freakzspeaks

freakzspeaks

Wednesday 18 March 2015

Jjampong (짬뽕), Jjangmyeon (짜장면) & Tangsuyuk (탕수육) @ Andongjang Chinese Restaurant, Seoul, Korea

Important to note the restaurant front as the name is not in English!
Andongjang is known to be the oldest Chinese restaurants in Seoul. Eating Chinese food in Korea ? To be fair, like in other parts of the world, the dishes here have been modified to meet the taste bud of the locals. In fact, Chinese food such as jjampong (Korean spicy seafood noodle soup) and jajangmyeon (black soybean noodles) is pretty famous among the locals particularly for home deliveries (remember Korean drama 'Coffee Prince' ?) Although this place is not exactly located at a tourist area, it is rather famous among the locals. Some servers here (and the owner) speaks Mandarin :)
The usual Korean sides
Tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork)
We ordered three of the most well-known Korean Chinese dishes. Tangsuyuk or sweet and sour pork is slightly different from the usual sweet and sour pork that I have eaten in Canada or Malaysia. Even the fried pork seems a little different. One obvious difference is the color and the sweeter taste of the dish. While the usual ones are usual stir fried with ketchup sauce, this has a rather clear, brownish sauce (probably what they call as orange sauce). Quite a number of tables, majority locals, ordered this dish by itself to share among them together with a couple bottles of soju. 
Jjampong (Korean spicy seafood noodle)
I personally liked Jjampong the best, which was much enjoyed because of the delicious, spicy broth combined with seafood and noodles. Spiciness can be adjusted so no worries on that ;). The rich broth is totally satisfying for me since I love spicy food. One dish can easily be shared by 2 people. My advice would be to order tangsuyuk, jjajangmyeon and jjampong together to be shared between 2 or 3 people so that you can try a little of everything. Jjajangmyeon (black soybean paste with noodles) is another famous dish particularly for deliveries. You can probably get something like this in some of the Canadian Chinese restaurants (northern Chinese style cooking) although the soybean paste used is different from the Koreanized version. Andongjang's is way less salty compared to those I've tried at Canada and also the instant noodle version. You are also given some extra black soybean paste in case you prefer it saltier. 
Jjajangmyeon (salty black soybean paste noodles) 
Mixing the jjangmyeon
Mostly locals, quite a full house even past 8 pm
I can't exactly remember how much were they but overall, an average Korean dish price. Portion was on the larger side (at least for me ;p), so order to share. If you are getting tired of Korean dishes, give this Koreanized Chinese restaurant a try. I'm sure you will find something you like!

Address: Andongjang Chinese Restaurant, 124, Euljiro-gu, Jung-gu, Seoul
Directions: Euljiro 3-ga station, Line 2, Exit 10
Website: Andongjang

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