My entire middle school consisted of Chinese kids and Korean kids. For the most part, many of us got along just fine and greeted each other in the halls. Although we come from two different backgrounds with different cultures and languages, we were stitched together due to the simple fact that we were Asians.
As I entered high school, I began to eat out more with my friends. I went to Korean restaurants and I went to Chinese restaurants. Trying both types of cuisines only added to my perception that Chinese and Koreans are in fact very different. However, one day a Korean friend brought me to a restaurant. She informed me that I would absolutely love the dish she recommended me to try. The restaurant was located on Northern Blvd near Flushing, New York; a street that served as the division between Koreans and Chinese. It was a place called Sam Won Gahk and when we arrived I realized that I’ve heard of the restaurant before. Rather, I’ve seen it many times except mostly the restaurants name was written in the Chinese Characters. I asked my friend why it was in Chinese and she explained that Sam Won Gahks are korean restaurants that cook with a combination of Chinese and Korean flavors. I wasn’t quite sure what she meant but I went in anyway. As she had recommended, I ordered the jajangmyeon which was based off the Chinese zhajiangmian. When I got my bowl of noodles I was shocked to see that this really was a combination of Chinese and Korean culture. The basic principles of the Chinese zhajiangmian was infused with a boatload of Korean flavor to create a whole new beast of a dish called jajangmyeon. It felt weird that two cultures that were clearly different to me now merged in the form of noodles. In the grand scheme of things, it goes to show that no matter how different cultures are, when they blend together, something great just might come out of it.
As a child, my parents often made the Chinese zhajiangmian for dinner. At a young age, I never imagined that people of different races would have dishes so similar to each other. When I entered high school, I made a number of new friends who were Korean. Similarly to my other experience with the bibimbap, I was brought to a Korean restaurant that was well-known for its jajangmyeong. Although the names of the dishes sounded so similar to one another, I didn’t expect that the dish would be one that was tasted so familiar. When the waiter finally brought out our food, despite the slightly different flavors, I felt like I was a child again, with my parents making me one of my favorite dishes.
Despite being Chinese, I actually tried the Korean version, jajangmyeon before I’ve tried and even heard about the Chinese version, zhajiangmian. The majority of my friends are korean, so we would constantly go out to get korean food, and the first time I had jajangmyeon, I also had a similar experience that you had. When I arrived at the restaurant I was surprised to find Chinese writing on the store front, and the name of the restaurant to be “Chisnese Restaurant”, so my friends explained to me that jajangmyeon was actually a Chinese dish that koreas have fused with their own style of cooking. And after this experience, I actually went out to try the Chinese version of it and was surprised to see how similar the tastes were.