Jjajangmyeon ("JJM") was a dish which middle aged Koreans would remember having on special days of the year for families to share on special occasions. It is now one of the most popular cheap and quick takeaway meals in Korea and is usually ordered to celebrate moving into a new home.

This Korean-Chinese noodle dish looks deceptively simple - a bowl of thick chewy wheat flour noodles is topped with a thick sauce made of chunjang, diced pork, and vegetables. It is however really hard and time-consuming to do a good (or even decent) renditon. First,the chunjang has to be sauteed with loads of oil to caramelise it and eliminate its slightly bitter and earthy taste. Its however rather easy to burn the chunjang and make it even more bitter. The fried chunjang paste is then stir-fried with diced onions, pork and various vegetables and thickened with starch water. The sauce is then laddled over a bowl of noodles and topped with slices of preserved radish and cucumber.

Unlike Korea, JJM is a relatively expensive dish in most Korean restaurants in Singapore. Miss K just couldn't stand paying the price of ramen for the Korean equivalent of our bak chor mee.

We were therefore really delighted to find out about Jeong Jjajang. For less than $10, you get a really good bowl of JJM which strikes a good balance between sweet and savoury, and is topped generously with shrimps and squid. Its seriously a steal at this price!