07/27/2025
Netflix has some food documentaries that has me bewitched with the presentation, cinematography, language, and just sheer joy and emotional intensity of people talking about food, food ingredients, and the culture and history behind the dishes. There’s even personal journeys, trials and tribulations that lead certain cooks and chefs down certain paths of both failure and immense inspiration and success. What started out as my deeper curiosity into food, really is therapeutic and weirdly inclusive. Some of my favorites has been Chef’s Table and others that get into country histories. The most recent for me are the Korean series for Banchan, which is visually gorgeous, and a 2 episode one for Jjangmyeong Rhapsody.
I went to Man Chun Hong off Buford Hwy (Atlanta, Georgia; USA) to see what Jjjangmyeong should taste like. It isn’t an intense flavored dish, but rather it is a very comforting, homey taste, which was surprising. I can see how it can be addicting.
The dish is centered around tarry looking bean paste, but it isn’t strong. It definitely classifies as “ugly delicious” - and I will be making some at home. I see that there are variations of this dish, and it’s spicy brother dish “Jjamppong” - and they can even be mixed or served side by side.
Here are some pics from the restaurant - there were tasty housemade spinach noodles with the pork jjangmyeong sauce. It is rich tasting so I took a lot of it home as leftovers. I also had some salt and pepper fried calamari, that was perfection.
