Jjajangmyeon is a popular Korean Chinese dish which has firmly established itself as one of the most convenient delivery meals of all time in Korea. Every town and every apartment block have their own specialist restaurants which can deliver the bowl of comfort that reveals slippery noodles lying low beneath the grease-licked ragù-like sauce. Its glossy onyx-black sauce is decisively sweet, laced with the savoury funk of salty fermented black bean sauce. The flavours linger on, spreading wide across lips tinted with black-stained grease, and the taste buds on the tongue pull you back to have another slurp; it is completely moreish.

Sweet vegetables are essential for it to do its magic; to balance the richness of the pork and salty chunjang – a Korean style of black bean paste made from fermented soybeans, which can be found in Asian grocers or online.

In its raw state, besides its obvious salty notes, chunjang tastes slightly bitter and sour, so it is always advisable to fry off the paste in oil before cooking to neutralize it which, in turn, brings out a more rounded flavour.

Extract from The Rice Table by Su Scott (£27, Quadrille) Photography by Toby Scott

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