April 14 – Korean Black Day
Everyone knows of Valentine’s Day and some may know about White Day (March 14) are days for expressing love, but how about those who are not so fortunate to have lovers to spend those days with?
Do not worry. Korea has this unique day for singles. Those who receive no chocolates or love confessions on Valentine’s Day, can fill to their heart content with fellow singles on this day, by eating jjajangmyeon (짜장면) or black noodles.
This dish is popular in Chinese restaurant and it’s very cheap; expect to pay for as low as 5,000 won (US$5) for a bowl. This is a rather unique dish, as it has no broth, and basically nothing special on it except for its most feasible feature: the black sauce. The sauce is made from black soybean paste with chunks of pork. It’s kind of like curry, only the color is black. It is originated from Shandong region in China called “fried sauce noodle”, probably due to the absence of the soup, making it look like fried noodles.
There are two types of jjajangmyeon, one is the regular jjajangmyeon, and the other is dry jjajang, or gan jjajang (“gan” means “dry”, which means it is a jjajangmyeon with a dry sauce, made with no water (stock).
Gan Jjajang (간짜장)
Actually there is no connection about how this dish is related to singles but it is just that the dish is dominated by color black, it is associated with “Black Day”. Although there are people who are not singles, they still enjoy this dish as it is not only cheap, but quite fulfilling.
You can try making your own jjajangmyeon with the recipe here however it is cheap enough to buy, so unless jjajangmyeon is not readily available at your local restaurant, I think order it from a restaurant will be more economical (tip: bring a friend who is also single to “drown” your sorrow together!).
Korea has other unofficial “14” celebrations associated with food, which is August 14 (Green Day: think hard, what is green and are very familiar among Koreans especially men?), October 14 (Wine Day) and November 11 (the only day which does not fall on the 14th but very famous among the youngsters: Peppero Day)
So don’t feel blue. Gather your other single friends and head out (or call for delivery) for bowls of jjajangmyeon and be merry!