someone with just a smidge of Asian language knowledge could figure that out just by listening to the pronunciation. It's like when people spot croissants, pisto, and pizza, they know right away that they're not American foods.
Me too! Of course, I like the korean version since i grew up eating it. Posted a similar comment and dogged by weirdos who were hating on the korean version tho
I think I prefer jjajangmyeon more. Especially Samseon jjajangmyeon!!! Omg all that seafood is so luxurious!! And you don't get heart burn after! I always get heartburn eating the Beijing style jiajiangmien. But who has tried the jjajang deokbokki? I haven't tried it yet, so what are your opinions? I've heard good things, so I'm exited to try it.
@@pa474 I also grew up with the korean version and this video was really fascinating. I'm not trying to justify the haters, but do you think there might be too much Korea exposure (as of late) and people being annoyed by that? I'm Korean, so although I'm proud of us being on the map, I'm also like "enough already. do we need another 'trying kimchi for the first time' video or 'I get dressed up like a kpop boy band' video?" REGARDLESS, i do want to try this version really badly.
I always thought of this as Korean food, even though my Korean friends always insisted that the famous dish called chajangmyun (차짱편 ?) was somehow "Chinese", but I never really believed them because my Chinese friends (mostly Taiwanese) never ever ate it... Turns out I was wrong, it is Chinese after all... I should've listened to the people who knew best.
Except that I recall the Korean recipe uses beef (plus zucchini squash, maybe?), and not pork, and something what they call "chajjang", which I think is made from black beans, not the same like "aka miso"... It looks like a thick black paste in a jar, very salty.
My father taught me to make it. His father found it in Beijing before the war. He brought the recipe into the family. It’s not very much like this though. Yellow bean sauce is used. Heat the oil and steep ginger and garlic before adding the bean paste. Eat always with a garlic clove in one hand . Bite with eat mouthful. That’s the old way. This version is very modern.
During the silla of Korea and tang of China, many Chinese merchants reside to Korea after the silla falls and those Chinese merchants established their own Chinese clans inside Korea. Gong Yoo was a Chinese descent as his ancestors and lineage came from China. His ancestors are from the Chinese scholar Confucius. That is why there's a lot of Chinese in Korea coz many of them are merchants who resides in Korea after the silla and tang war is over.
I love you two and we’ve just met....I lived in Beijing for several years and now cook Asian dishes in a U.S. restaurant.....of course my favorite is 老北京炸酱面。。and didn’t know red miso was a good substitute as the dry Beijing one is virtually impossible to find.....looking forward to doing a lot of your recipes!! 谢谢🙏
Thank you for explaining to use 干黄酱. I ate 炸酱面 a long time ago in a mall in Flushing, NY and it was a very memorable experience. The mall had a thick, rancid odor of oil, and the noodles were also super oily but, my god, they tasted so good! And we saw the chef pulling the noodles live. The city I live in now also has zhajiangmian but they just can't get the sauces right. My attempts to make it myself have also failed. Now that you mentioned 干黄酱 not being available in America, I wonder if it's only available in New York City which is why the noodles are so much better there. I managed to get Japanese red miso paste and YES! This is definitely much closer to the zhajiangmian of my memories! I'm having some family members in NYC search for 干黄酱 so we'll see how that goes as well.
direct translation for Zha Jiang Noodles is fried sauce noodles in Chinese, there are ga zillion version Zha Jiang noodles all over China, even in many other Asian countries, especially Korea..
The version of this dish that they serve in Morioka (a city in northern Japan) actually uses red miso and minced pork. One interesting tradition in that city is that after you finish the noodles, the waiter will crack a raw egg and pour piping hot soup into the bowl of leftover miso, creating a soup called "chiitan".
Just made this and thank so much it was fantastic! The bean sauce i made was slightly different but if visuals are a good clue I was spot on. Noodles were just as easy as it looked. Thanks again for sharing! Awesome!
I have been waiting for this recipe for a long time. Your dan dan noodles and your wuhan noodles were staples for me... I can't wait to try this recipe. I'm literally watching noodle dish making, while eating noodle dish(Some home made, try-hard, from scratch shoyu ramen). This is my life right now. Noodle life! Don't worry, I'm repping Guangdong with some shu puerh after the meal :D
I’m Chinese but have Muslim roommates so I adapted my recipe to use chopped firm tofu cubes so that we can all eat it. Honestly I like it better than pork because it’s healthier and I get to share the joy of this noodle dish with them
yeah, im an original Beijing, my mum uses pork mince instead of cubes. coz it can be melted more deeper with sauce. im not saying you are wrong, families have different favor of taste. i also recommend to use longer cooked Spaghetti instead of handmade noodle coz in the west i can't find, after my discovering it achieves even better for really not knowing why.
As a northerner, this noodle is always my favorite in summer! You recipe is so good, and also considered variations for people who don't have access for some specific Chinese products. Love your channel! BUT, (it's not your fault), I hate it when people call it Beijing-style. It's not Beijing-style. And I don't know why and since when people started to call it Beijing-style, where clearly it is just northern style, might be originated in Shandong.
Cheers, something that I think more people should know is the food pathways between Shandong and Beijing. SO many classic Beijing dishes (e.g. Muxurou) are actually Shandong dishes - I personally always sort of view Beijing food as a hybrid of Shandong and Dongbei food. That said, lemme know if you got a source on Zhajiangmian coming from Shandong! Baidu Baike says it originated from Beijing, but food origin stories are almost always apocryphal.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I'm from Dongbei, and I think Dongbei food is derived from Shandong food as well. Not that I am obsessed with Shandong food, but sometimes Beijing "owning" something is really annoying. It could be originated in many other places and picked up by Beijing in Qing Dynasty by the royal. Just guessing, because there are so many myths and legends about food origins. Anyway, I love Zhajiangmian so much! Expecting that some day you could post some Dongbei food recipe beside Guobaorou~~
We got a guobaorou recipe! It was during my 'deep voice' narration phase so the video's a bit slow, but the recipe's solid: th-cam.com/video/jJhMLyA9WTk/w-d-xo.html
Art Issue Most Dongbei food would have Shandong origins as the vast majority of the Han Chinese that settled in the region were of Shandong origin. The second biggest influence would be Manchu and other indigenous cuisines. Then Mongol, Russian, Korean and other ethnic minorities. Because most Han Chinese people in Northeast China trace their ancestries back to the migrants from Shandong, Northeastern Chinese were more culturally uniform compared to other geographical regions of China. People from the Northeast would first identify themselves as "Northeasterners" (东北人) before affiliating to individual provinces and cities/towns.
Ok, now it makes sense that my Korean friends always tell me that the famous dish known as "cha-jjang-myun" (차짱면?) is not really originally a Korean dish... They always told me, when we ate it, "this is like 'spaghetti' for non-Italians; they think of spaghetti as 'Italian food', even though they know damn well that their version is not the same as it is in Italy, so, similar thing in Korea; this black bean noodle dish it is our 'Chinese spaghetti'!"... At least, that's what I was told... I've never been to Korea; maybe my Korean friends were just fucking with me, who knows? 😉👍
Thank you SO much for including alternate forms of the recipe for vegetarians or people who cannot eat pork- I am a muslim and eating pork is considered haram, but I have always had an interest in a lot of East-Asian foods, but every time I'd see an interesting video like this one for a recipe, it would include pork and not suggest any way to substitute it, so thank you very much for giving me the information I need to be able to enjoy these recipes myself!
Hi , i love your recipes, i have a question , the sauce tian miang jiang ( sweet bean sauce) that you use in this video is the same that you use in other videos (peking pork) with an orange box? Only change the brand ore are different sauce ? Thanks
Interesting vid. I would add that if you live anywhere with a decent sized Chinese or Korean population in North America you could walk into to your local H Mart (Korean market), 99 Ranch or T&T Market (Chinese) and buy the equivalent noodle. I usually end up at H Mart with the Korean version.
Didn't have tian mian jiang and made it myself (there is a single utube video on this). Also, used dark miso (made in India - no other access). No meat. Replaced leek with dried onion flakes bc no access to fresh leek or onion. Replaced meat with soy granules. [Am living in remote place, without access to anything other than Amazon India lol]. And by laziness have poured the ready sauce into jar which had ghee in it (didn't want to wash - no hot water). And...result was amazingly tasty sauce!not authentic but yummy. Can you please give a good tian mian sauce recipe from scratch?
I know this is really old and I'm probably unlikely to get a response, but do you know if you can substitute Japanese udon for 手擀面? I don't have a good setup to make noodles and I don't really want to buy all the stuff needed to make it, but I have easy access to udon. Thanks if possible for the response.
I am Chinese,I heard from my mother that when she was a child, she saw a woman in the village making hand-rolling noodles with very round shapes like those drawn by compasses.
I just tried it and for some reason my oil was never really absorbed into the sauce, even though I was stirring non stop. The taste was great, but the consistency was a little weird. Also my noodles were sticking together and I tried to bite them off, not realizing there was a metal chop stick in between, which then broke off a bit of my tooth; but that's just me being stupid :D
Thanks for the video. This is going to be the first time ill be making fresh noodles. I would like to make quite a nice badge of it. How long can i keep them fresh and what would be the best way to keep them? Thanks
I have red-miso and also hacho-miso in the fridge (hacho is all 100% soybean/no-rice, and supposedly hoisin is a sub for hacho too). Is hatcho-miso a good substitute for Tianmianjiang??? 🤔
Never had hatcho-miso! Tianmianjiang is kind of its own flavor, but you know what? A sauce with fried lard & two types of miso sounds pretty good too, eh? Got for it, it might not be *exactly* the same but I think it'd be tasty nonetheless.
Chinese Cooking Demystified ...I actually just made it today, haha. Turned out really great! Yeah, if you ever find Japanese Hatcho miso, please try it. It’s mostly used for Nagoya cuisine and is closer to Chinese fermented bean pastes (than regular miso). It is very very strong and potent, much diff taste than standard red/white miso.
Can I sub shou gan mian for a local asian supermarket fresh noodles? Like so long as I go for wheat unalkaline and no egg And it looks like some are rolled and cut like that
1:98 "don't use yellow soybean paste"? I googled the EAN from the package and the only result I've got, was yellow soybean paste on ebay :-| What is this stuff in english if its not yellow soybean paste? Oh, and could you please provide a reddit link to your written recipe? This would be awesome!
Huh, how do you do that? Couldn't find it myself. I usually consider Yellow Soybean Paste to be 黄豆酱 - i.e. this stuff: shop.waiyeehong.com/food-ingredients/sauces-oils/other-sauces/soybean-sauce-yellow-bean-paste From what I could tell, the English name is 'dry soybean paste', i.e. this stuff: shop.waiyeehong.com/food-ingredients/sauces-oils/other-sauces/dry-soybean-paste
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I just googled for the EAN number from below the barcode, visible at 1:56 in the video. Ok, yellow bean paste then :) thanks.
So I was asking this a bit in the notes, nowhere close to an expert on Korean food :) Edit: Seems like Tianmianjiang and Chunjang aren't the same thing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This looks super good, but I've got to ask... does ganhuangjian have an equivalent English name? Is it "red bean paste" or something? Knowing the English equivalent will make it easier for me at the H Mart :)
I got here 45 sec after you posted and there were 22 likes already! I LOVE this! 💖 This looks like comfort food! A nice bowl of a brothy thin soup and that. Devine! I get really "broody" in the fall. I start to crave old favourites like stews and soups and great noodle and pasta plates. Hot, inviting, rich foods that are put away for summer are dragged out and Oh My! That first bite. You just sink back into your chair and close your eyes as the memories flow from childhood to my kids at home and now. Lovely. Cold weather food is the best and that looks like it hits the spot! Do you get snow and wintry weather where you two are? Or is it more temperate? Interested in whether you too have recipes that are specifically "cold weather comfort food"? Jenn 💖 in Canada 🍁
Down here in Shenzhen it gets sort of coldish for 2-3 months of the year - usually 8-14C in winter. Cold enough that a sweater and some heat can be nice, but nothing like up north. For me at least, I'd consider hotpot to be my Chinese cold weather comfort food. Just asked Steph and she said the same thing lol. While abroad I think most people are familiar with the insanely fiery Sichuan hotpot (also nice in the winter), there's a bunch of different types :)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Good heavens, 😂 that's t-shirt weather here hahaha. J/K of course. Currently -3 here going to -10 overnight. We should have snow and ice by now. But every time it snows it warms up and melts! I'm going to try to find some of the ingredients for this. Thanks Steph and Chris Jenn 💖 in Canada 🍁
All in the Reddit post :) www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/a56dhf/recipe_old_beijing_zha_jiang_mian_%E8%80%81%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E7%82%B8%E9%85%B1%E9%9D%A2/
They're not and it won't be the same, but it will be similar enough. Hoisin gives you a sweet and earthy flavor which is what tian mian jiang is supposed to add.
I really love your videos and watch them regularly, but what is holding me back from making most of the food you make, is the amount of stuff you have to buy. I mean, for European cuisines you just need basic ingredients, while for your recipes you use all sorts of pastes and sauces and fermented stuff. Do you have more recipes using basic ingredients so that I don't have to buy multiple specific items for one dish that I might only make once?
I can't speak on authenticity but any noodle should be fine for preserving the essence of the dish (And yes, that can include spaghetti or angel hair pasta)
This is the third video of yours I've heard you mispronounce "julienned". It's a short "e" sound, not a short "a" sound. (I think maybe you used to have a Julie-Ann in your life. Heeheee..) Anyway, just thought you'd like to know. Your work is excellent. I really appreciate your videos, guys. Thanks for this fantastic video.
MSG is nice, but only ritualistic here as the fermented beans and wheat in there, not to mention the pork, already contain a more than healthy dose of glutamates. It's like adding MSG to kunbu or cheese! That small pinch is nothing in this. Also, I am surprised salt is actually needed as when I make it, there is no need at all. Probably depends on the brands of the pastes/sauces you buy. Tianmianjiang is absolutely crucial as you said. Good call on that one.
So I made the noodles but I gotta say I'm not a big fan of the consistency or I did something wrong idk I don't rly think that was it, but they're verrry chewy and it was a bit off putting, that's certainly not everyone's cup of tea, or should I say, noodle TT but I'm proud I can say of myself that I made noodles from scratch haha
Born & raised in Beijing, I do it differently: Mince that onion & ginger and stir-fry them BEFORE you stir-fry the pork, leave all three ingredients in the pan and just pour in the sauce, stir and let it boil, done. Should take about five minutes. And if you can, 1. Use a real Chinese iron wok , 2. For the love of God, use less oil...
Our born and raised in Beijing friends would hate the ones that only fried for five minutes. Zhajiang should be fried for at least half an hour, at least that's how they passionately insist.
Her stuff's great, don't get me wrong. Best English language Chinese cooking blogger I know of. As I said in the notes, I think I might've been a bit overzealous with my denunciation of its usage in the video. It undeniably won't get you the old Beijing style zhajiangmian, but it's not bad. There's some places here in Shenzhen that opt for yellow bean paste :)
Soooo, basically the noodles are chinese tagliatelle?! Well, the dough is a little different, but shaping the noodles is virtually the same procedure...
Your local Chinese or Japanese store probably has those. If not you can make it yourself by boiling brown kelp/chicken/mushrooms in brine, add a tiny amount of magnesium chloride (like real small) and ground limestone. Boil for a few days adding water when it gets too low, then filter out the non dissolved things and then boil down the remaining liquid until you can collect the crystals. Note if you use chicken the crystals will be yellowed and if you use mushrooms they will get a brownish gray color. Also this method produces salt alongside MSG so you risk oversalting food
@@kurosujiomake I've checked online and locally and I can't find them. Thanks for the recipe, I probably won't do it though because it sounds more like chemistry than cooking :P. I'll just continue using boring old granulated msg for now.
This dish originated in China and brought by Chinese merchants when they resided to joseon. This was originally a Chinese dish. Zhajiangmian was an easy to eat food that most Chinese merchants brought to joseon. The popularity of this Chinese dish makes joseon people to create their own style of this dish. To all who doesn't know about Chinese history. You must search the Tang Dynasty where all Chinese culture, tradition,clothing's are shared by the tang emperor to joseon and Japan. Tang emperor shared it as a means of friendship and tang emperor even invited joseon scholars,Japan scholars to study in China to know and learned different Chinese arts etc...
Jajangmyeon is Chinese
Tongsul is Korean
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. I suppose I was a little overzealous with my denunciation of yellow bean paste (黄豆酱). Here's the thing: unless you live in China, I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and say that you won't be able to find the ganhuangjiang. So when it comes to subs, it's not the worst for sure. But IMO a much closer Chinese ingredient would be mianchi (面豉)... and as we covered in the Char Siu video, akamiso is basically exactly the same (the Japanese red miso you get is quite close to what the artisinal mianchi producers make in Guangdong).
2. Red Miso is a bit less salty than ganhuangjiang though, so you might need to up the salt content in the final seasoning to arrive at the right taste. I'd start with a half a tablespoon of salt and go from there.
3. As you could probably see, the red radish we used was... pretty big. It's called 水萝卜 in Chinese, you could absolutely use the little round ones as well.
4. One thing that's worth emphasizing is that you still want to do a good job stirring the zhajiang as it's cooking - this will help the oil incorporate into the sauce. Using non-stick simply means that it doesn't have to be literally *constant* stirring. If you're using a wok you like can't move away for even ten seconds else it'll start to stick and you gotta scrape it off. Non-stick simply gives you a bit of breathing room.
5. Question for any of you that're familiar with Korean cuisine: could you possibly give me more information on 'chunjang'? Wikipedia says it's a type of tianmianjiang (which's made with fermented mantou), is chunjang the same or is it made with soybeans? I know that the Korean version of this dish, Jajangmyeon, uses chunjang as a base. I'm wondering if that sauce has any similarities to ganhuangjiang or if it's basically tianmianjiang?
6. Regarding vegetarian versions, often you'll see this made with egg. Unfortunately didn't get around to testing this with egg, apologies.
7. Muslims in the North will opt for lamb or beef in this dish, with is totally cool as well. Be sure to get a nice, fatty cut - if using beef, you might want to augment things with a bit of pure beef fat as well.
8. Something we totally forgot! Top the whole thing with a clove of raw garlic for a proper Beijing feel.
Could a Jewish style schmaltz also work as a non-pork fat supplement?
Sure thing, though if keeping kosher lamb/beef would be ok too, right? Fatty cuts of those two meats are what the Muslim Chinese in Beijing would usually opt for.
Of course, chicken would also be tasty too. Maybe a bit of the fatty end of the chicken, a bit of the thigh... both together with the skin. Would taste pretty good, for sure.
Huh, my family always used sweet bean paste (甜面酱). What's the difference between the two pastes?
Hmm... I'm terrible at describing tastes, but I'd say that ganhuangjiang's a lot more mellow than tianmianjiang. To my taste buds, really does taste like a saltier akamiso. The dish definitely needs tianmianjiang too... ratios vary (I've often seen 3:1 to 5:1), we settled on 6:1 maybe a bit as a function of personal taste :)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I just tasted both, I would say the chungjang is basically the same. Of the two I had the tianmianjiang was more sour and less umami. Ingredients looked the same besides a few ingredients like msg (in the chunjang-more umami) The Chunjang included the koji starter culture in the ingredients.
Miso, Lard, and MSG? I think I'm in love with this dish...
Same. XD
M S G, FUYYOOOOOOHH!!
When I was a kid in Korea in the early 80s, my family would often order jjajangmyun, which was delivered on bicycles in big metal boxes. I have never forgotten the taste that jjajangmyun, and the sauce was far more greasy and dark. Unfortunately, the recipe has changed over the years and now the dish tastes somewhat different, and since then I have been searching that "magical ingredient" which made the jjajangmyun taste so good back then. Watching your video, I wonder if the dish tasted different back in the 80s because it was still closer to the Chinese version of the dish. I will see if I can track down this red bean paste and give it a shot.
"Why does jjajangmyun taste worse these days" used to be a common topic of discussion in Korea. The consensus (that I am aware of) is that the biggest factor is that jjajangmyun back then used to use lard instead of vegetable oil.
@@DoHyunKil The decrease in quality is because most Chinese restaurants in Korea these days are no longer operated by Hwagyo (ethnic Chinese) but by Koreans.
@@DoHyunKil definitely second the Lard hypothesis. Unfortunately it also gives you major burps after the meal but it’s worth it yo
Because they stopped making it the Chinese way.
It's funny how so many people out there actually believe that zhajiangmian is a Korean delicacy. Meanwhile, the Korean term for it, jjajangmyeon, is actually a loanword. I mean, even someone with just a smidge of Asian language knowledge could figure that out just by listening to the pronunciation. It's like when people spot croissants, pisto, and pizza, they know right away that they're not American foods.
Yes! I'm a huge fan of korean-chinese jjajangmyeon and always wondered what the original recipe was. Thanks!
Me too! Of course, I like the korean version since i grew up eating it. Posted a similar comment and dogged by weirdos who were hating on the korean version tho
I think I prefer jjajangmyeon more. Especially Samseon jjajangmyeon!!! Omg all that seafood is so luxurious!! And you don't get heart burn after! I always get heartburn eating the Beijing style jiajiangmien. But who has tried the jjajang deokbokki? I haven't tried it yet, so what are your opinions? I've heard good things, so I'm exited to try it.
Hey Stopthat it’s pretty good. Not as spicy but the flavor is still good
@@pa474 I also grew up with the korean version and this video was really fascinating. I'm not trying to justify the haters, but do you think there might be too much Korea exposure (as of late) and people being annoyed by that? I'm Korean, so although I'm proud of us being on the map, I'm also like "enough already. do we need another 'trying kimchi for the first time' video or 'I get dressed up like a kpop boy band' video?" REGARDLESS, i do want to try this version really badly.
All the haters hating on Korean jjajangmyeon need to realize that it was developed by Chinese immigrants living in Korea.
I always thought of this as Korean food, even though my Korean friends always insisted that the famous dish called chajangmyun (차짱편 ?) was somehow "Chinese", but I never really believed them because my Chinese friends (mostly Taiwanese) never ever ate it... Turns out I was wrong, it is Chinese after all... I should've listened to the people who knew best.
Except that I recall the Korean recipe uses beef (plus zucchini squash, maybe?), and not pork, and something what they call "chajjang", which I think is made from black beans, not the same like "aka miso"... It looks like a thick black paste in a jar, very salty.
@@giuseppelogiurato5718 you just described the Zhajiang used in zhajiangmian.
@@giuseppelogiurato5718 the miso was just a substitute. Real zhajiang is exactly the black salty and chunky sauce you described.
Jajiangmian is made and eaten only in some parts of northern China.
I believe Taiwanese eat this dish much less frequently than northern Chinese.
My father taught me to make it. His father found it in Beijing before the war. He brought the recipe into the family. It’s not very much like this though. Yellow bean sauce is used. Heat the oil and steep ginger and garlic before adding the bean paste. Eat always with a garlic clove in one hand . Bite with eat mouthful. That’s the old way. This version is very modern.
During the silla of Korea and tang of China, many Chinese merchants reside to Korea after the silla falls and those Chinese merchants established their own Chinese clans inside Korea. Gong Yoo was a Chinese descent as his ancestors and lineage came from China. His ancestors are from the Chinese scholar Confucius. That is why there's a lot of Chinese in Korea coz many of them are merchants who resides in Korea after the silla and tang war is over.
I love you two and we’ve just met....I lived in Beijing for several years and now cook Asian dishes in a U.S. restaurant.....of course my favorite is 老北京炸酱面。。and didn’t know red miso was a good substitute as the dry Beijing one is virtually impossible to find.....looking forward to doing a lot of your recipes!! 谢谢🙏
God damn I love this channel, thank you for being so extra and thorough with every recipe it helps a lot.
My favorite videos of yours are the ones that are easily adapted to a plant based diet. I will try this for sure!
Thank you for explaining to use 干黄酱.
I ate 炸酱面 a long time ago in a mall in Flushing, NY and it was a very memorable experience. The mall had a thick, rancid odor of oil, and the noodles were also super oily but, my god, they tasted so good! And we saw the chef pulling the noodles live.
The city I live in now also has zhajiangmian but they just can't get the sauces right. My attempts to make it myself have also failed. Now that you mentioned 干黄酱 not being available in America, I wonder if it's only available in New York City which is why the noodles are so much better there.
I managed to get Japanese red miso paste and YES! This is definitely much closer to the zhajiangmian of my memories! I'm having some family members in NYC search for 干黄酱 so we'll see how that goes as well.
direct translation for Zha Jiang Noodles is fried sauce noodles in Chinese, there are ga zillion version Zha Jiang noodles all over China, even in many other Asian countries, especially Korea..
The version of this dish that they serve in Morioka (a city in northern Japan) actually uses red miso and minced pork. One interesting tradition in that city is that after you finish the noodles, the waiter will crack a raw egg and pour piping hot soup into the bowl of leftover miso, creating a soup called "chiitan".
Glad I'm watching your backlog, I've always really wanted to try Zha Jiang Mian!
Just made this and thank so much it was fantastic! The bean sauce i made was slightly different but if visuals are a good clue I was spot on. Noodles were just as easy as it looked. Thanks again for sharing! Awesome!
I have been waiting for this recipe for a long time. Your dan dan noodles and your wuhan noodles were staples for me... I can't wait to try this recipe. I'm literally watching noodle dish making, while eating noodle dish(Some home made, try-hard, from scratch shoyu ramen). This is my life right now. Noodle life!
Don't worry, I'm repping Guangdong with some shu puerh after the meal :D
Awesome, yeah it's been a much requested one. Everyone love noodle dishes, and why not?
Though pu'er *is* from Yunnan ;)
Yeah but ripe puerh is beloved in Guangdong, no? :D
Yes, because I was totally gonna use yellow soybean paste... 😄.
Your videos are totally awesome! Great job. 👍🏻
I’m Chinese but have Muslim roommates so I adapted my recipe to use chopped firm tofu cubes so that we can all eat it. Honestly I like it better than pork because it’s healthier and I get to share the joy of this noodle dish with them
Silly. Nothing wrong with eating pork. Don’t be stupid.
@@DeltaAssaultGaming lol im not surprised that Americans equate hospitality to one's neighbor / roommate as stupidity.
That rolling technique is genius!
Watching this while eating microwave spaghetti bolognese...
awesome vid...keep up the great work!
I always thought Northern food was suppose to be salty. My theory is the Koreans made it sweet. They seem to like strong flavors.
It was actually Chinese immigrants in Korea who tweaked the dish to suit Korean palates.
I tried this in singapore. The stall owner came from china. It was so good!!!
Where?
This looks amazing!
yeah, im an original Beijing, my mum uses pork mince instead of cubes. coz it can be melted more deeper with sauce. im not saying you are wrong, families have different favor of taste. i also recommend to use longer cooked Spaghetti instead of handmade noodle coz in the west i can't find, after my discovering it achieves even better for really not knowing why.
Great job, as usual!
As a northerner, this noodle is always my favorite in summer! You recipe is so good, and also considered variations for people who don't have access for some specific Chinese products. Love your channel!
BUT, (it's not your fault), I hate it when people call it Beijing-style. It's not Beijing-style. And I don't know why and since when people started to call it Beijing-style, where clearly it is just northern style, might be originated in Shandong.
Cheers, something that I think more people should know is the food pathways between Shandong and Beijing. SO many classic Beijing dishes (e.g. Muxurou) are actually Shandong dishes - I personally always sort of view Beijing food as a hybrid of Shandong and Dongbei food.
That said, lemme know if you got a source on Zhajiangmian coming from Shandong! Baidu Baike says it originated from Beijing, but food origin stories are almost always apocryphal.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I'm from Dongbei, and I think Dongbei food is derived from Shandong food as well. Not that I am obsessed with Shandong food, but sometimes Beijing "owning" something is really annoying. It could be originated in many other places and picked up by Beijing in Qing Dynasty by the royal. Just guessing, because there are so many myths and legends about food origins. Anyway, I love Zhajiangmian so much! Expecting that some day you could post some Dongbei food recipe beside Guobaorou~~
We got a guobaorou recipe! It was during my 'deep voice' narration phase so the video's a bit slow, but the recipe's solid: th-cam.com/video/jJhMLyA9WTk/w-d-xo.html
Art Issue Most Dongbei food would have Shandong origins as the vast majority of the Han Chinese that settled in the region were of Shandong origin. The second biggest influence would be Manchu and other indigenous cuisines. Then Mongol, Russian, Korean and other ethnic minorities. Because most Han Chinese people in Northeast China trace their ancestries back to the migrants from Shandong, Northeastern Chinese were more culturally uniform compared to other geographical regions of China. People from the Northeast would first identify themselves as "Northeasterners" (东北人) before affiliating to individual provinces and cities/towns.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified a ok k
Ok, now it makes sense that my Korean friends always tell me that the famous dish known as "cha-jjang-myun" (차짱면?) is not really originally a Korean dish... They always told me, when we ate it, "this is like 'spaghetti' for non-Italians; they think of spaghetti as 'Italian food', even though they know damn well that their version is not the same as it is in Italy, so, similar thing in Korea; this black bean noodle dish it is our 'Chinese spaghetti'!"... At least, that's what I was told... I've never been to Korea; maybe my Korean friends were just fucking with me, who knows? 😉👍
That looks amazing
Considering that red miso is way more hydrated than gan doujiang, we should still add 300g of it? Or should we add more?
In the south of China they have zajiang 杂酱 noodles. I wonder how they differ in taste ?
Thank you SO much for including alternate forms of the recipe for vegetarians or people who cannot eat pork- I am a muslim and eating pork is considered haram, but I have always had an interest in a lot of East-Asian foods, but every time I'd see an interesting video like this one for a recipe, it would include pork and not suggest any way to substitute it, so thank you very much for giving me the information I need to be able to enjoy these recipes myself!
Hi , i love your recipes, i have a question , the sauce tian miang jiang ( sweet bean sauce) that you use in this video is the same that you use in other videos (peking pork) with an orange box? Only change the brand ore are different sauce ? Thanks
I must say using yellow bean paste instead is definitely fine - I like both
Couldn't find any non-sweet pickled ginger. Is your pickled ginger fermented the same way yacai is? I was thinking about just pickling it myself.
how long is the jarred sauce good in the fridge?
Interesting vid. I would add that if you live anywhere with a decent sized Chinese or Korean population in North America you could walk into to your local H Mart (Korean market), 99 Ranch or T&T Market (Chinese) and buy the equivalent noodle. I usually end up at H Mart with the Korean version.
in my town its an 88 Ranch market. Does that make it lesser? LOL! Lots of great stuff there though. All my soy sauces and wines in easy reach.
I love your videos so much! Thanks for all this dedication!
Are these Noodles also the ones that you use in Dandan mian?
Didn't have tian mian jiang and made it myself (there is a single utube video on this). Also, used dark miso (made in India - no other access). No meat. Replaced leek with dried onion flakes bc no access to fresh leek or onion. Replaced meat with soy granules. [Am living in remote place, without access to anything other than Amazon India lol]. And by laziness have poured the ready sauce into jar which had ghee in it (didn't want to wash - no hot water).
And...result was amazingly tasty sauce!not authentic but yummy.
Can you please give a good tian mian sauce recipe from scratch?
Where df do you live man. Sounds tough
@@luikzwafeltje212 i was in an ashram in South India, no access to shops except Amazon)
Wow that seems like a really simple recipe
How is it gonna hold well, there's meat in it or does the sauce preserve it???
I know this is really old and I'm probably unlikely to get a response, but do you know if you can substitute Japanese udon for 手擀面? I don't have a good setup to make noodles and I don't really want to buy all the stuff needed to make it, but I have easy access to udon. Thanks if possible for the response.
It should be fine, as far as I can tell they're made with the exact same ingredients
I am Chinese,I heard from my mother that when she was a child, she saw a woman in the village making hand-rolling noodles with very round shapes like those drawn by compasses.
I ❤ Chachoing Mien😋
Recipe pls🙏
I love when you give vegetarian options ! Thanks a lot for your videos I will try this out.
Cheers, the vegetarian version of this dish is really quite famous. I'm sorry that we didn't end up getting the time to test the version with egg!
Looks amazing..
Hi thanks for to the recipe ! May I know how long does the sauce last in the fridge ? Or can it be kept in freezer ?
So that jjajangmyeon was A CHINESE DISH OMG my whole life was a lie
Jajangmyeon is Chinese
Tongsul is Korean
Can you use dobanjian?
I just tried it and for some reason my oil was never really absorbed into the sauce, even though I was stirring non stop. The taste was great, but the consistency was a little weird.
Also my noodles were sticking together and I tried to bite them off, not realizing there was a metal chop stick in between, which then broke off a bit of my tooth; but that's just me being stupid :D
It’s totally normal. The authentic Zha Jiang is like that. You can reduce the amount of oil if it is too oily for your taste.
Damn. Have to try this one real soon. Looks divinely delicious.
Thanks for the video. This is going to be the first time ill be making fresh noodles. I would like to make quite a nice badge of it. How long can i keep them fresh and what would be the best way to keep them? Thanks
Can you use the same noodle recipe for Dan Dan Noodles?
How long can I store the sauce in the fridge?
FYI, there’re plenty of Asian supermarkets outside of Asia.
I have red-miso and also hacho-miso in the fridge (hacho is all 100% soybean/no-rice, and supposedly hoisin is a sub for hacho too).
Is hatcho-miso a good substitute for Tianmianjiang??? 🤔
Never had hatcho-miso! Tianmianjiang is kind of its own flavor, but you know what? A sauce with fried lard & two types of miso sounds pretty good too, eh? Got for it, it might not be *exactly* the same but I think it'd be tasty nonetheless.
Chinese Cooking Demystified ...I actually just made it today, haha. Turned out really great!
Yeah, if you ever find Japanese Hatcho miso, please try it. It’s mostly used for Nagoya cuisine and is closer to Chinese fermented bean pastes (than regular miso). It is very very strong and potent, much diff taste than standard red/white miso.
Oh I've tried the korean jajjang mian. It must be pretty similar I guess.
Flavorwise, the Chinese style is on the salty side, whereas the Korean one is on the sweet side
Can you make some more authentic vermicelli rice noodle upload recipes besides famous Singapore one.
How many portion do I get out of the recipe?
Hi, I've been binging these videos. I'm a coeliac unfortunately, for Chinese noodles are there any half-decent replacement for regular AP flour?
You can use the sauce and swap the wheat noodles with rice noodles or buckwheat noodles, it'll also be very tasty.
delicious! my favourite! thanks for the video! 😁👍😁👍😁👍
Can I use brown miso instead of red miso?
I don't like pork, can I change with chicken or beef?
Can I sub shou gan mian for a local asian supermarket fresh noodles?
Like so long as I go for wheat unalkaline and no egg
And it looks like some are rolled and cut like that
20 minutes later...! Wow, this is some high effort cooking!
You're on the wrong channel if you consider that high effort.
Excuse me, can you show how to make chinese dry noddles sauce? I like this sauce and eat very much. I dont know to make at home. Thank you
Maybe their video on Wuhan Hot Dry Noodles is what you're looking for?
1:98 "don't use yellow soybean paste"? I googled the EAN from the package and the only result I've got, was yellow soybean paste on ebay :-| What is this stuff in english if its not yellow soybean paste?
Oh, and could you please provide a reddit link to your written recipe? This would be awesome!
Huh, how do you do that? Couldn't find it myself. I usually consider Yellow Soybean Paste to be 黄豆酱 - i.e. this stuff: shop.waiyeehong.com/food-ingredients/sauces-oils/other-sauces/soybean-sauce-yellow-bean-paste
From what I could tell, the English name is 'dry soybean paste', i.e. this stuff: shop.waiyeehong.com/food-ingredients/sauces-oils/other-sauces/dry-soybean-paste
BTW, written post is up now. Always out a touch later than the video, sorry :)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I just googled for the EAN number from below the barcode, visible at 1:56 in the video. Ok, yellow bean paste then :) thanks.
Dude, you could make serious money with your voice👍
Have you tried korean Jjajangmeon? Is chinese zha jiang sauce similar and can be subbed with korean chunjang?
So I was asking this a bit in the notes, nowhere close to an expert on Korean food :)
Edit: Seems like Tianmianjiang and Chunjang aren't the same thing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This looks super good, but I've got to ask... does ganhuangjian have an equivalent English name? Is it "red bean paste" or something? Knowing the English equivalent will make it easier for me at the H Mart :)
Dry Soybean Paste. I don't think you'd be able to find it at H-Mart :/ Try the Red Miso route!
I got here 45 sec after you posted and there were 22 likes already! I LOVE this! 💖
This looks like comfort food! A nice bowl of a brothy thin soup and that. Devine!
I get really "broody" in the fall. I start to crave old favourites like stews and soups and great noodle and pasta plates. Hot, inviting, rich foods that are put away for summer are dragged out and Oh My! That first bite. You just sink back into your chair and close your eyes as the memories flow from childhood to my kids at home and now. Lovely.
Cold weather food is the best and that looks like it hits the spot!
Do you get snow and wintry weather where you two are? Or is it more temperate? Interested in whether you too have recipes that are specifically "cold weather comfort food"?
Jenn 💖 in Canada 🍁
Down here in Shenzhen it gets sort of coldish for 2-3 months of the year - usually 8-14C in winter. Cold enough that a sweater and some heat can be nice, but nothing like up north.
For me at least, I'd consider hotpot to be my Chinese cold weather comfort food. Just asked Steph and she said the same thing lol. While abroad I think most people are familiar with the insanely fiery Sichuan hotpot (also nice in the winter), there's a bunch of different types :)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified
Good heavens, 😂 that's t-shirt weather here hahaha. J/K of course.
Currently -3 here going to -10 overnight. We should have snow and ice by now. But every time it snows it warms up and melts!
I'm going to try to find some of the ingredients for this.
Thanks Steph and Chris
Jenn 💖 in Canada 🍁
Can you give the English translation of these ingredients?
All in the Reddit post :) www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/a56dhf/recipe_old_beijing_zha_jiang_mian_%E8%80%81%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E7%82%B8%E9%85%B1%E9%9D%A2/
I want to eat both the Korean version and this original Chinese version
i think you can try ground beef or chicken if you can't eat pork
Could this really do okay with hoisin sauce instead of tian mian jiang? I have read sources that the two are not interchangeable.
They're not and it won't be the same, but it will be similar enough. Hoisin gives you a sweet and earthy flavor which is what tian mian jiang is supposed to add.
炸酱面好吃。。
Dang its authentic
yum
Zhajiang mian are good, but nothing beats regan mian off the street in Wuhan
I really love your videos and watch them regularly, but what is holding me back from making most of the food you make, is the amount of stuff you have to buy. I mean, for European cuisines you just need basic ingredients, while for your recipes you use all sorts of pastes and sauces and fermented stuff. Do you have more recipes using basic ingredients so that I don't have to buy multiple specific items for one dish that I might only make once?
My mom makes it a little different. It might be because we’re Cantonese.
I always thought zhajiangmian contained douchi...
What noodle do i need?
spaghetti
Doc Holiday big joke lol
I can't speak on authenticity but any noodle should be fine for preserving the essence of the dish
(And yes, that can include spaghetti or angel hair pasta)
This is the third video of yours I've heard you mispronounce "julienned". It's a short "e" sound, not a short "a" sound. (I think maybe you used to have a Julie-Ann in your life. Heeheee..) Anyway, just thought you'd like to know.
Your work is excellent. I really appreciate your videos, guys. Thanks for this fantastic video.
Is it actually mispronounced or is it simply a dialect that you may not know of
MSG is nice, but only ritualistic here as the fermented beans and wheat in there, not to mention the pork, already contain a more than healthy dose of glutamates. It's like adding MSG to kunbu or cheese! That small pinch is nothing in this. Also, I am surprised salt is actually needed as when I make it, there is no need at all. Probably depends on the brands of the pastes/sauces you buy. Tianmianjiang is absolutely crucial as you said. Good call on that one.
Jajangmyeon is Chinese
Tongsul is Korean
So I made the noodles but I gotta say I'm not a big fan of the consistency or I did something wrong idk I don't rly think that was it, but they're verrry chewy and it was a bit off putting, that's certainly not everyone's cup of tea, or should I say, noodle TT but I'm proud I can say of myself that I made noodles from scratch haha
i always wonder what comes before msg
Born & raised in Beijing, I do it differently:
Mince that onion & ginger and stir-fry them BEFORE you stir-fry the pork, leave all three ingredients in the pan and just pour in the sauce, stir and let it boil, done. Should take about five minutes.
And if you can, 1. Use a real Chinese iron wok
, 2. For the love of God, use less oil...
Our born and raised in Beijing friends would hate the ones that only fried for five minutes. Zhajiang should be fried for at least half an hour, at least that's how they passionately insist.
Ah... the perfect cheap lunch in Fengtai district.
👌
Ohh...i used yellow bean paste because of the blogger china sichuan food.
Her stuff's great, don't get me wrong. Best English language Chinese cooking blogger I know of. As I said in the notes, I think I might've been a bit overzealous with my denunciation of its usage in the video. It undeniably won't get you the old Beijing style zhajiangmian, but it's not bad. There's some places here in Shenzhen that opt for yellow bean paste :)
Soooo, basically the noodles are chinese tagliatelle?! Well, the dough is a little different, but shaping the noodles is virtually the same procedure...
Wow I always thought this was the korean dish jjajangmyeon but it’s actually Chinese.. the more you know
This dish is popular and originally from northeast Asia.
Korea uses black bean paste instead of soybean paste and also doesn't use sweet bean sauce (I don't think).
I wish I could find msg in those big crystals in the states
Your local Chinese or Japanese store probably has those.
If not you can make it yourself by boiling brown kelp/chicken/mushrooms in brine, add a tiny amount of magnesium chloride (like real small) and ground limestone. Boil for a few days adding water when it gets too low, then filter out the non dissolved things and then boil down the remaining liquid until you can collect the crystals. Note if you use chicken the crystals will be yellowed and if you use mushrooms they will get a brownish gray color. Also this method produces salt alongside MSG so you risk oversalting food
@@kurosujiomake I've checked online and locally and I can't find them. Thanks for the recipe, I probably won't do it though because it sounds more like chemistry than cooking :P. I'll just continue using boring old granulated msg for now.
Not old Beijing style without the beets.
at least when i tried both, i prefer the korean version
Soybean paste instead of miso.