Facts About Jjolmyeon
Jjolmyeon is either a type of Korean noodle with a very chewy texture made from wheat flour and starch, or a cold and spicy dish bibim-jjolmyeon made with the noodles and vegetables. Jjolmyeon can add many vegetables such as cabbage and bean sprouts. The spicy and hot sauce is a combination of gochujang, vinegar, sugar, and minced garlic. It is also a type of bibim guksu.
The chewy texture of jjolmyeon noodles owes to its manufacturing process in which the dough is heated to 130-150 degrees celsius and extruded by a machine under high pressure, in a manner similar to rice cake production.
Etymology
The first syllable of the name comes from the sound symbolism jjolgit-jjolgit (쫄깃쫄깃) in Korean, which means "chewy", while myeon is a hanja word meaning "noodles". Thus, the name literally means "chewy noodles".
History
Jjolmyeon is one of the most popular noodle dishes in South Korea, especially among young people at bunsikjeom (Korean snack restaurants). It is a representative dish of Incheon, where jjolmyeon originated in the early 1970s by a mistake made while making naengmyeon. Noodles larger than regular naengmyeon noodles were made at a factory and instead of being thrown out, were given away to a nearby bunsikjeom. The owner mixed the noodles with gochujang sauce and jjolmyeon was born.
North Korea